Grandma's Marathon 2016! 4th time's the charm! Part 2

4:00 a.m. - The ring of the alarm clock did its thing. It was time for Kim to get up and make her way down to the front of our hotel to board her bus. I remained in bed for another 30 minutes though I didn't fall back to sleep. At this point, sleep was just out of the question as the nerves were already starting to get going. At 4:30, it was my time to get up. My alarm went off and up I jumped out of bed ready to tackle the task of the day. The Grandma's marathon has been my favorite race as evidenced by this being my 4th time to run it and I've only run 8 marathons total. At 4:45, exactly 3 hours prior to the start of my race, I started scarfing down my breakfast which included 1 whole bagel and a banana plus a whole bottle of water.

All registered runners were listed on the car. 

For those of you that have never done the Grandma's Marathon, let me describe it a bit more in detail.  The Grandma's Marathon is a point-to-point race starting in Two Harbors, MN and then traveling Southwest along the North shore of Lake Superior. To get to the starting line, you have a couple options. You can either board a bus or take the train to the starting line. The thought of riding the train actually sounds like fun except that it is a longer ride to the start and I imagine it being a little more cramped than on the bus. That's why I decided on the bus. The course itself is nearly flat with only one decent incline around mile 22.

This particular morning was a warm one starting out at 68 degrees and clear skies. There was very little wind which was perfectly fine with me. I was a quite a bit nervous about the temperatures being too warm but I wasn't going to let it change my mind about giving it everything I had to try and break the 2:37 barrier. I was very focused this morning. In the past, I usually find other runners to talk to on the bus or while waiting around near the starting area. Not this morning. I had put together a 'get psyched' playlist on my phone to get some energizing songs stuck in my head and I spent the entire time up until I dropped off my gear bag listening to it and just remaining focused.

Kimi was running the half marathon this morning and her race started at 6:15 in the morning whereas mine started at 7:45. With this timing, I was able to track her on my phone all the way to the finish line and then ditch my gear bag and head to the start. It is always a great feeling when she runs on the same day as me and I get to see how well she does prior to starting my race. If you want to get more details about her race, check out her blog all about it by clicking Kimi's Blog.  With the results of how she ran, I had even more confidence headed into my race.

The facilities

The starting line corral 50 minutes before the start

While I was waiting to see the results of Kimi's race, I was waiting for one final pit stop at the porta-potty. The line took what seemed like forever. I've never really understood what takes people so long on this. If you need to spend 5 minutes in there, then get in line extra early before the lines start forming. Anyhow, I immediately started warming up with a jog to the bag drop and then a jog to the starting line. Then I spent the final 5 minutes jogging in place and doing some active stretching to get the muscles warmed up.

Finally, the gun sounded and off we went. All 7500+ runners started funneling out of the starting area. It took me about 6 seconds to get across the official starting line. Because of the heat, I started conservatively with my first mile at 6:07 and then kept rolling for the next 6 or so miles in the 6:00-6:05 range with the majority being really close to 6:00. As far as I can recall, I never allowed myself to get more than about 30 seconds over 6 minute pace. I had been following a pack of about 6 girls and 5 guys for several miles already when I noticed one girl was trailing just about 20 meters or so behind the pack. I slowly pulled up next to her as she was running all alone and she didn't let me go right by. She picked up the pace just enough to stay right beside me as I was surging forward a bit. I started talking to her and found out that she was a former Dallas Baptist runner so we were able to converse about some Missouri Southern cross country and track events that she had attended (MO Southern was were I went to school). I asked her what her goal was and at that time she was shooting for a sub 2:40. I told her that I intended to run sub 2:37 and it didn't seem to phase her a bit. She went right along with me. We kept clipping off mile after mile and then at mile 10, I reached down to grab my first GU and was shocked when I found that both of my pockets were empty. My GU had somehow fallen out of my pockets. Fortunately for me, my new found racing partner (Kelsey Bruce), had some fuel on the women's elite tables. She was only using about half of her gel and half of her fluids so she started handing me the remainder after she was done. I have to say, I think that she might have seriously saved my race. Kelsey and I came through the half marathon about 20 seconds over a 6 minute average. I didn't panic one bit. I told her that I was going to start picking it up around mile 16 in hopes to run a rock solid final 10 miles and still reach my goal.

