Friday June 20
I drove up from the Twin Cities this morning. The first part of the drive was uneventful but there was construction around Hinckley. Google got me around at least part of that without a problem. But then it was insistent that I get off I-35 and take an alternate route to avoid “the road closure at Harbor Dr”. I resisted for a while but finally gave in. It routed me WAYYYYY east and into Wisconsin on country roads, and even put me on a gravel road for a while! I’m sure it was unnecessary and totally stupid. Sometimes Google Maps is great but this time it was ridiculous.
I finally got to the DECC where the Expo was around 12:45. I managed to get there right when people were getting ready to run the 5K at 1 pm so I parked in a lot around a half mile from the DECC. It was a smart move! If I had tried to get any closer I would have been blocked in.
When I got to the DECC I was starving, past my lunch time. Even a Picky Bar wasn’t enough. But you could buy tickets to the spaghetti dinner so that’s what I did. After that I wasn’t hungry any more!
Just like 2021 I had a heck of a time finding packet pickup. They put it at the opposite end of the expo from where you come in. Either that or I came in at the wrong place! I got that taken care of, and then wandered through the expo (it’s a nice one) for a bit. I bought some Goodr sunglasses because I wanted purple ones to match my outfit tomorrow and that was it.
Then it was off to Sam and Danielle’s. It’s very nice of them to let me stay with them tonight! Their 3 little kids are just darling. Lula is 5, same age as Kirby. Willa will be 4 in September, and Oscar (aka Ozzie) is almost the same age as Emi, just 2 months younger.
They’ve all gone off to run the Kid’s races and I’m just hanging around. I plan on basically eating dinner and going to bed! I have to get up at 3-3:30 tomorrow morning in order to catch the bus to the start line at 4:45! I’ve got everything laid out and I’ve made my morning todo list so I’m as ready as I can be.
The weather here this afternoon is sunny and 50’s, perfect Lake Superior weather! but there’s supposed to be some storms tonight. Hopefully they will have blown through by the time we’re waiting around in the corrals!
Sunday June 22
Happy Anniversary to us! 45 years and still going strong. We’ll gladly take every healthy year we can get at this point.
So back to Duluth. They came back from the kid’s races. Lula and Willa were very proud of their medals and their accomplishments. I liked that their medals were made of rubber so they wouldn’t kill someone waving them around!
I ate dinner with the fam and found myself laughing at Ozzie, who is trying so hard to keep up with the big kids. I also took note of the difference between being kid number 3 and kid number 1 (Emi). He’s mimicking the girls and getting away with things that Emi isn’t, at least not yet! Personality has a lot to do with it of course. Ozzie was a very grumpy baby and I think he just wore his parents out.
I was in bed by 8. I heard the storms blowing through sometime after midnight. Thunder, lightning and a lot of rain. I learned my lesson from the cancellation of Twin Cities a couple of years ago and checked my email shortly after I got up at 3:30. Sure enough there was an email saying that all the races were delayed by 30 minutes. This was a very good call. We didn’t have to stand around in the rain or worry about lightening. By the time we got to the start it had all blown through.
I had chosen Duluth East High School as my pickup location. Everyone has to ride a shuttle bus to the start for both the half and the full marathon. There are bus pickup locations all over Duluth and it really is very convenient.
Parking was no problem and I soon got in line for the bus. BUT! I somehow missed the message that we were supposed to leave our gear bags at the bus pickup. I got on the bus with my gear bag and no one said a word. I wasn’t the only one either. This relates to my biggest (and almost only) complaint about the race. Signage! Why wasn’t there a big sign somewhere that said to drop your gear bag HERE? Alas, I found out when I got to the start that there was nothing I could do but take what I really needed out of the bag, and leave the rest behind, hoping that maybe they would take the bags to the race office later. It wasn’t that big a deal really; the Oofos sandals I had in the bag were almost worn out and the windbreaker was nothing special, except that it was the windbreaker that got me through the Boston Marathon so I had a bit of an emotional attachment to it. The sweatshirt I was wearing was also old and I just ended up donating it at the start.
