Short Story:

4^th Marathon

3:24:19 (BQ and a PR by ~2 minutes)

798/5613 Overall

669/3271 Men

74/374 AG

Getting There:

This is marathon #2 of 2013 and exactly 8 weeks after I ran the Christie Clinic Marathon in Champaign. At the start of the year, I started training using a modified Pfitz 18/70 plan with added runs on Monday and miles bumped up to max out at 80. After the Illinois marathon, I took a couple of weeks as reverse taper and then got back into training using one of Pfitz bridge plans for multiple marathons. Normally, I’m a “by-the-book” kind of guy but in training for Grandma’s the final three weeks were anything but “normal.”

The third week would normally be the start of taper for Pfitz, but that was the 2013 Running game All-Star week and I ended up running 101.1 miles that week. The next week I had a crazy stressful week from work that ended up with me flying to LA and then spending two days of a planned vacation writing a report for that case. This past week the craziness continued at work and I’ve been getting less sleep than normal. So, this taper was characterized by: run more than you should … sleep less than normal … have extra stress in your life … and make sure to do lots of air travel to boot. Great!

On Friday two good friends from church and I drove up to Duluth and by the time we got there the temperature had dropped more than 20 degrees and Superior/Duluth was a beautiful 58 degrees but foggy. (For the whole weekend, the air temp and dew point temp were basically the same)

Allegedly, Duluth is located along Lake Superior. However, I don’t think I ever saw the lake so it could have been almost anywhere I was running. We went to the race expo and ate at the race spaghetti dinner that night and then drove to our hotel. I went out for a short 2-3 mile shakeout run and then went to bed about 10.

Marathon Race Report

Race morning we woke up at 4:00 because we were going to drive to another closer hotel to pick up one of the shuttle buses to the start line. Grandma’s is a point-to-point race that starts up at Two Harbors and snakes along old Rt 61 back into Duluth. Because it was race weekend, our hotel was nice enough to set up breakfast at 3 instead of their normal 6. Kudos to AmericInn. I had a bagel with peanut butter along with some juice and coffee. We drove to the shuttle bus stop and got there just as they opened the bus door to head to the start. After a circuitous 40 minute ride because of construction we made it to the start line. After a required port-o-potty stop I ate a banana while we milled around for a while before we dropped off our gear bags at the trucks (they actually used wheeled garbage bins based on bib number so that went really smoothly). I went with the same orange singlet and shorts that I wore for Illinois but fortunately had a garbage bag to keep warm and dry before the start. The air temp was about 52 and so was the dew point  temp so the conditions were humid and foggy … but cool. I lined up with the 3:25 pacer group and before long we were running along.

Miles 1-5 (7:42, 7:41, 7:38, 7:44, 7:41)

The first few miles I always have a tough time settling into a good groove and this time was no different. The pacer group shot ahead and probably separated from me by about 25 or 30 yards. There were also a TON of very slow people that I ended up passing during this phase of the race. I’m not trying to dis anyone who’s out there running, but if you’re going to be doing a 9:30 pace, please don’t line up ahead of someone who’s shooting for their BQ and planning to run 7:49. Nuf said?

The road was really pretty wide during this part of the race and before too long I had caught back up with the pace group. The start of Grandma’s is a gradual downhill so the first few miles were clicking by pretty easy. I grabbed a water at the first station (somewhere between 2 & 3 miles) and tried to run easy. In looking at the official results, it shows that I passed 251 people during the first 10k and was passed by 88. I actually got ahead of the pacer group somewhere around mile 4 and just ran by feel. I took a gel just before the 5 mile marker and then grabbed a water at the next station.

Miles 6-10 (7:36, 7:38, 7:42, 7:48, 7:29)

During this stretch, I felt really smooth and was running effortlessly. I was far enough ahead of the pacer group that I couldn’t hear them talking anymore and there were a couple of gentle undulations in the race course to break things up. It was during this phase that I was running along when all of a sudden I heard a strange sound. Now, you have to imagine an Elmer Fudd sounding voice, only an octave or two deeper when you read the following. I’m just running away trying to zone out when I hear “Huh, ha ha …..hahahah” I actually thought someone was having some sort of respiratory attack and turned to see if they needed help when I saw it was coming from some bearded guy listening to headphones. He must have been listening to some comedy or podcast/book because he was just laughing out loud. So, I dubbed this guy the “Laughing Guy” and tried to stay out of his way for the race. We’d run along in silence for a while and then suddenly you’d year “Ha ha … hahahahahaha ..huh ha.” It was sort of funny and annoying at the same time. We ran somewhat near to one another until about mile 14 when he finally fell behind. I grabbed a PowerAid somewhere around mile 7 or so, and added a second gel just after mile 10.

Miles 11-15 (7:50, 7:39, 7:37, 7:34, 7:51)

I still was feeling great throughout this whole stretch and the miles were just ticking off. It was really weird because we were running in about 100% humidity but it was cool enough that it really wasn’t too bad. It was also extremely foggy and kind of surreal running along the course. You could only see for about 100-200 meters ahead in the clear spots and some areas were even less visibility. That made running the tangents a bit more tricky because you really couldn’t see what was coming up ahead. It would also be weird to have people disappear into the fog ahead and then have others emerge as they fell back a bit on pace. I was running along with “Purple Girl” during this stage of the race and it was sort of disheartening because the few people lining the course during this stretch were only yelling “Go Purple” … “Nice job Purple” … “Looking Good Purple”. Hey, come on what’s wrong with orange folks? I alternated between water and PowerAid in the water stations and at about mile 13 I picked a sponge … my “Little Squishy Friend” that accompanied me throughout the rest of the race. (As a matter of fact, I even brought Squishy home and he’s sitting on the fireplace hearth right now … is it wrong to feel an emotional attachment to a sponge? I took gel number 3 somewhere between mile 14 and 15 and then water at the next station.

