6th year to go to Duluth for Grandma's weekend

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't surprised that I ran a PR in Duluth last weekend! Marshall and I were coming off a long training cycle for the Boston Marathon, and just kept powering through to Grandma's weekend where he ran the full marathon and I did the half. It was nearly 3-4 weeks before I felt "normal" on a lot of my runs following Boston, and a lot of my workouts were mediocre and not on pace. I still had some really great tempos and a pretty good track workout as well. It just felt very hard to hit the paces I was needing. I kept telling myself that part of the reason paces were slower was that we had such a hot/humid spring, but it is still hard to go into a race super confident when you struggle to hit the pace you want to race at.


Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon:

Goal A: PR (sub 1:15:43) and top 10 finish
Goal B: at least run 1:16:xx

Actual: 8th place with new PR of 1:14:43
Results - click here

Duluth is a lot more fun when there are people from your home town there also! Marshall and I had a blast at the pre-race dinner and spent Saturday afternoon hanging with Christine and her family. We ate at Grandma's Saloon (the one at the finish line that the marathon is named after), checked out the beautiful Lake Walk, set foot on the famous lift bridge (only took 6 years!), and took some pictures near the finish line.

Pre race meal

We all knew the night before the race that the weather was going to be PERFECT for a personal record (even though Amy was there 😉). Sure enough, it was 50 degrees with a slight tail wind. I knew that the marathon and half marathon were stacked fields this year, meaning a Top 10 finish was probably going to require at least close to a PR for me. I managed to keep the nerves under control during the warm-up, and why does the warm-up never feel good? I made a split decision that I was going to start the race with a dry pair of socks on my hands. After all these years, you'd think I'd learn to bring gloves to EVERY. SINGLE. RACE. But I forgot, so I improvised. I ended up taking them off after about a mile, but held on to them just in case and didn't end up using them until the walk back to the hotel.

Grandma's Saloon - at the finish

Must have been good luck

The race started, and I kept myself under control. I found a pack of about 3 other women who I assumed were wanting to run 1:15 or faster. They were pulling me through miles right around 5:43 pace for the first 5k. Came through in about 17:35ish, which is what I raced The Big Run at 2 weeks prior in extremely warm conditions. The next 2 miles were just a touch slower, but still on current half marathon pace, so around 5:45-5:46.

Finally made it to the iconic lift bridge. PR's for all 3 of us!!

Around mile 6, we went through an aid station and the group split up. I knew they were slowly moving backwards, so I dropped the hammer and got my 6th mile to a 5:39 which separated me from the pack. The clock read 35:17-20 through 10k. Yes! However, now I had no pack. Luckily, there were enough men that I was slowly picking them off and moving my way up. The second chase pack was slowly starting to break up and I managed to pick off a few women as well and move myself up to 8th place.

Can't believe it! 1:14:43

I came through 10 miles in about 57:10-15. I knew at that point I was definitely going to PR, all I had to do was run my last 5k in 19 minutes and 18 minutes would get me under 1:15. This must have fueled me because I dropped my pace for the last 5k with splits of 5:36, 5:37, 5:41. This is also the part of the course I thrive on, I can start to taste the finish. We just crest the top of Lemon Drop Hill (which really isn't too bad) and start to drop into town, so the crowd support picks up. I also feel this is where I start to make a move on other runners because I'm usually pretty strong up Lemon Drop. Over the last 5k, I came within a few seconds of 7th place, but once she noticed I was there she kicked it in pretty hard and held me off down the home stretch.



I was totally shocked at my performance. Things just felt right once I got racing, and each mile split felt surprising okay. I had hoped 2 years ago to run 1:14:xx, but fell short to 1:15:43. Which was fine, because that was a new PR for me at the time. I thought I would slowly trickle down to 1:14, but it blow my mind that I was able to drop 60 seconds. I was in the perfect situation/race and made it happen!!

Picture from Christine's grandson for the "winner"