Saturday, June 18, 2016
Time: 4:56:03
Overall Place: 4634/7522
The
lead up to this weekend went back about two weeks ago to the beginning of June
when I was supposed to run the 28th race of 30 in Minneapolis at the
Minneapolis Marathon. It turns out that
the race was cancelled to some permit issues which was probably a blessing in
disguise since I now had three weeks to prepare for this double weekend instead
of two, so that was great. I was feeling
just a little tired leading up to the weekend but with that extra week I knew I
had a better chance to run the last two feeling a little stronger. I’m just not sure what my scheduler was
thinking when he scheduled this many races at the end!
The
week leading up to the double header weekend proved to be quite busy with
trying to schedule radio interviews to try and really push Siloam Mission and
the Manitoba Marathon with as much support as possible. It’s amazing how many people listen to the
radio and how many people heard me.
On
Thursday my sister Elenore flew in from Edmonton to run in the Manitoba
Marathon on Sunday, but also to come to support me at the marathon in Duluth on
Saturday. The plan was to drive out to
Duluth, pick up our race kit on Friday evening and run the next morning and
head back right after the race to hit Winnipeg again Saturday evening. Yes, it is a bit of a rush but what’s an
adventure without a little stress thrown in?
On Friday we packed up and headed to the University of Manitoba to pick
up our race packets. What was to take
only a few minutes took over a half hour, too many people to talk to and try
and explain why I’m running two marathons on the weekend!
Our
trip to Duluth was pretty uneventful as we drove through the northern Minnesota
lake country and one small town after another.
It was at the beginning of the drive in Manitoba where I received a
phone call from a radio station to do another interview. I pulled over and did the interview on the
side of the road as this would have been a hazard trying to do it driving. It was very relaxing and we quite enjoyed the
trip. You don’t get to really experience
the rural America when traveling on the interstate so it was a really nice
change. We arrived in Duluth around 7:00
just in time to walk to the convention center where the Expo was being
held.
This Expo had a spaghetti dinner
and we were going to do that first when we realized that the Expo was closing
at 8:00 which gave us about 10 minutes to whip through all the booths and then
pick up my race kit. It was a very nice
Expo and I managed to pick up some clothing, because I have very little from
the previous 27 races! Not! After
rushing through the Expo we went to have our Spaghetti dinner which was really
good. This was a top notch Expo and all
the festivities that surround the Expo.
Hard to describe in detail this event but it is big and they know how to
do it right. When we went out to Canal
Park which is the area where the finish line was, there were numerous tents set
up which were having pre-race parties and bands playing. It’s not hard to see why people like coming
to this event. Amazing how a city with a
metropolitan area of about 120,000 people can draw such a large event. There were approximately 9,700 people
registered for the full marathon and about 10,000 people for the half marathon,
which by the way is done by lottery. The
fact of the matter is that the entire community throws itself behind this
event. This was the 40th year
of this event so the organizers threw just a little bit more into it than
normal. This event has to rank as one on the top ten
in the US, and I hadn’t even run it yet.
We
had a nice walk back to the motel which was about ¾ of a mile from the race
finish and Expo which is right next to Lake Superior in an area called Canal
Park. As I mentioned before, this area
was just a hub of activity. Earlier in
the evening they had run a 5K fun event for about 2,000 people. Actually it would have been 1,999 because somehow
I had registered for this race as well but we were too late to get there for me
to run it. No, I wouldn’t have done it
anyway. I’m still trying to figure out
how I got registered for that one. It actually looked like it would have been
fun.
Back
at the motel not much time to do anything except lay out flat ed and get ready
for bed. It was nice, they had two
double beds, one for Heidi and I and one for my sister. It was a warm night and in order for me to
get to the race shuttle pickup area I had to get up at 3:45 for the 20 minute
walk. The morning was interesting. The girls were there to support me for this
race and I found out that it was on condition that they didn’t have to get up
with me. After all they wanted to go for
a little run in the morning so they didn’t want to be too tired. I was quiet as a church mouse getting dressed
and having a bagel and doing all of my morning stretches. They didn’t move a muscle and I snuck out not
disturbing them. Thanks for the help
girls!
