Grandma's Marathon

Well... its over. For the past several months, I've been "training" for Grandma's marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. Before "training" began, the furthest I'd ever run, to my recollection, was 3 mile "fun run" at SJU over two years ago... nowhere close to 26.2 . I put training in quotations because I skipped somewhere around half of my scheduled runs, including several of the oh-so-important long runs. I did however complete the longest of the scheduled runs (well...almost) which was 20 miles (I did 19ish): from my house all the way around lake bemidji and back.

My overall results were:

Total Time: 4:57:10 (only slightly ahead of my 75 year old uncle...WOW)
10k split: 56:53
Half split: 2:10:0

As you can see, for the first half of the race, I was more than on track for my overly ambitious (considering my "training") target of 4:30, but hit several walls during the second half. I did, however make my secondary and more realistic goal of 5 hours. With about four miles to go, the 5 hour pace setter carrying balloons passed me, so the last 45 minutes was an excruciating pace, considering my condition, trying to catch and overtake the balloons. Luckily, I made it... barely.

The next 45minutes to an hour were spent in a semi-conscious state eating ice cream, drinking water and laying on the grass next to complete strangers while my body went through various stages of shock. I have literally never felt physically worse in my entire life. About 6 hours later I had fully recovered with the exception of inability to walk without limping. I'm still hobbling around today, but am finally able to appreciate everything in retrospect. Much respect is due to all of you who have ever run a marathon, particularly those who have done multiple. I don't plan on doing another any time soon.... a second race would, perhaps, make for a good mid-life crisis.