We worked together all the way until mile 23. I'm so used to running with elite women since my usual running partner is one that Kelsey and I just kept feeding off each other's energy. We went through aid station after aid station with her splitting to the right to grab her fluids and me splitting to the left to grab mine and then quickly regrouping after the station. If I pulled ahead a little during the aid station, she'd pull right back up to me and when she'd happen to get through a little faster than me, I'd do the exact same thing. At mile 23, the women's elite race was really ramping up. Much earlier in the race, Kelsey and I had worked together to catch that small group of elite women and we were a lot of the reason the group started to split up some. At this point though there were only a few women competing for the top 4-8 spots and one of them passed us around 3 miles to go. I had been checking the time at each mile marker and knew that I was on pace to hit my goal so long as I didn't have any implosion in the final 3 miles. Part of me wanted to try and pick up the pace to see just how good I could finish but wisdom told me to just keep the pace strong and consistent. With my prior experiences, I knew that you could be flying one minute and the next thing you know, you're out of gas and crawling in.

I watched Kelsey pull away from me as she started chasing and competing with the other elite women just in front of us. Now it was all me. I stayed focused as I came to the brick road in downtown Duluth. There wasn't much shade so I just kept grabbing sponges and cups of water to cool myself (I had started doing this for the final 10k at every aid station) and put a look of determination on my face. I know I did this as I could hear many people in the crowd point it out. My pictures back that up too. I had finally reached the final mile and knew that if I just kept it around a 6 minute pace, I would be golden to reach my goal. It hurt like crazy but I told myself, 'why hurt and lose when you can hurt and win!', which is one of the few things I learned from my collegiate coach. As I crossed the 26 mile mark, I panicked for a moment. I saw the clock and knew I had 90 seconds to get to the finish line. In my mind, I was thinking that I had a quarter mile to go which meant I had to run under a 6 minute pace for the final quarter to get across under my goal. I didn't want to leave anything to chance so I immediately poured out everything I had left.

I made it to the final 30 meters and that's when reality set in. I was going to accomplish my goal! Emotions immediately rushed across my entire face and throughout my entire body. Sometimes, when you want something so bad, and work extremely hard to get it, you take the time to envision what it will be like to accomplish it. I had been doing that all week. I just knew that if I came across that line on pace, I'd be doing some crying tears of joy and relief. My finishing photos are a bit embarrassing for me to show to everyone but I figure why not give you all a glimpse of what it looks like to see pure emotion after 26.2 miles and miles and miles of training, discipline, and focus.

The question everyone asks me now, is "Now that you've reached that goal, what are you going to do next?"  My answer, "set a new goal and go for it stress free knowing that I've already reached my lifetime goal. Everything from here on is just having fun and putting icing on top of the cake!"

The view of Mile 25 from our hotel room window.

This marks the Grandma's Marathon finish line permanently!

Grandma's Marathon 2016! 4th time's the charm! Part 1

It's been a while since my last post. Heading into this year's Grandma's Marathon training, I decided that I wanted to try and reduce the pressure that I had been putting on myself over the last year so I put the blogging aside for a bit. I wanted to focus on my training without any additional pressures.

