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Duluth, MN - half marathon

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Grandma's Recap - 5th year in a row

With both Marshall and I feeling down/sick prior to the big day, we thought this trip could possibly end up being a wash. It turned out to be a decent effort on my part, and Marshall still managed to break 3 hours (all though he was 15 minutes off what he usually runs) despite coughing all night the 2 days leading up to the race.

Goal 1: Top 10 finish
Goal 2 New PR (sub 1:15:43)
Goal 3: Sub 1:15 (1:14:59) - *prior to the 2 week sickness*

Actual:
10th place
1:16:32

We both had a blast and are looking forward to next year! This was our 5th year in a row to head up there. The weekend kick started with a guest speaker at the expo. We got to listen to Kara Goucher talk about the ups/downs of her last 2 years of training. There was even a Q & A portion in which I (yours truly) got to ask my question. You are probably wondering what question that might be. . . "What was the last show you binged watched on Netflix?" 😜


The second interesting aspect was that there were quite a few Springfield peeps up for the big race. It took nearly 800 miles from home to get to know each other, but we got to spend quite a bit of time with Amy and her husband, Lance. There were 7 of us running, and I was the only one running the HALF marathon. . . the other 6 were running the FULL marathon. I'm not sure if that makes me a wimp or the only SANE one in the group 😉.

So the full marathon is the premier event, and it starts at 7:45 am. They want all/most of us running the half marathon off the course before the elite men cross the finish line, so my race started at 6:15am!!! Every year when I'm getting up at 4:00 am I start to question why I do this to myself. However, the nice thing is that I'm finished running before the marathoners even start their race. Then I have 2 hours to cool down to the hotel, shower, and take a nap (yay for naps!!) before heading out to look for the others. The hotel I get hooked up with is conveniently located at mile 25, so I have a nice spot around 24.5 miles into the race where I can look for Marshall, then can quickly cross the bridge and see him again at mile 26.

Marshall at mile 26, only .2 to go - his 5th Grandma's Marathon
My lofty expectations of a massive PR were deemed unrealistic after dropping 3-4 workouts and a long run. Overall, I'm pleased with how I did. I found a group of 2 other ladies and a guy that seemed to be the pacer for one of the ladies. He seemed to be clicking off about 5:45 the first half of the race so I assumed the goal was sub 1:16. I will refer to him a the new Marshall, and I hoped he was as good a pacer as my Marshall is. The new Marshall did well for almost the first half, but then before I knew it we had 3 miles that were 10- 15 seconds off pace. This unfortunately lost me 30-40 seconds, so I had to move on and look towards the next runner. After I left the small pack, I managed to pass 2 sketcher runners by mile 9-10. At mile 10, you start to enter Duluth. I worked my way up "lemon drop hill" and had caught another female by mile 11.5. I could then see one more lady that was possibly within reach. She had about a 20 second lead on me with 1.5 miles to go, but I could tell she was coming back to me rather quickly or at least had become content with her effort. I flew down the brick road, looped around the harbor and boot, then pulled stride to stride with her just past mile 13 (so less than .1 to go). Unfortunately, I had spent myself just to catch up (my last mile had to be 15 or so seconds faster than hers, and I dropped one that was around 5:40). When she realized it was a women that pulled up next to her, she was able to respond and finished 1 second ahead of me. I was disappointed I couldn't quite get her, but I felt great to finish strong and be competitive.

The famous lift bridge, near the finish line. View from the Enger Tower
I was a little disappointed that my time wasn't faster because I felt so much smoother than I had at the Championships in April and I was only about 10 seconds faster. I felt that I was running better than I acutally was I guess. Either way, I'm always pleased to be under 1:17 and I'm encouraged that I had a race that actually felt good. 2017 hasn't been the best year of racing. It was snowing during my first race, 20 mph winds for my second race, and humid/storms at the championships. It was a little humid at Grandma's, but nothing compared to what we've had here in Missouri the last 2 weeks.

Up next. . .hoping for a good Marathon in October. Going to run Chicago!