Grandma’s reflections

Monday morning. Relaxing on the shores of a lake in northern Minnesota. A great place to recover and reflect on the weekend.

A relaxing spot

It was a good weekend. I had a pleasant 5K, the marathon itself turned out somewhat tougher than expected. But I still reached two of my three goals for the race. Best of all, I met global running legend Dick Beardsley. That five or ten minute chat is worthy of a blog post in itself.

Dick Beardsley and yours truly. 

The 5K was done in 25:23 and I probably should have run it slower, but as the corrals moved forward at the start I found myself at the very front, right on the start line as they released my group. An open course is tempting and as I’ve never been in such a position before, I had to make the most of it. My video shows I was at the head of my group all the way past the first corner. 

The race went on. I had been running through the park above the lakefront and I heard a voice shout out.

“Ian!” 

It was Bob from Parkrun. I wasn’t expecting that. Parkrunners get everywhere.

Overall, I managed to rein myself in finishing two minutes slower that last year, and quite comfortable all the way around.

I cooled down and found Bob for a chat, and cheered my wife on as she finished. 

Marathon morning dawned bright and sunny. The marathon start area was as busy as I have ever seen it. There was a long, snaking line to get on the shuttle buses at Two Harbors, and when we got there it seemed like all 7000 entrants wanted use the bathroom at the same time. There were reports of people waiting over an hour in line and missing the start. I know we are all chip timed so it doesn’t matter when you cross the start line. But to be in that massed throng when the start command is issued is part of the experience. It’s one I wouldn’t want to miss, and I’d be pretty annoyed if I did. 

Conditions were great at the start. It was a green flag race,  so we were all feeling good about good times. I latched onto the 4:20:00 pace runner and stayed there quite comfortably. Until half way. She announced she was taking a potty break.

Great I thought. I’ll take one too. I did the same last year, when the pace runner stopped. I found her quite easily last year. Not so this time. 

I don’t know what went wrong.

Perhaps she took a quicker break than I. But I lost her. I’d been pretty quick so I thought I was ahead and slowed to catch her as she went past but she never did. It never occurred to me that she had been quicker. So I lost a few minutes there. 

I plugged on, and things got warmer. Everyone talks about how great the Lake Superior breeze is on Marathon day when it’s out of the east. It sure is. Except today there was no breeze. Gitchee Gumee was mill pond calm. That made things quite tough, and with a little haze out there from the Canadian forest fires. Conditions went from ideal to moderate. 

A little disconsolate that I had lost my pace group, and feeling some heat. At 18 miles I switched to my run walk strategy of .1 miles walk, .9 miles run, following the mile markers on the road. This strategy gets somewhat obfuscated when the water stations get thrown into the mix. But it gave me a chance to mentally regroup, attack Lemondrop Hill, and really push the final 5K. 

“It’s only a Parkrun”. I told myself at the 10 mile marker of the half marathon. That’s a distance I cover every Saturday morning at 9am . That gave me the boost I needed, and I pushed. According to the stats. I passed 185 people in the last 5K.

The spectator signs are always fun.

“What route does a marathon finisher take to the finish - The psycho path”

“You’re sexy when you’re hot. Call me”

“Worst. Parade. Ever.”

“Chuck Norris never ran a marathon”

There was even a marriage proposal sign. 

On Superior Street I saw a pace runner ahead. I hoped it would be the 4:20:00 runner, but as I closed in, I saw it was the 4:35:00 one. I pushed on harder remembering my goal to beat 4:33. Could I stretch out a two minute gap in the last mile and a half?

Push hard.

I kept pushing and overtaking people. 

Past the DECC, The William A Irvin. People who don’t know you cheer like you’re the winner. 

The 26 mile marker. Was I going to do it? Two minutes is a lot to make up in a mile. That last two tenths of a mile is a long way. 

“It’s Ian!” I heard my wife cheering me on. 

Keep pushing harder.

Why is the finish line so far away still?

Eventually the finish line arrived, and I remembered that I had been so intent on filming the start, that I forgot to start my watch as I crossed the line. My Garmin was .4 of a mile short. It recorded a time of 4:28 and change. I still didn’t know if I had met my goal. 

I sat with my medal and food. Spent and confused, not knowing my time was eating me up.

The App! The official Grandmas app had timing. It would have my time!

It did. 4:36:20.

What!!! But I had passed and left the 4:35:00 pace runner in my dust. Were they that far off the pace?

I was disconsolate, but did my best not to show it as I left the recovery area and met my wife and our other Parkrun friends. 

Then the news began to percolate through the marathon Facebook group. Through a glitch, the app was sending out gun times, not chip times. 

I still didn’t know my finish time!

Sure, I’d finished my 24th marathon. No mean feat. But did I reach my goal? 

Then at 4:15pm I received my official time email.

4:32:16. I HAD MET GOAL 2!

It was a little anticlimactic having had to wait so long. 

But I did it. I ran my 24th marathon faster than my first. after a gap of 19 years. I think that’s an achievement.

Now the runner’s high can set in.

Boston Qualifying time for my age group is 3:50:00. I wonder if I can do that?

Two races, three medals