Now that I've reached my goal, I'm able to sit down and reflect on the past year's ups and downs. Starting last year heading into the 2015 Grandma's marathon Kimi and I had an awesome training buildup. We nailed every workout, and felt incredibly strong. We both had the same target goal of going sub 2:37. Unfortunately, a tree limb had a different idea for how my final 3 weeks were going to go heading into the race. During our 24 mile long run 3 weeks out, I reached up  to brush off a tree limb while heading down the Frisco trail instead of running around it and 'BAM!' there it went! Something got me right in my ring finger in the proximal-inter-phalangeal joint. Who knew that something so simple could be the start of a series of dominoes that would derail my running for a while. My finger swelled to a point that I was afraid I might actually lose the finger since my ring was stuck on the finger and pressure was building around it. I was fortunate that I was able to talk a jeweler into cutting the ring off, but that wasn't the end of it. The finger still didn't want to bend and I was starting to get really concerned since I use my hands quite intensely every day in order to treat patients. This became quite the stressful event for me. Just a few days before the marathon, I started having side stitch issues during the 2 mile shake'm out runs. I couldn't make it more than a mile without being bent over with pain in my right abdomen. This is never a good feeling right before a marathon. I had to change my game plan mentally right before the race. Kimi and I were planning to run stride for stride together for the entire race to hit our goal. I decided to just do what I could and if/when the side stitch gets me, I would just have to let Kimi go and I'd be on my own the rest of the way. Much to my surprise, I made it through 20 miles without the side-stitch getting me. Then it happened. I just let Kimi go and she went on to run the best marathon of her life so far. I did manage to regather myself and still ran a decent time but was a bit disappointed since I knew that I was in much better shape than what I got to show on that day.

Following that race, I had a rash break out on the right side of my abdomen. Sure enough, I ended up with a small shingles outbreak (I can still feel the effects of this occasionally, bleh! and the finger still doesn't bend the same to this day!).

It didn't take me long to pick out my next target marathon. The Twin Cities marathon in October was about 15 weeks away. Not ideal, but I thought I would be able to bounce back and be mentally and physically prepared in time for it so why not. Kimi could run the USA 10 mile Championships and I would run the marathon. Training for this went really well. I nailed pretty much every workout and some of them were faster than I'd ever done before. I thought this one would have a good shot of going under the 6 min/mile barrier as I headed into it. I ran a great race through 23, and probably ran a bit too great since I was on pace for a 2:35 with only 5k to go. That's when the wheels fell off and I just couldn't keep it together. I ended up having to stop and walk a bit as the legs tied up. Then I got it going again and just did keep myself under 2:40 for a finish time. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed again.

I didn't let myself get too discouraged though. I was hoping to hit my goal at TCM but after I didn't, I started to get the idea that perhaps I should run the L.A. Marathon in February, the day after Kimi was set to run in the Olympic Trials Marathon. This would make my 3rd marathon in 7 months. I never thought I'd run that many in such a short amount of time.  I think Kimi even wanted me to run the L.A. Marathon so that she'd have me training right along side her all winter long.  Training was going really well until 2 weeks out from L.A. Once again, we had been nailing every workout. Two weeks out, I had some more unfortunate luck. I managed to strain one of my left quadriceps muscles. I immediately started getting treatment from Kimi and also started ramping up my own personal treatments as well. I was having so many issues that I could hardly run on the leg so I just simply took time off while getting treatment in hopes that I might at least be able to run the marathon as a long training run. Four days before the race, I was feeling pretty normal so I decided I'd do a bit of an up tempo effort to just challenge my quad a bit. Much to my surprise, it didn't bother me and I ran fairly decent for the short tempo run. Once again, this changed my race plan. I decided to go into the race with the idea of starting off conservative and feeling it out as I went. In the back of my mind, I thought I might be able to run a decent time but I was unsure at what point I would really start picking up the pace. I covered the first 4 miles at about 6:45 pace feeling pretty good. Then I slowly started dropping the pace a bit. By the 10 mile mark, I was pretty confident in my leg so I really started rolling. I clipped off a lot of miles just under 6 min pace  but the damage had already been done in regards to reaching my original goal. A big takeaway from this race was that I completed it, and ran strong all the way through the finish having practiced my nutrition intake that Cassie Dimmick (dietitian at Achieving Your Best, LLC) and I had been working on over the last several months. I managed a 2:42:45 which shocked me!