Miles 16-20 (7:43, 7:54, 7:51, 7:44, 7:53)

I was also running along with a couple of guys during this phase – somebody who was 28 years old and “Gray Guy” who was wearing dark gray and was going for his BQ as well – he’s 47. We ran together for a bit and then “Gray Guy” eventually pulled ahead and disappeared into the fog. It was during this part of the course that I hit a bit of a dry spot during the race. I didn’t really feel crampy or fatigued, but just a bit “off” in how I was running. I intentionally slowed down just a bit for a couple of miles to try to get back into a groove and just about mile 19 I heard the pacer group running just over my right shoulder. I let them pass me and then followed behind them by about 8-10 yards for a mile or so before catching back up and passing them for the final time. I continued alternating between PowerAde and water and also took my final gel around the 20 mile mark.

Miles 21-25 (7:43, 7:45, 7:39, 7:44, 8:01)

Finally, I got back into my groove and running felt pretty good during the first part of these miles. The crowds were starting to get a bit heavier by this point as we were getting nearer to Duluth and that meant that we’d be hitting LemonDrop Hill. Now, Grandma’s is touted as a basically downhill course but I’d really classify it as more a gentle rolling course that is slowly losing elevation, until you enter Duluth. I was somewhat concerned about the location of the hill (between miles 22-23) but it really wasn’t any big deal and didn’t change my pace at all. I actually found that running along the cobblestone road through Duluth much more problematic than the hill. I just couldn’t feel comfortable running on the uneven surface and ended up along the side stretch of concrete that just felt way too hard. I caught back up with “Gray Guy” during the cobblestone stretch and he and I ran near one another all the way to the finish. The stretch was also really long and I kept anticipating the final left hand turn that would signal mile 25 and the home stretch. I knew I was really good on time, but I had the bad experience at Illinois of mentally losing focus around this point and falling off pace. Finally, we made the turn and then had to motor up a short little overpass at mile 25 and then back downhill. It was during the downhill that my quads started to lock up and I had to DRAMATICALLY shorten my stride going down the other side of the overpass. That ended being my only 8+ minute mile and really made me start to worry about failing yet again.

Home Stretch (7:59, 7:52)

I tried to push the pace as fast as I dared to avoid cramping up and it just seemed forever to run along the lake, back out again past the SS William A. Irvin (a moored ore freighter museum along the docks) and then back parallel to the lake before turning to the finish. We made the final right hand turn to head down to the finish and I have to admit that it was at this point that I got chicked. Some little 20-something year old that was hardly out of diapers turned the corner inside of me and there was no way I was going to catch her. That was fine because I took a quick final glance down at my Garmin and saw it just turn over at 3:24 and knew I was going to cross the finish line in time to make the BQ … even if I had to crawl. I crossed the line in a mix of jubilation and exhaustion.

Post Race

I steadied myself on a nice volunteer’s shoulder for a moment and then exchanged congratulations with “Gray Guy” before making my way over to get the finisher t-shirt and medal. Then I went over to get a warming blanket because it was drizzling slightly by this time and I was starting to get really cold. I drank a couple of cups of orange juice but couldn’t stomach any of the food that was available. I wandered around just a bit waiting for my friends to finish and then decided to go over pick up my gear bag when I ran into one friend who had just finished 3:37ish. We walked over to grab the bags and I put on a jacket and sweats but felt even colder. We came back into the finisher area to catch up with the 3^rd friend who had just cross the line and by this time my teeth were chattering and I was shivering uncontrollably. The guy who just finished took one look at me and took me over to grab his gear bag and gave me a stocking cap and another jacket that finally got me warmed up. It turns out that they had the white flags out to warn of hypothermia and my friend wisely saw me as heading downhill into that zone. We sat in the entertainment tent listening to the band and warming up before heading back out to the shuttle bus back to the hotel. Overall it was an awesome experience and a great time at Grandma’s. Given the expected hype for Boston in 2014, I’m doubtful I’ll actually be able to get registered but that still won’t stop me from being amongst the masses ready to click “Submit” the instant my registration opens.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

Great job Bruce! Congrats on the BQ! Amazing, only 8 weeks after your last marathon, with the kind of schedule you kept in between. And very impressively consistent splits.

Now the big question: where the hell did the name of that race come from??

I laughed at Laughing Guy!  

Congratulations on the BQ, Bruce!  Sounds like you really nailed this race.  Auhugh!!

+1000

Laughing guy would have drove me nuts, I would have been so busy wondering what the heck he was listening to.

Congratulations on your BQ and PR!  Well deserved!

 

Great pictures too.

Congratulations! And I just love that you took Squishy home with you!

Congrats on the BQ and PR. Very solid race!

I don't like that little downhill at mile 25 as it seems steep to me and puts me off my stride as well. Way to keep it together to the finish.

Great job Bruce!!

Congrats on the BQ Bruce!

Excellent report, strong race, I hope you can get in for Boston.  You deserve it.