The Guts of the Story

Just a little segue here before I finish up my marathon story ... 219 hits yesterday! Wow! I'm blown away. I better make this interesting. :-)




The day dawned on the warm side. (That would later prove to be a huge understatement.) When I stepped outside at 4:40 AM I quickly discovered that there would be no need for a throwaway shirt at the start line. Without a cloud in the sky, sunscreen was a given. We made our way over to Fitger's Hotel to catch a shuttle bus out to Two Harbors.


When I stepped off the bus, Joan Benoit Samuelson was standing right there. Judy and I each got a photo with her. What a wonderful surprise. She's very tiny. :-)

The bus ride out to the start was uneventful. Spotted out at the start area: Joy Larson, Nacho Escobedo (he had a big hug ready for me! Thanks, Nacho), Ron Giles, Roger Heil, Jon Heil, LaRee Etter (she ran an awesome marathon!). Standing there, we were commenting on how warm the sun felt on the backs of our necks. My skin already felt like it was beginning to fry. Not good. After a moving rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and the jet flyover (that got me choked up) we were soon heading south on highway 61 toward Duluth and the finish line in Canal Park.

The early miles were uneventful, though we noticed that by 3 miles or so everyone seemed to be dripping in sweat. Already. Yikes. Seen on the course at various points ... Kit Hawkins, Laura Lenz, Steve Coerner, Randy Quint (ran with him for a while), Norm Purrington (spectating for his brother Brian), Pete Martin, Kyle Kircher, Kevin and Marissa Torgerson, Ben Madden, Andy Hemenway, Margo Fitzgerald, Dick Daymont, Joe Ryan, Julie Reiland. All was going relatively well until about 8 or 9 miles when the pains kicked in on my right side, but I knew that I could walk to mile 13.3 for a sag wagon if necessary. So I kept running. At some point in the middle miles I started getting twinges of leg cramps and then full blown leg cramps in addition to the right leg/hip pain. Oh, bother. This was going to be a long day. I got one about mile 19.5 in my adductor (inside of upper leg) that was just excruciating. I thought Ok, this is it, this would be a DNF (did not finish) ... but I managed to work it out and keep going. Somehow.

Needless to say, by this time it was REALLY hot. There is precious little shade on this course and there was no cooling breeze. There were sponges and cups of ice cubes at the water stops and they were most welcome. I took both every time they were offered in an effort to cool off. What I most wanted was relief from the sun, but that wasn't to be. There were sprinklers now and again, although the cold water from one of them sent my legs into spasms (seems like all systems were mis-firing at some point) so I avoided them after that. To try to combat the leg cramps I decided to start taking in LOTS of fluids--5 or 6 cups of water and/or Ultima at the later stops. In all I took in 3 GUs, a pack of Sport Beans, a piece of licorice, a Jolly Rancher, a couple potato chips, a piece of orange and 4 electrolyte capsules. Ugh. Lots of junk, but I was trying to keep myself fueled and hydrated because I felt like death warmed over.

According to the newspaper, and my friends, the black flags started flying at some point on the course, but I never saw them. (Black flags mean "extreme danger--continue at your own risk" or something like that. Dangerous running conditions). There's a story in the Duluth News page 3 entitled Officials considered calling off race because of weather. "They (medical director and executive director) discussed the option of stopping the marathon and having runners brought in off the course by bus, and Harrington (medical director) said it very nearly happened." 577 runners were treated in the finish-line medical tent. A hot day for a marathon. Indeed.

Well, the picture just does not get any prettier for me. I/we pretty much walked the whole way in from about mile 18 or so. (I haven't even looked at the splits on my GPS. It's too depressing.) It was just too painful to run. Every step sent pain into my right leg or caused cramps. It was not pretty. By far, the most painful, intense, ugly marathon I've ever run. And where was this finish line? The Northshore Inline, which I'd done several times many years ago, goes behind the DECC and finishes right next to the boat. But there was no finish line in sight yet. Arghh! By mile 26 I was feeling woozy and feeling like I might pass out (this was a first, but in keeping with the day for me). I had to walk keeping my eyes straight ahead. If I looked around I felt worse. I couldn't even run across the finish line. I willed myself forward, crossed the line 4 hours 54 minutes and 35 seconds after leaving Two Harbors and thought to myself "Hallelujah. I'm finished." After big hugs for Judy and Arvid, all I wanted was a porta-potty and shade. Mostly shade. I would've given someone a 100-spot for an umbrella. I was s-o-o-o-o-o-o hot. (The car thermometer said 92 degrees when we got there.) I certainly didn't want anything more to drink, but the turkey sandwiches looked good so I grabbed one of those. Then we went into the beer tent. A beer didn't sound good at that point, but the shade and a chair sure did. :-) We joined the other River Runners who had long since cooled down and cleaned up. (Arvid, Bob and George)

Well, eventually I came around and started feeling human again. I was very emotional for the rest of the day. I did it. I finished. With about zero confidence in my ability to finish at the start of the day, the fact that I got myself down to Canal Park under my own power was a pretty big deal. Every now and then I'd get all teary just thinking about it. My second slowest time, the worst pain, but my proudest marathon accomplishment. And I will never forget it. Sunburn and all.

After getting cleaned up it was off to Sir Benedict's Tavern for lunch ...where unbeknownst to me I happened to sit down next to the winner of the marathon, Chris Raabe (pronounced "robbie"). Pretty cool. He's very thin. :-) I had a half turkey sandwich on seven grain bread. Then it was off to the Portland Malt Shoppe for malts.

Yum. They're delicious. At 7 pm we joined Laura Lenz and Todd Rowekamp and Mike and Kit Hawkins for more food. I had a small salad and a baked sweet potato. I was really craving a plate full of waffle fries, but I resisted. I do believe that I might not have had a calorie deficeit for the day!! Oh well, you don't "run" a marathon every day. :-)

Then the 3 of us "girls" (Denise, Judy and I) went down to Canal Park ...

where things were really hopping.

Definitely the place to be on Saturday night.

At 11:30 PM we finally called it a day and collapsed. I slept well ... until 5 AM when the sun came up. I was on the living room couch and there was no window covering on the east-facing window so at 5 bells, I was up and at 'em. I decided to walk down to the lake.

It was a beautiful, peaceful morning.

A man was walking his dog and asked me if I'd run yesterday. He didn't need to know how disappointing, painful and ugly yesterday had been. So I was so happy to be able to simply answer "Yes. I ran yesterday". I'm so happy to be able to say that I will forever be a finisher of the 2009 Grandma's Marathon. And I will be back. Grandma and I have some unfinished business ...
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.