My focus finally shifted back to the Grandma's Marathon. I had run this race the 3 previous years and knew that the course and weather had typically been conducive for fast running. I assumed that this year would be no different. For the entire training cycle, I just had a feeling that this was going to be a hot year at the Grandma's marathon. This was solely based on the fact that April was really warm here and that it was getting unseasonably warm here early. With that in mind, I made an extra effort to keep my shirt on during warm runs to try to get myself a little more mentally and physically adapted to a possible warmer race condition.  This year, I was going it alone for the Grandma's marathon. Kimi had decided that she wanted to target a fast half marathon so our training would have to be a little different in our buildups.  We did the same workouts for the most part but many times, I would simply add more distance to the workout than she would do. All of our training went extremely well and we were both maintaining pretty solid health headed into this years race (I made sure not to touch any tree limbs or do anything that might freakishly injure myself).

Now, all that was left is to get to Duluth, hope for good weather, and execute the race plan!

LA Trip Recap! Only a month late! :)

A lot has happened since my last post. I simply don't have the time to go into detail on all of it so here's a short recap.

Kimi's Olympic Trials Marathon was definitely an experience. If you haven't heard by now, she ran 2:52:45 in some brutal marathon temperatures with very little shade on the entire course. Her race was broadcast live on NBC which is pretty cool. You can even see Kimi for the first couple miles of the race (we watched it on DVR when we got home).

I raced the LA marathon the day after her trials marathon. 2 weeks prior to the race, I strained my quadriceps muscles and thought I might not be able to do the marathon at all. Fortunately I was able to get a lot of treatment from a pretty great physical therapist (Kimi) and did a lot of self treatment as well. I did a 10 mile run on the Monday prior to the marathon just to see how my leg would handle it. Then on Wednesday after arriving in LA, I did a short 2 mile tempo run to see if I could handle the faster pace. Much to my surprise this went pretty well also.

I still was concerned entering the race so I decided to forego my original goal and just feel out the race and have some fun. I started much more conservative than I normally would and came through the half in about 1:21. Then I decided to pick it up since I was feeling just fine. The next 7 miles were pretty solid with paces right at or slightly under 6 min pace. Then we hit a stretch of uphill and heat which made it tough to maintain the faster pace. I was able to get the pace back down for the final 6 miles and actually finished with my fastest last mile of a marathon yet. It was about a 5:40-5:45 mile. It's hard to be certain since my Garmin doesn't always beep directly on the markers.

Since the marathon, I have been in the process of refocusing my training to get ready for what I hope will be my best training cycle yet. Headed to the 40th annual Grandma's Marathon in June!

By the way, I'm also nearing the end of my 3rd week at my new office location! It's been great here so far!

And the winter rolls onward!

The last several weeks have been interesting. Fortunately, we've been able to hit some pretty solid miles. We have not been able to get all the miles we would have liked to get but we're doing better than we ever have in the winter so that's a plus. Up until this week, we've been able to hit the miles with very little difficulty other than some cold temperatures here and there. It's weeks like this one where things get really difficult.

We're only 3 and a half weeks away from our marathons and all we have left is some speed work and one final legitimate 'long run'.  We've got 24 miles on the schedule slated for Saturday. I'm really hoping the snow and ice will melt away on the Frisco trail so we can get this one in. It's our most important long run as it build some serious confidence and strength. Plus it's the final run prior to the beginning of our 3 week taper. Our taper would normally consist of a decrease in miles but an increase in intensity of workouts.  I'm hoping we're able to get some solid training in for the final 3 weeks.