As many people had mentioned, the porta potty situation at the start was a mess. This was the first year that they had corrals for the half, and that part was great. There might have been plenty of porta potty’s but you couldn’t see them from the entrance to the corrals and they had single potties with long long lines that you COULD see, so of course I got in line for one of those. I waited over 30 minutes in that line, until my corral had actually started. Finally a lady came by and told us that there were plenty of potties closer to the start line. So I started walking and there they were. So annoying!
It really wasn’t that big of a deal, the races are chipped timed; unless you’re an elite runner it doesn’t matter; your race doesn’t start until you cross the start line. So with that taken care of, off I went.
It’s such a nice course and so interesting running the half instead of the full. It’s the exact same course, you just start 13.1 miles in! I was able to enjoy and observe lots of the course while I wasn’t tired that I only sort of saw running the marathon. And the support along the way is great, because everyone is out because of the marathon. So that makes it feel more special and exciting. And there’s lots of water, Powerade and snacks, again, because of the marathon. I’m definitely a fan of this race!
I’ve been feeling bad about my running for a while now. i’ve slowed down so much, and I was never very fast to begin with. Danielle asked me if it was that I got injured more but that isn’t it at all. I said it’s just that it gets hard to run, kind of like how it feels when you first started running. And there’s not much you can do about it, just do the best you can, don’t overdo it, and listen to your body.
But yesterday I felt great. I had set a reasonable goal (under 3 hours) that was doable but still a challenge. I used a run/walk interval that was comfortable, not too easy, not too hard. I didn’t really look at my pace too much just tried to be consistent and do my best. And I decided to have a little fun, take a picture or two, talk to other runners, enjoy the view.
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| Me and a Guy Dressed As a Giant Raisin! |
Things went well. It wasn’t too hot for the half, but it was very humid. I drank water at every aid station, even had a little pickle juice at one point! I skipped the beer, lol. I ate my gels at the appointed time. When I got to Lemon Drop hill, the only real hill on the course, they had put up the yellow warning flags because the temps were rising and it was so humid. At that point I changed my run/walk intervals from 1 minute 15 seconds run/30 seconds walk to 1 minute run/30 seconds walk. And as often happens when I did that I became a little faster. It’s a very strange calculation. More running makes you faster, up to a certain point, after which it actually makes you slower. I’m constantly playing with the ratio because it changes depending on the distance, the weather, and my age!
I’ve found the end of the full marathon for this race to be pretty torturous. You can’t see the finish line until the very end. At least this time I studied the course a bit so that I knew how many turns there were before we entered the finish chute.
I finished in 2:53, so I made my 3 hour time goal. I was 23rd out of 37 women in my age group (F70-74). Most (but not all) of the women ahead of me were younger than me. The first 4 were under 2 hours, impressive times for women in our age group. Then most of us were somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. The oldest woman in the race was 78.
I made my way through the finisher’s chute, let them take my picture, grabbed some food and water and chocolate milk. I was pretty dehydrated. I drank and drank, and although I peed right after the race, I didn’t pee again until I was back in Minneapolis around 4 that afternoon! My skin was encrusted with salt.
Here is a continuation of my one complaint about the race. I could NOT find the shuttle buses to return to the high school to get my car! I would follow the signs, they would peter out, I’d ask someone, get headed in the right direction and then it would happen again! I wandered all over the finish line area before I found them!
But then I sat down in the bus and before too long I was back at the high school, back in my car, and back at Sam and Danielle’s! I took a shower, thanked them profusely for their hospitality and headed back to Minneapolis.
But first I had a craving for a Culver’s hamburger and milkshake!
Today I’m sore but pretty happy and content. It was a nice race, nothing horrible happened and I’m feeling pretty good. Now to train for the Tour de Tonka and a couple other supported bike rides, do my usual fall races and then we’ll see what’s next.
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| Trolls Watching the Marathon! |
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