Ragnar Great River 2017
August 22, 2017
Boston Marathon 2018 – Draft
April 19, 2018
October 1st, 2017
4:09:35
If you would have asked me in August if I was going to run this race, I would tell you I was done with marathons for the year because of my knee. A successful Ragnar was the spark I needed, though, and reevaluating my goals for the run was necessary. There was no way I was going to break 3:30… shoot, breaking 4 wasn’t even on my radar. It’s been a while since going into a marathon with no REAL goal. It was kind of refreshing at the marathon expo, looking at the pace bands and thinking ‘who cares?’.
I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain and immediately questioned if I actually wanted to run a marathon that day. Of course, my answer ended up being yes… so I rolled out of bed and ate some egss and toast and headed to the U of M to meet up with some awesome women from North Metro Women Run the Cities. It was quite slick to be able to use a real bathroom before the race. We headed out around 7:10 to hop on the light rail and arrived at the start line to more rain. I found a few running club friends and wished them well as I went to find shelter from the rain.
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I was so happy to have him to start with.
He was a great running buddy, and was nice to run a good pace the first
half with him. We took off a little fast
(that always happens..) and I loved seeing so many people at the start
line. It was a little muggy, but
thankfully it was cooler than the previous weekend. I saw Joel around mile 5 and dropped my
gloves and arm warmers off with him. We
saw Guy and Holly and her family cheering as we headed towards Harriet. Bruce
and Tanya were volunteering as we headed towards Nokomis so I waved at
them. We took a potty break around mile
10ish and saw Greg on his bike. My
running club is so awesome with the way they give back!!
cruising again. Around the halfway mark,
Gene saw his family and then I told him to leave me in the dust, I was ready to
slow down and enjoy the day. I was not
trained to break 4. I slowed down a bit
and soaked in the crowd. Brooks was
doing this awesome deal that if you ran mile 21 to 22 faster than your average
overall pace, you would get a free pair of Brooks Running Shoes, so I decided
to cut back quite a bit to ensure that
those shoes would be mine!
headed down to the finish line; I called them a little after the halfway mark
when I didn’t see them. I saw Joel at
Mile 17.5ish and stopped to say hello and chat, catch my breath and eat some
snacks. I didn’t mind standing around,
because my average pace was getting slower so it would be that much easier to
get those shoes at mile 21!
how excited I was about getting those shoes.
I headed on toward the Medtronic waterstop over the Franklin
bridge. I walked through the stop – boy
were those volunteers the best. I felt
so encouraged at that stop!
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called – it was Maria!! I gave her a big hug and said hello and made sure to
kill a couple more seconds since I would be sprinting up a hill soon
after. I went on, and mile 21 finally
came up. I hit the timing mat and took
off. I passed so many people, weaving in and out, determined to get those
shoes. The unfortunate thing was the
water stop was right before mile 22… so I had to weigh the decision on whether
to stop or to get through the next timing mat.
The idea of winning shoes won, and I walked after I got passed that
timing mat trying to catch my breath.
Not too long after that, Harren caught up to me. His friend ended up dropping with an injury
so he was enjoying the last half of the race.
I missed seeing my friends at mile 22.5 that were going to provide me a
delicious, carb loaded beverage… bummer.
Mile 24, another Ragnar teammate was there with cheers! I got a picture with him and a t-rex and then
started heading towards the finish line.
I missed seeing Leslie at around mile 25 – she also was going to provide
a yummy beverage; but the idea of getting my medal and getting out of the
drizzle that had started sounded very enticing.
As I approached the finish line, I heard my family screaming for
me. Boy is that the best feeing ever! I got my medal and hobbled over to the
corporate tent and changed into my dry clothes.
That tent is the best. I ate some
fruit and drank some coffee, then went to find the family so we could go get
the celebratory piece of cheesecake.
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I continue to be inspired the by the running community. Twin Cities is easily one of my favorite
marathons mainly due to the community support that it gets. The 10 miler finishers that stick around to
watch, the spectators that put up with crappy traffic so they can see sweaty
people running passed them, the volunteers that help keep us safe – it is all so
incredible. I’m glad my knee cooperated and helped me cover 26.2 miles for the
20th time at Twin Cities.