Exceeds Expectations in All Key Areas

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms!! Some of you are called mommy, some mom, some mother ... but whatever the handle, you are special. And I hope you are having a wonderful day and are being treated well by those who love you and whom you love.

I don't really know where to begin the summary of the Lake Wobegon Marathon. I was hoping for good things to happen yesterday, but had to be prepared for something less than an ideal outcome (everyone hitting their goals). Well, I couldn't be more pleased with the way things played out. All four of us qualified for the Boston Marthon. Andy and Trevor ran back from the finish line toward me ... I didn't know whether I should ask how it went or not. What if one qualified and the other didn't? What if neither of them had? They'd been training so hard for this, and I so hoped for success for them. They both yelled, "We both made it!" I threw up my arms in the air and started screaming. No matter what at that point, the day was a complete success. They were now Boston bound!! I couldn't have been more thrilled. I'll back up to the beginning.

We left Rochester about 5:00 on Friday, bound for the pasta feed at St. Ben's, hoping to get there before the 8:00 close. We made it, but barely.

On the way up, the guys opened their goodie bags.

And there were cookies, of course.

The biggest uncertainty about Saturday morning seemed to be what to wear. The forecast called for mid-30's in the morning, and the possibility for precipitation early and then some clearing. (We drove up in rain.) Should we wear shorts? (The consensus was definitely yes.) What for the top? And how many layers? Mittens/gloves/hats? I decided on shorts, my calf compression sleeves, a short-sleeved top and my River Runner jacket, gloves AND mittens (my hands are always cold), my hip belt for gels and a camera, and a hat. And I think that was just about right. I'd contemplated arm warmers instead of the jacket, but with the first half having a stiff cross wind, I was glad for the jacket. I ended up removing the mittens, cap and jacket once we turned toward the east and I got closer to the finish line. There was a little snow in the long grass, but none on the trail and the trail (paved) was dry. PERFECT. We arrived in St. Joe to pick up our numbers and board the buses to Holdingford where the race would begin.

I met up with Roger, Trevor and Andy out there at the school. They were pumped and ready to roll.

 

I crashed on the gym floor for a short time, along with Jay and Gene.

The view from the floor:

Soon it was time to head out to the start line. But first, a Rochester photo:

Camilla again sang the national anthem. She does a beautiful job.

Then, we were off. Travis, Monty and George came by me at about 2 miles.

The course is just beautiful. There's a beautiful covered bridge at Holdingford ...

and I think the countryside was wonderful.

I didn't know what to expect, or hope for, as for a finishing time. As in every marathon, the first goal is always to finsh. A finisher's medal is a wonderful reward for months of training. And for this one, I'd run Boston 19 days earlier and raced a 15K a week earlier so didn't know how I'd respond to the demands of another marathon so quickly. I decided to run comfortably for as long as I could, hoping that leg cramps wouldn't come too early. My fuel plan: take my first gel at an hour, and then every 4 miles after that. It turns out that was about 8 miles, 12, 16, 20, 24. I took 3 Hammer gels, 1 GU, 1 pkg sport beans and then at the aid stations, some animal crackers (it was kind of hard to get those down), 2 orange slices, 2 small licorice chunks and a cookie. My hydration plan: take 2 cups of water when I was taking a gel and 2 cups of Gatorade when I wasn't taking a gel. Fluid stops were generally every 2 to 3 miles. The first couple of stops I ended up taking one cup as it was pretty chilly and I just didn't feel thirsty and was feeling kind of bloated. (And I ended up stopping after mile 6 to use the facilities.) I just kept pressing on, mile after mile, pretty consistently. Running comfortably. Feeling really good. Waiting for the dreaded cramps to start. They held off until about 23 miles. Hip, hip hooray. And they were never debilitating. I had to stop many times to release them, but never had to walk other than chosing to at the fluid stops to eat my gel and get two cups down and hang on to my mittens and hat after I removed them. The lowdown:

7:53 8:03 7:58 7:57 8:04 7:56 8:24 (bathroom stop) 8:13 7:43 7:43 8:02 7:37 7:50 8:00 7:58 8:29 7:48 7:50 8:13 8:13 7:51 7:50 8:30 (yup ... cramps) 8:28 8:41. I ran virtually the whole thing by myself. I lost a mile at about 18.5 as that's when I removed my jacket and in the process must have hit stop on my Garmin. But I know I was maintaining the 7:50 to 8:00 pace at that point. I was thrilled when I got to the point where I knew it was going to be a PR. When I finished with a 3:33:43, I was pleased as punch. And even more so when I found out I'd won my age group and as a reward, got a race print and had it signed by the artist.

I chatted with my River Runner friends for a while. Many of them also had extremely good races, including wins (Wanda!),

 BQs and PRs. Kudos to all of you!!

And kudos to race director Sharon for putting on a wonderful event. It's first class, and a bargain ($55). Her attention to detail is evident. We got custom medals, technical shirts, plenty of post-race food (pizza, fruit, pop, cookies) and wonderful volunteers.

Soon it was time to hit the road back to Rochester. We posed for one last photo.

A good day was had by all. A VERY good day. As the Zac Brown Band says in Toes, "Life is good today. Life is good today."

I'm going to wrap this up, to be continued tomorrow. Again, a very happy mother's day, and best wishes for the week to come.

Toodles.