New PR!

Well, it's been two weeks since Grandma's marathon and the excitement is starting to wear off. Marshall and I have taken some recovery time and are ready to push forward to the fall racing season!

For those that don't know yet, Marshall and I went to Duluth, MN to run Grandma's marathon. This was Marshall's third time to run this marathon and my second. I had high hopes for this race, and while I didn't quite make it to where I wanted, I am nothing but pleased with how the trip went. As with any race this distance, we learn from mistakes and there are a couple things I would do differently next time.

Goals:
A - Run "A" standard of sub 2:37
B - Run sub 2:40
C - At least PR (2:41:54 )

Actual:
2:38:34 (over 3 minute PR!!)
8th place female + time bonus

Finished! Waiting for Les to finish

Marshall and I had planned to drive to Minneapolis Wednesday and arrive to the dorms on Thursday at a decent time. Unfortunately, we had to drive all the way up Thursday and didn't arrive until sometime around 9:00 pm. So we had all day Friday to play around and enjoy the sights. The weather was perfect, but unfortunately calling for rain all Saturday morning.

Chocolate on the pillow. . . lol

Let me back track to the dorms. Duluth really doesn't have enough rooms to host an event this size, so they open up the dorms at the local universities. We were at the University of Superior for the second year in a row. It really makes me thankful for the dorms I had at MOSO. These dorms had a community bathroom and the beds weren't near as comfortable or big as they were at MOSO. But it was nice race morning, as they had buses going to and from the race.

Bus ride to the start. Still dry.

We managed to stay fairly dry. We found a spot to sit and wait that had a little bit of cover. Unfortunately, it started to pour about 20 minutes till race time. Here is where I made my first mistake. Marshall doesn't warm-up much before marathons, where I have done at least .75 to 1 mile warm-up in the past. We waited until 20 minutes before to make one last trip to the port-o-pot. That took longer than anticipated, and then we had to fight the crowd to get back to bag check and drop off our stuff. This is the point where I would have started my mile jog, but it was too late :( and instead warm-up consisted of probably .2 jog in the ditch to get up to the front of the start.  For this reason, I blame why my legs felt so crappy for the first 10 miles. I didn't feel my springy self.

Before the rain. The hike to the start line

Marshall and I were soaked, shoes already squishing, but we managed to stay on pace running around 5:55-5:59 most of the first half. We did falter a little around mile 8-12 and came through half point around 1:18:40 ish. At this point, we knew we weren't going to negative split, but discussed that we we still had quite the cushion for a sub 2:40. I don't know if we just fell asleep for the middle miles, or if we just didn't feel good but pace started to get slower and I was starting to worry if a PR was still possible, if I could get the pace back to at least 6:10 I knew I'd be okay.

But then the race took a turn. At about mile 19-20, Marshall's side stitch returned. He has been fighting this at least two weeks during even easy day runs. We went through an aid station, and next thing I know, Marshall had fallen back. I looked back to see if he was making his way back towards me, but couldn't see him. I checked one more time, and decided that he probably did get the side stitch, but knowing him, he'd probably catch back up to me over the course of the last 10k. At this point, I refocused myself and managed to get the pace back down to sub 6:00. The crowd was telling me I was in 12th place, but there were no other women in sight.

However, next thing I know, I look up (mile 22 - 23) and notice I'm gaining on another woman. . . and fast! I used this to fuel me, and managed to pick off 3 more women and handful of men in the last 5k. With 5k to go, I knew I had just over 20 minutes to break 2:40. The last 5k is AWESOME! It's all in town and the crowd is deafening! I had expected Marshall to catch back up to me by this point, so I was scared that he'd dropped out. I was on my own for my quest of a sub 2:40.

The last 1k loops back by the lake, and has a long home stretch. I got close enough and could see the clock was still at 2:37:xx and I ran excited the last stretch! I was surprised to see that I was well under 2:39. . . finishing with a new PR of 2:38:34!!!! :)

Post race

I hung around a couple minutes, worried that Marshall was hurt or had dropped out. I didn't have to wait long, saw him coming down the home stretch. He was upset, he'd planned on running the entire way with me. We'd pictured ourselves coming down the home stretch together with an awesome time. There were several times he could have easily left me, but stayed back to run with me.


This was my fourth marathon, and I'm hoping to do even better my 5th marathon (hopefully in February 2016)