This past Saturday, I ran the half marathon that is in conjunction with Grandma's Marathon in Duluth. It is named after one of the early winners of the marathon who was a Northern MN runner, Garry Bjorklund. This race is generally very hard to get an entry to...it used to be a lottery system where one would sign up in October and find out in early November if you are selected. This year they did an online que at 5:00pm on October 1 and that is what they will be doing again for 2019. Blake and I both got entries although for next year, I won't have to get one for Blake as his performance this year earned him Elite status for next year, but more on that later. Both the half and full marathon are point to point courses that begin along Lake Superior and finish just before Duluth's famous Aerial Lift Bridge. We boarded the bus at UMD (Blake's alma mater and David's new school) at 4:45am. Hundreds of buses gather runners from about a dozen locations and deliver them to the start of the half. Be very careful if you are ever running the half to be on time for the bus because the 5:45 bus will take you all the way to Two Harbors where the full starts. Someone actually did that and ended up "accidentally" running the full. This happened at Fargo, too, which makes me wonder a little on the "accident" part. Blake and I had a nice visit about navigating the starting area and goals on the way up. When we got off the bus, we quickly joined a porta potty line to take care of business, so to speak. Once we had relieved ourselves, Blake decided to do some warm up running. I held his extra clothing and walked up further to join yet another porta potty line...just in case. When Blake returned from his warm-up, he was grateful I'd joined the line and the nice guys behind me let him join the line with me rather than behind them. Thanks, guys! Once we had finished there, we put all our warm-up clothing in our checked bags and found our way to the bag drop. The men's and women's bag drop separated at that point, so we wished each other well with a promise to meet up at a footbridge near the finishing area after the race. With 7,500 runners, the starting area is huge and tight. I tried to make my way up toward the 2:00 pacer for the start but only managed to get as far as between the 2:45 and 2:30 runners. Oh well, this is a chip-timed event and I'd need to just try to move up when I could. When the gun sounded, I was at the 13 mile marker for the marathon meaning I was still a full .1 miles to the starting line. People were very patiently walking along until we got near the starting mats where we took off running. I tried not to weave too much knowing that adds effort and distance to the race...which you do not get credit for! I got to Mile 1 in 9:20...way too slow, but nothing to do about it now...keep running! After that, I clocked a couple of 8:50-9:00 miles making it to Mile 5 in almost exactly 45:00 and still behind the 2:15 pacer. At Mile 5 was the best part of the race, David met me there to be my pace buddy and cheerleader. He is awesome! I told him I had been averaging 9:00 and would like to stay right there for a while and we pretty much did. I'll admit that I would have had a really hard time from Mile 9-10.5 without his positive attitude, but at Mile 11, we kicked it into the finish with an 8:36 followed by an 8:13! I'm anxiously awaiting the official photos from Mile 12 where David was saying out loud, "Look at my mom; she runs half marathons and she's real fast." Around 12.5 miles, we finally caught the 2:00 pacer and thanked him for his work. At Mile 13, David was telling me he was proud of me--great kid! This is David (far right) and me (left) headed toward the finish: I finished in 1:56 within a few seconds of Earth Day. I was plenty satisfied. Meanwhile, miles up ahead, Blake was blazing along at around 5:30 per mile for a finish of 1:11, over 1 hour ahead of what the race stats list as "average." Looking at this photo, these guys are clearly running fast and maintained that pace the whole time. Blake is on the far right. As always, this race had cute shirts and hefty medals. Someone was apparently mad at me for leaving for the weekend, or thinks he is the subject of all photos :-) The finishing area of the race keeps runners separate from the crowds until they can gather their shirt, medal, clothing and foods. After entering the entertainment area, runners can use their beverage ticket for a beer or a Coke--guess which one I chose! Blake and his girlfriend found David and I in the beverage area and we all proceeded over the the convention center to catch a bus back to St.Scholastica College which is near my in-law's home.
This is a top-notch event that is well run and lots of fun. I'd definitely participate in one of the races again next year. Congratulations to all the finishers and best of luck to those of you doing other races. The Sunnybrook Stomp is coming up this weekend. I hope we can get a guest blogger to review it! Happy running--Missee
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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