I picked up my sister and her boyfriend at the airport Friday afternoon and we headed up to the Expo for bib pickup. I also signed up for the Birkie and got a free shirt for doing so. I decided to give the skate race another go this year, since the elites are getting their bib numbers based on finishing place again, and because I was so close to breaking in to the top 30 and really want to take another stab at it. We headed to my brothers Girlfriend Jackie's parents for pasta supper and sleeping. They were very generous to cook and provide sleeping places for a bunch of folks they had never met before, and they have a bunch of fun pets running around that kept all of us amused.
Race morning was chilly and rain was threatening. Nate and I wandered around a bit just taking in the sights. Neither of us really had a great idea how the day would turn out. I lined up near the front and chatted a bit with my friend Kim Robinson and with a couple River Falls Alums who I have finished close to in other races. They were hoping to run in the 1:13 range, so I didn't figure I would be racing with them today. I did get pulled out a bit fast in the excitement, then forced myself to settle in and let people past me. I kept things under control for the first 5 miles or so, until the River Falls boys Shad and Philly passed me. I tucked on with them for a while but was not confident enough in my fitness to stick with them.
Soon after that I passed one of the top women and she latched on behind me. I made it my mission to help pull her up to the next gal visible about 50 meters ahead of us. This is my kind of racing, doing work for someone else helps me forget how much pain I'm putting myself in. This was at about mile 8, still a long 5 miles to go and the pace was creeping into uncomfortable range, and continuing to increase. I made it my goal to pull the gal with me as far up as possible and just kept slowly ramping things up to see how well she would hold on. She stuck right with me and at about mile 11 made a big move by me and got a bit of a gap. The prospect of 10 extra pushups at the finish didn't sit well with me though, so I redoubled my efforts and tagged back on.
I let her do the work for a bit until I started to hear many people cheering for Adam Swank. He is a super fast Duluth skier who in my mind is most famous for breaking his pelvis before the Vasaloppet one year so he couldn't skate it, so instead he switched to the classic race, double poled the entire race, and won it. I haven't even been close to beating him in a ski race I don't think, but the chance to beat him in any kind of race was good motivation to crank the pace even faster for the last mile. I dropped him and the girl I had been running with and managed to finish in 1:15:29. A minute slower than my PR, but with only one speed workout since April I felt pretty happy with how things turned out.
I stuck around to cheer Nate in, then we headed back to the car to go cheer for Jeff, who was running the full marathon. We met Meghan McGree at the bus loading spot and she tagged along to cheer with us too. Jeff was hurting when we saw him at mile 18, but still running strong and on pace for a sub 2:40, super impressive! He set a huge PR, running 2:40:05. After getting to his finish Meghan and I headed back out to cheer for my sister. She was moving well and running all the times I saw her. She was running with her friend Emily, both of their first marathons. They ran way smarter than I did for my first one and were clicking off pretty steady miles until Emily started to have bad stomach troubles. My sister finally left her around mile 21 and finished on her own. Emily sat for about a 1/2 hour then got back up and also finished! I'm really impressed with them sticking out what turned out to be a long and wet race. They are both already talking about another one, so I'm excited to see how running treats them in the future.
I stayed with Casey, Emily, and the rest of their crew that night up by Two Harbors. We stayed in the same group of Condo's that I stayed in with my friend Dave and his family the first time I ran Grandma's so that brought back a bunch of very fun memories. I took a dip in the frigid Lake Superior, and the next morning we headed up to Gooseberry Falls before making the trek back to the cities to get Casey and Shane on their flight back to Colorado.
Race morning was chilly and rain was threatening. Nate and I wandered around a bit just taking in the sights. Neither of us really had a great idea how the day would turn out. I lined up near the front and chatted a bit with my friend Kim Robinson and with a couple River Falls Alums who I have finished close to in other races. They were hoping to run in the 1:13 range, so I didn't figure I would be racing with them today. I did get pulled out a bit fast in the excitement, then forced myself to settle in and let people past me. I kept things under control for the first 5 miles or so, until the River Falls boys Shad and Philly passed me. I tucked on with them for a while but was not confident enough in my fitness to stick with them.
Soon after that I passed one of the top women and she latched on behind me. I made it my mission to help pull her up to the next gal visible about 50 meters ahead of us. This is my kind of racing, doing work for someone else helps me forget how much pain I'm putting myself in. This was at about mile 8, still a long 5 miles to go and the pace was creeping into uncomfortable range, and continuing to increase. I made it my goal to pull the gal with me as far up as possible and just kept slowly ramping things up to see how well she would hold on. She stuck right with me and at about mile 11 made a big move by me and got a bit of a gap. The prospect of 10 extra pushups at the finish didn't sit well with me though, so I redoubled my efforts and tagged back on.
I let her do the work for a bit until I started to hear many people cheering for Adam Swank. He is a super fast Duluth skier who in my mind is most famous for breaking his pelvis before the Vasaloppet one year so he couldn't skate it, so instead he switched to the classic race, double poled the entire race, and won it. I haven't even been close to beating him in a ski race I don't think, but the chance to beat him in any kind of race was good motivation to crank the pace even faster for the last mile. I dropped him and the girl I had been running with and managed to finish in 1:15:29. A minute slower than my PR, but with only one speed workout since April I felt pretty happy with how things turned out.
I stuck around to cheer Nate in, then we headed back to the car to go cheer for Jeff, who was running the full marathon. We met Meghan McGree at the bus loading spot and she tagged along to cheer with us too. Jeff was hurting when we saw him at mile 18, but still running strong and on pace for a sub 2:40, super impressive! He set a huge PR, running 2:40:05. After getting to his finish Meghan and I headed back out to cheer for my sister. She was moving well and running all the times I saw her. She was running with her friend Emily, both of their first marathons. They ran way smarter than I did for my first one and were clicking off pretty steady miles until Emily started to have bad stomach troubles. My sister finally left her around mile 21 and finished on her own. Emily sat for about a 1/2 hour then got back up and also finished! I'm really impressed with them sticking out what turned out to be a long and wet race. They are both already talking about another one, so I'm excited to see how running treats them in the future.
I stayed with Casey, Emily, and the rest of their crew that night up by Two Harbors. We stayed in the same group of Condo's that I stayed in with my friend Dave and his family the first time I ran Grandma's so that brought back a bunch of very fun memories. I took a dip in the frigid Lake Superior, and the next morning we headed up to Gooseberry Falls before making the trek back to the cities to get Casey and Shane on their flight back to Colorado.
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