Grandma’s
Marathon is a point to point race starting in a small town called Two Harbors
and running south for almost 26 miles along the southwest corner of Lake
Superior. Running one direction is
really not a problem except that you only get sun on one side of your
body. You see a lot of people walking
around only baked on one side of their bodies.
In order to get to the start you have to either take the shuttle or take
the scenic train. The scenic train takes
about 1 ½ hours whereas the shuttle bus takes about 45 minutes. I opted for the train because it had
bathrooms on board and it was a very slow relaxing ride. I also got to meet a bunch of runners which
is always nice. We arrived about 45
minutes before the start of the race so there was time to do a little
stretching and find the coral. The
temperature was about 17 degrees Celsius with the humidity at about 95%. Not the most ideal running conditions because
we knew that it was only going to get warmer.
I was feeling pretty good. My
concern was that the last couple of weeks I was having trouble with my
breathing. I always felt out of breath
so this forced me to have quite a few slower runs. I had hoped that this would have passed for
this race. While I was waiting for the
start I heard someone call my name. How
does someone find you amongst 9500 people?
It was a running friend from Winnipeg Al Neumann who was down with his
wife Jaki to run the marathon as well.
It’s always nice to see a friendly face.
The
race started, although I don’t know how it was announced since we were so far
from the start line. It took about five
minutes to cross the start line and Al and I were off. The pace was nice and slow and I was able to
get my breathing under control and keep it at a comfortable rate. The hills were very gentle and we went up and
down them without breaking pace. Two
factors which made the run a little more difficult were that there was really
no breeze to speak of, and this race is in almost constant sunshine so it got
really warm. Even with this I was able
to run very comfortable keeping stride with the 4:30 pacer. I stayed with Al till about the 14 mile mark
when we lost contact and I didn’t see him again. It was amazing to see some other runners from
Manitoba which I didn’t know but Al did know them so we chatted along the
way. As the day became warmer it became
more difficult to hold that 4:30 pace and I eventually fell back and had to do
more walking. There was just no shade
relief. At one point along the course at
mile 22 I sat down with a family that were spectating and took in an accordion player
that was providing entertainment for the runners. We had a little chat and I was on my way
again. It was shortly after this that I
encountered the one and only real climbs of the course. I joined many others that were walking and
made it over. Not far now from the
finish line I was really taking in a lot of fluids to keep hydrated sometimes
three to four cups of water. I also
noticed that the race had raised the Extreme banner to announce the weather
race conditions. Race organizers have a
warning system in place on the course which alerts runners to the weather
conditions so that they can take precautions to not overdue it and end up
passing out from heat exhaustion. This
deep into the race runners will sometimes not listen to their body and ignore
the signs when they are in danger, because, we’d rather be stupid and not slow
down when it is not a good thing to do.
As for myself I had nothing to prove and I knew that I had to run the
next day again so I took it easy that last few miles and didn’t take any
chances. Coming into Canal Park where
the finish is, is very exciting because there are thousands of spectators
cheering on the runners.
I was coming
down the finishing straight and I saw Heidi and Elenore close to the finish
line and gave my traditional pose, everyone around cheered. A short jaunt to the finish line and I was
done. That was a very warm run but I
felt surprisingly good. Now to find the
girls, that was another story. The race
finish site is spread out over a very large area and it was not easy to find
them. There wasn’t much for food, or not
that I could find, so when we finally found each other we just headed back to
the car. We couldn’t get a late checkout
so it was the two girls and stinky Ed driving back to Winnipeg. I did manage to get some stretching in but no
ice bath or rolling out of the muscles.
I
really enjoyed this marathon and will definitely come back some day for another
run at it when we have more time. It’s
unfortunate that it is on the same weekend as Manitoba so you have to choose
one or the other. I used to think that
some marathons like Manitoba didn’t do well because of the potential heat, but
I have come to realize that this is just not the case. What draws people is a great event? I’m not sure how an event evolves to that
status, but Duluth is one of those events.
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