Notes
Was number 74.
Got up at 3:30 on Friday for a 7:25 flight from ATL to MSP. (Race day I got up at 0315)
All went well until going through security. They confiscated my Static Guard for being too large. I usually carry a small travel sized one, but the only place I have been able to find them was Lowes and they were out of them. I use the Static Guard to spray on the inside of my running shirt to eliminate static electricity which would cause the data from my heart rate monitor to go wonky. As it turned out, the day was humid enough that I only got a couple of bad readings within about the first mile or so. After that I was perspiring enough to keep the static electricity at bay.
On the plane I had the privilege to sit next to the screaming kid. Sigh.... Luckily he went to sleep as soon as we were airborne. Also the woman who was holding a cup of Starbucks in one hand while trying to get her bag into the overhead bin with the other hand managed to spill her Starbucks on my leg. Wonder if I can sue Starbucks for their hot coffee.... Anyway, it wasn't much and the lady was very apologetic.
Getting the rental and getting to the hotel was uneventful. It was early enough that they didn't have a room available, but they put a rush order on a room and said they would call me as soon as it was available. So, I sent into their lounge for breakfast. Thought I would try the pasta BLT. Had no clue what it was. I had visions of a BLT with pasta dripping from the sides. Anyway, it turns out to be regular pasta with bits of bacon, lettuce and tomato mixed in. I also had a pot of coffee which I sipped on while waiting for a call that a room was ready.
After having finished the coffee, while still not having received a call, I went into the waiting room to continue waiting. After a few minutes I got the call. I could see the lady making the call from about 15 feet away from me. So, she would speak to me over the phone, and I would answer her across the room instead of speaking into the phone. She looked very confused like she was wondering why the response was coming into the ear that didn't have the phone up to it. So, I waved to her just to let her know that she wasn't going nuts.
Got to the room and unpacked everything. I had time to kill since the bib pickup and pasta dinner gathering wasn't until 4:00 PM. I would usually take a nap at this point, but that pot of coffee I had drunk pretty much killed that idea. I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep Thursday night and would only get another 5 on Friday night. I probably could have used more.
I went to bib pickup at 4:00 PM which is usually held at St. Benedict's college, but they were having graduation on Friday, so the affair had been relocated to the local fire station. I met a guy there who said that 20 people from his running club were going to run the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon that Sue, Michelle, and I will be running 4 weeks from today.
After the pasta dinner I went back to the hotel and had 2 glasses of Merlot and then went to bed. I was in bed by 10:00 and had the alarm set for 0315.
I had an idea of something to try to help avoid the static electricity issue since I had no Static Guard. I put some Vaseline on the outside of my heart rate monitor, the side next to my shirt, thinking that that would make my shirt stick a bit to the Vaseline and help prevent the shirt movement that would cause static electricity. I don't know to what extent that helped. It might be worth my experimenting with that concept a bit during training runs.
Went to the marathon finish in St. Joseph where one parks and joined others to be bused to the start in Holdingford where they have a nice gym to stay in until the race begins. I turned on my Garmin but turned the GPS off which is a dangerous thing for me to do, because I often forget to turn the GPS back on until just before/after the race begins. About 20 minutes before race start time (0700) I went out for a warmup run. It was cold enough out that I hoped the warm up run would be enough to get me warm enough that I wouldn't be too uncomfortable with my short sleeve running shirt. The GarminConnect site shows the starting temp as 36F.
Anyway, I was surprised I wasn't running faster during my warmup, and sure enough, I had forgotten to turn the GPS back on. So, I stopped and got satellite lock and proceeded. Then I turned on my MP3 player/radio. I just listen to a cadence on the player. I had it set for a cadence of 182. (Actually it was for 181 but Garmin doesn't show odd numbers since the foot pod is on one foot and it just multiplies by 2.) Anyway, I turned it on and .... NOTHING. Couldn't understand why I couldn't hear anything. I was getting into panic mode. Anyway, I fiddled with various things and got it to work. I think that maybe I just hadn't pressed the "Enter" key on the cadence I wanted to get it started. Something like that anyway.
