May 26, 2013 — Med City Marathon, Rochester, Minn.

4:24:56; 78 of 174 women; 219 of 353 overall

I’ll keep this report (relatively) short and sweet. I registered for this race last summer when they were offering a special discount ($35 for a full marathon!?!), but as life got in the way through the winter thought I wouldn’t be able to run it, though it is not far from home.

Then, after a rough experience at the Fargo Marathon a week before, I really wanted a chance to finish a marathon feeling good and banish the bad taste of the Fargo death march. When my FIL offered to watch DS so I could run, and the weather forecast looked more promising than Fargo, I decided to go for it.

Two things would be different: The weather was cold, rainy and windy, rather than hot and humid; and I would go out at a pace that made more sense for my current fitness level.

At the start, I bumped into several friends, including one who was running the half at about my pace (and just happened to be wearing the exact same running skirt).

We ran together chatting, smiling at the comments about our matching skirts , enjoying the scent of lilacs, up and over the early hills without pushing or worrying about our time.

When she split off to finish the half, I was on my own, but feeling comfortable and just kept the same pace. Around Mile 15, the rain started, and there were times I really was cold, but I wasn’t overheating, the stomach/gas problems that plagued me last week were much less (this time I decided to skip the Gatorade, and I wasn’t drinking as much overall - not sure if that was the difference), and while my legs were tired, I didn’t have any true pain.

Volunteers and spectators were awesome - cheering, smiling and full of enthusiasm, despite the fact they were standing still in 45* rain with 15-20 mph winds blowing.

The first half of the route was on a country road, while the second half followed some beautiful bike paths along a river, around lakes, went through lovely residential neighborhoods, with only a short segment along more traveled streets. In some places the camber of the streets was annoying, but it was usually for short stretches.

I just stayed relaxed, never even breathing hard, walked the water stops, didn’t worry about losing time when I needed a bathroom break around mile 19, and maintained a steady pace throughout. My slowest mile, not counting the bathroom break, was a 10:25, my fastest was a 9:45.

Yes, I was still more than 30 minutes slower than my PR, but I finished marathon #10 with a genuine smile on my face, feeling good about myself and my running, and happy to be there.

[URL=http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/Shari_Buchta_Hegland/media/ShariMedCity5_zpsc4e59e11.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y395/Shari_Buchta_Hegland/ShariMedCity5_zpsc4e59e11.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I’ll count that as a success.

Congrats!  And yeap, that's what hot and humid does, suck the life out of you.  Glad you were able to do another one in better conditions.

Jack - I've run much smaller than this, and I don't mind as long as I'm just running it easy. It actually wasn't as empty in the second half as I expected; there are a ton of relay teams, so it seems like there are a lot more runners. It might be tougher to push the pace for a PR or BQ without company, but it was just right for this weekend.

Fuzzy - I was so impressed with the volunteers and spectators! Conditions had to be miserable for them, yet they never stopped smiling! Plenty of aid stations, really a beautiful course (though a bit twisty at the end), and dry places for both before and after the race are all nice touches.

Nicely done! Enjoying yourself & feeling good at the end of a marathon is definitely a success, that's my goal for my next one....

Nice job!  

Awesome! Congrats!

Awww! Thanks, Jay!

I really was happy!

That sounds like a much better race, and that race pic says the whole story.