Grandma's Marathon

When my alarm clock went off at 3:45am,  I looked at it and thought,"oh crap, I have to run a marathon today."  I struggled with my training because of an injury, the heat, and my busy schedule.  I was hoping to at least stay under a five hour finish time, which would have been 30 minutes more than my previous marathon. Even though i had resigned myself with not achieving a better time, I did get up and ready by 4am. Nick taped an awesome sign to the door to wish us well. It took us an hour and a half to get to Duluth. We saw about 20 deer on the way. A few times, Alycia had to stop the van and wait for them to pass. Once in Duluth, we took the train to the start line. It took about an hour, but it was warm and we got to sit as apposed to riding the bus for 30 minutes and then standing around for an hour. The weather was perfect for the race at the start. It was in the low 50s and overcast. Alycia and I didn't plan on running together, but we started at the 4:00 pace group. I wished her well as she sped off and I stayed just under 10 minute miles. I was feeling really good and found a nice grandma to run with at about mile 8. I had to push myself some to keep up with her and managed to stay with her until mile 19. At that point the marathon got really hard and I had to slow down. When I hit mile 20 and realized my time, I knew that if I pushed through I could set a new personal record. I kept thinking of a t-shirt worn by another runner that said,"Pain in temporary but pride last forever."  Even though I wanted to walk, I wanted to be proud of my time. I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 26 minutes, which was four minutes faster than my last marathon.

I met Nick and the kids at the family meeting spot, but it took Nick an hour to find Alycia because she went back to the start to see me finish thinking I would be there much later than I actually was. She finished at 3:55, which is incredible. The weather was great for running, but not for watching or waiting. We were freezing in the rain and so relieved when Nick found Alycia. 

We all met at Culvers for lunch and custard on the way home. The kids were such troopers watching us in the rain. Renee asked it I could run my next race where it is warm:). The rest of the evening Alycia and I sat on the couch and watched TV. We are really sore and I don't think I am going to be able to move tomorrow.