I had planned to hit the lap button at each mile marker instead of using autolap so that I would have a more accurate idea of my pace, and that is the screen I had visible on my Garmin. However, about a minute before race time I realized that I hadn't yet turned off autolap. I thought about it, but decided I didn't want to fiddle with my settings so close to race start. I'm sure I would have screwed something up and then been really pissed off. So, I just had my usual 4 items on the screen, Average Pace, Lap Pace, Heart Rate, and Distance. (Sue, notice the Oxford comma? :-) )
The temp was fine in the sun with no wind. I would have guessed the temp was in the low/mid 40s, not the 36 that Garmin indicates. I had a long sleeve throwaway that I dumped at the drop-bags drop off truck (which I later got back after the race to use again.) So, to the start line and off we go at 0700.
I was anticipating a pace of 9:30 to 9:40, targeting a PR of 4:13:40 or at least under 4:15. All was well until after the half way point.
Here is my GarminConnect link and here is my RunningAhead link.
At half way I was probably sure that I had started out a bit too fast. My reduced weekly mileage over the last 2 - 2.5 months was catching up to me. But I was still holding pace to be below my PR. But, during mile 16 catastrophe struck. My radio died. I know it was fully charged. It did this once during a training run. I had to do some kind of master reset and it had been fine since. If you look at the GarminConnect cadence graph you'll see that my cadence totally goes to hell at about mile 16.76.
You'll notice when running that it is much easier to follow someone because it helps keep one's pace steady, instead of changing back and forth from slower to faster. I find that listening to a steady metronome does the same thing. So, at this point I essentially lost my pacer and couldn't keep a steady pace. I was getting tired anyway, and I'm sure this exacerbated the issue.
In the pocket of my handheld I had a couple of small vials of pickle juice. Each one holds about 1/4 cup. Pickle juice is the best thing known so far for cramps. It is the closest thing to a miracle I've ever found. It works in about 10 seconds. Anyway, at mile 23.8 I was starting to feel some cramping issues to I took one of the vials out but was having trouble untwisting the cap. In the process I managed to turn my handheld upside down and I head the sound of something hitting the pavement. It seems I had dropped the other one. I stopped and looked but didn't see it. I didn't wan't to waste any more time, so just left it. You can see the drop in the pace and cadence graph where I stopped. The pickle juice did the trick and I was able to pick up the pace a bit. I started getting cramps again during mile 26 and wished I had had the other one. My legs almost buckled when crossing a street just after the mile 26 marker, just 0.20 from the finish line.
So anyway, I finished, got my medal and race shirt, dashed to my car and got my suitcase, and went to the bathroom and changed. Then followed my usual getting lost trying to get to the MSP airport. They have two terminals and this is the second time that I've gone to the wrong one to turn in the car. There always seems to be construction going on there which makes it difficult to get around.
Security was very busy in the airport. Seems everyone was trying to leave Minneapolis at the same time. I was standing behind this guy who looked like the original Marlborough Man. This guy looked like he had just gotten off a horse. He had the weathered cowboy hat, jeans, cowboy boots, a shirt appropriate to that attire, and even a bandanna. He must have been in his 50s and face was also weathered like he had been riding the range for his whole life. Anyway, we chatted a bit about innocuous things. Then he said, "You know, the Lord loves you and has a master plan for your life." Good grief! Why do I attract the nutters? Anyway, I said, "Sorry, I don't use any of the gods." He asked what I had said and I repeated. Later, he took out a small piece of paper and wrote something on it. I was wondering if he had written down my response so that he could work up a rejoinder for the next time someone said something like that to him.
Finally got to my gate and they have a restaurant there. After the mess that the Minneapolis airport and surrounding areas are, it was a wonder to see this high tech bar/restaurant. Each seat has an IPad in front of it and a place to swipe a credit card. One places an order using the IPad and then the drink is delivered. I had a couple of glasses of wine and then moved over to the waiting area for the gate. Lo and behold, in front of each seat in the waiting ares is also an IPad and a card swiper thingie. This stuff must have cost a fortune.
Anyway, got back to ATL and the rest of everything is without note. Got back home at 9:00 PM.
Best sign I saw on the course: "That seems like a lot of work for a free banana."