Over last weekend, we went out to the first ever Cabin Fever Reliever 20k run held in Rogersville.  It was definitely not what I would call a 'flat' course but it was manageable. We had a long workout scheduled and thought what better way to get it done than to incorporate it directly into the 20k.  The plan was to run 4 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile at half marathon pace, then drop back to marathon pace for 4 miles, and then another mile at half marathon pace.  Then following that, we were to cruise easy for 1 mile, and then do an all out mile, leaving .4 mile to the finish where we could just cruise it in. The workout was definitely a success in my book though it didn't really go anywhere close to what we had planned. The first two miles were tough and more uphill into the wind. There was a time during these first two miles that I was unsure if we were going to even be able to get it done anywhere close to the paces we wanted. Fortunately we turned a corner and caught a downhill mile or two which helped get us rolling. The workout pretty much turned into a long tempo run because all of the miles in which we were to run faster, ended up falling on the uphill miles making it tough to feel like we sped up even though the effort increased to maintain pace. We did take it easy for a mile after 10 and then tried to pick it back up for 1 more mile but we just couldn't manage to get it to where we really wanted to go.

Usually when we do this workout, we get a short stop break after the 10 miles and then jog the 1 mile prior to the all out mile.  I think that must have made a difference for how we were able to press for our final hard mile.

Kimi and me after Cabin Fever! The trophies are excellent winter decorations!

This week was to include one speed session on either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday evening but that's when the weather came into the picture making it impossible for us to get outdoors Tuesday evening due to black ice everywhere.  Unfortunately, this turned into a day off completely.

Wednesday, we managed some solid miles outdoors again. We found a neighborhood road that was clear and made a loop that was a mile long.  Then we covered 10 miles looping. The best part was that we never really had to worry about ice during this 10 mile loop.

This morning we woke up to between 1-2 inches of snow on the ground but that wasn't enough to stop us from getting out and putting in a solid 5 mile run. Snow of this amount doesn't make it impossible to run but simply slows the pace.

All in all, we're getting prepared for our marathons coming up. We might not be exactly where we'd like to be at this point in time, but I think we're definitely on the right track. I'm banking a little bit on experience, adrenaline, and warmer temperatures to help us get through race day but ultimately, my fitness will tell the final story I'm sure.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Happy Running!!!

Last weekend was a solid weekend. Kimi and I finished off a 70+ mile week with 5x1 mile repeats. After the way this year shaped up, something clicked in my mind making a mile simply start to feel short. I think it all happened during my training cycle for the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember a workout vividly that seemed to change the way I view some of the shorter workouts. It was a 10 mile tempo run followed by an additional 1 mile which I ran in 5:19. That was the day that seemed to have changed everything for my speed training. Going into this weekend's 5x1mile repeats, I realized that running a mile hard just doesn't seem to be as daunting a task as it used to be. Kimi and I started out with a mile in 5:38 which was okay. It wasn't great but the first one hardly ever is. The second and third repeats were much better as they were starting to approach the pace we wanted them to be at. They both clicked off right around 5:33.  I really wanted to get these repeats down to closer to 5:25 miles which I knew would be a true challenge as that starts to really reach a challenging pace for both of us. We started to gain confidence heading into the fourth and fifth repeats knowing that we had the speed in us and just had to go get it. The fourth mile was a 5:24 and our fifth was 5:23.  Our confidence was right where we needed it to be. We cooled down to the car which was just over a mile away and then quickly went home to shower so we could go watch people finish at the Run for the Ranch half marathon.

On Sunday, we added another 16 mile long run that was marathon specific meaning it had some 90 second pushes during the last 6 miles. This was an interesting long run style that we're trying out a bit.  This should help simulate the latter stages of the race helping us remain strong through the final 10k which is typically the hardest part of a marathon. This is even more critical for me as it is usually where I have my races blow up leaving me just shy of reaching my goals.

This week has been a tough one so far as I've been battling a bit of a tooth ache which is limiting my training a bit. I'm hoping to be back at it today so I can at least maintain my streak of 60+ mile weeks. We have a critical 20 mile workout this weekend that I really don't want to miss. It's a 5,4,3,2,1 mile workout with each segment getting faster as they get shorter. We shall see how it goes.