Grandma's Marathon 2015 recap

Our trip started out with excitement and high hopes. We had put in the work and were feeling quite prepared. All of our workouts were phenomenal, our mileage solid, and our confidence at an all time high. We even had pre-race massages to help us be as ready as possible. With the race being set to take place on Saturday morning, we decided to head to Duluth, MN on Thursday.  Originally, we planned to leave Wednesday afternoon and drive about half way in order to break up the trip.  Unfortunately, this wasn't in the cards for us to do so we set out to make the 11 hour car trip all at once. We stopped just North of Saint Paul/Minneapolis to get an easy 2 mile shake-the-legs-out run completed. Unfortunately for me, I started feeling a little bit of a discomfort in my side mimicking a side-stitch during the easy 2 miles.  As you would guess, this made my mind a bit uneasy.  On Friday, we went to the trail that runs along the bay of Lake Superior for another easy 2 mile run and some strides. That's when the wheels started to come off. I couldn't manage to complete a 2 mile easy run without getting a side stitch again.  Now we were less than 24 hours from the race and I was truly starting to worry about how the race was going to go.

All day Friday, we were constantly checking the forecast for race morning. We were holding out hope that the rain that was headed our direction would go just South of us or simply arrive 3-4 hours later than projected. Of course, this didn't end up being the case. About 20 minutes prior to the start of the race, the clouds opened up and started dumping buckets on us. Temperatures were nearly perfect in the low-mid 50's but when you added the rain, it made conditions a bit cool. Not only that, the conditions made getting a proper warm-up difficult. Our warm up this morning consisted of a frantic jog from the bag check to the starting area and then jogging in place for about 2-3 minutes prior to the race. This was by no means an ideal warm up and I believe we paid for it for the first 10 miles.

The Race:

The gun sounded and off we went. Kimi and I were starting side by side for the first time since our first marathon together in 2010.  Our goal was to run 5:55-5:58 pace for as long as we could manage. We wanted to develop a small cushion for our finish goal of sub-2:37:00.  For the first 10 miles, our legs just didn't feel right. I'm not sure if it was the travel, the lack of sleep, lack of warm up, or all of the above, but we just didn't feel like our light, fast selves.  Fortunately, it wasn't showing on the clock as we came through 10 miles right on pace as planned. There was an odd moment in the race where Kimi and I both looked at our watches and had a moment of panic. It was like there was a gap in time that we lost somewhere. I'm not sure if the markers were off or if our garmins played tricks on us but somehow we got to the half marathon mark and were exactly at 6 minute pace. This was the first real moment where I think we both realized that breaking 2:37 just probably wasn't going to be in the cards for us on this day. We were still rolling in the 6:05-6:08 range so I knew that we were still on pace for a sub 2:40 marathon and fortunately for me, that pesky side stitch wasn't giving me any problems (yet anyways). 15-16-17-18-19 and then WHAM!!! There it was right around the 20 mile mark. Just like an ice pick in the side.  We had just gone through an water aid station so Kimi and I were separated slightly.  She kept rolling as I quickly came to a halting stop. I stretched out and watched Kimi stride away. She had no idea where I had gone. I saw her look over her shoulder a few times trying to find me but she never spotted me. At this point, thoughts of would I even be able to finish crossed my mind. I had a 10k to go and it was going to be a true battle of will if I wanted to finish and finish well at this point. I finally started back into the race after being passed by probably 20 or so other competitors. I knew my legs were strong and so long as the side stitch didn't stop me, I was going to work myself right back into a fast tempo and see if I couldn't just reel Kimi back in. My intent was to simply be there to witness her cross the line so we could celebrate together.  Much to my surprise, I was able to get the pace rolling at about a 5:52-5:55 clip for the next 5 miles. 21-22-23-24-and then WHAM!! AGAIN!!! Right at the 25 mile mark with only 1.2 miles to go, the dreadful side stitch returned. I checked my watch and knew at this point that I had about 8 minutes or slightly over to cover the remaining 1.2 miles in order to break 2:40.  I fought and I fought but it was to no avail. It just wasn't going to be my day.  I was extremely frustrated when I crossed the line, yet I was extremely happy for Kimi as well. I saw her waiting near the finish line as I approached. I was incredibly proud of her. She battled adversity all day and in my opinion, had dominated it.

 She informed me that she was the 8th overall finisher for women and also that she broke 2:39! I always knew that we hadn't tapped into her true potential just yet and this was simply confirmation. Kimi crossed the line with a time of 2:38:34 which is a 3:20 second P.R!

Our next adventures are going to be interesting. Coming up in September, October and November, we have multiple huge races that will truly test our ability to bounce back from this marathon mentally and physically. I might even jump in another marathon in October. I hear the Twin Cities Marathon is a good one, so I might just have to run it to try and redeem myself. The goal of the next few months is to figure out what's causing the side stitch issue, and put a stop to it.

Grandma's Marathon Results
Me - 2:40:19
Kimi - 2:38:34 **NEW PR!**