Recent runs: Monday, 3.06 miles, 32:19, 10:33 avp (easy, easy run to shake out after Sunday) Tuesday, 5.1 miles, 41:38, 8:10 avp (slightly faster to remind my legs that I own them)
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If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you pretty much know how this all went down. If you don't, settle in because I'm starting with The Day Before the Marathon.
Saturday
The Day Before the Marathon kicked off with coffee and friends at Ann's!
runners make better friends (and really good gluten-free pumpkin bread!)
From Ann's I went to the expo to pick up my packet and peruse the expo. I practiced restraint and only bought one shirt, mostly because it had Minnesota on it.
run for it, twin cities '12
Saturday night is where things get crazy. I went to The Bachelor Farmer for dinner and decided to carb load with their gimlet (which is seriously the best I've found in this city) and popover with honey butter. Top 10 favorite foods. EVER.
this is one of my favorite places in minneapolis
one of two
From dinner I went to an art party on Harriet Island and continued carb loading with wine and beer. Blame it on the mood of the party- or all the carbs I had- but I felt compelled to take a mirror self-portrait. Savor it, friends, because it doesn't happen often.
I told myself I would stop imbibing at nine but it was probably more like ten. I was in bed by 11.
Sunday- RACE DAY!
I woke up at 4am in a panic. I literally have never prepared so little for a marathon and the gravity of covering 26.2 miles (with a hangover) freaked me out.
I got out of bed, drank a ton of water, took ibuprofen, and started to assemble my race day outfit. Because obviously I wasn't going back to sleep.
I did manage to lay back down and rest but by six my alarm officially went off. Despite having been up mere half hour prior laying out an outfit, I found myself staring at my clothes on the floor, debating what I should actually put on.
The temp was 29 degrees and my pace was going to be slow. I bought running tights on a whim from Target the night before, but wearing them would be breaking the Cardinal Rule of marathoning: Don't try anything new on race day. Never one for rules, I put them on under my shorts.
My dad picked me up and we found ourselves in Corral 3 in no time.
hi, we're cold
Roughly 10 minutes after the gun, we crossed the start line.
corral 3 is on the move
The
first miles flew by as we trotted along between a 11:30-12 minute pace.
The course wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and it gave us
plenty of opportunity to talk (and take pictures).
dad approaching the walker hill
full uniform, with a pack. whoa.
water stop at mile 2.5. love those volunteers!
lake of the isles
dad, lake calhoun and the city
I felt good and was happy to just be running with my dad. We'd chat with people as we passed them- or they passed us. Either way, we were at Mile 10 before we knew it.
My decision to wear my new capris, though, was starting to wear on me. Literally. Chafe city. In the Worst Place possible. I pulled off into a porta potty at Lake Nokomis and took them off, which also involved removing my shoes. It was the fastest I've ever changed.
I caught up with my dad just before the half and we continued moving along. We called my brother and sister and put them on speaker to give them an update on how things were going and I snapped this of my dad to prove he was still alive.
We finally saw our family around mile 15.
yay for sisters!
I was definitely enjoying the fall colors along Minnehaha Parkway....
But then we came across this!
The BEST SPECTATORS EVER! Ann and Jay were out there for like 2.5 hours dancing their butts off. I had to stop to document this.
It was shortly after this that our pace started to slow even more and I noticed my dad grimacing. I asked what was up and he told me he had hernia. Furthermore, he's had it since JUNE and didn't want to get surgery because then he wouldn't have been able to run. Hats off, Bill. That takes guts. Literally.
we focused on scenery rather than pain. franklin bridge
wall schmall. we went right through it
finally on summit
Dad was starting to hurt big time and we were definitely doing more walking than running. I tweeted this picture with the caption Dad hates life. 23 because seriously, doesn't he look miserable?
But then we saw this and morale improved!
dad knocking one back. i already drank mine
Soon enough, this:
there's a finish line there somewhere
And then this happened:
my new fave picture. thanks, colleen!
So four years after our first marathon together, we did our last. Dad says he's done with marathons for good.
GIN LOADING. It's the new thing. We should sell this to RW as a training guide. I did a Boom Island Hoodoo myself.
Hannah, congratulations on another marathon on the books and running what (could be) is apparently right now your father's last marathon. I cannot wait for our self-created end-of-season party to finally see your lovely face!
p.s. HE WAS RUNNING WITH A HERNIA?! I almost fell out my chair when I read that at work yesterday.
STALK ME The Twin Cities Marathon is on Sunday and for those of you that are supremely interested in my progress (or lack thereof) you can track me via text messages on your phone. Neat-o, right? You have to register to track me by tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m., so procrastinate on something else and go sign up now! RACE PLAN I was quite vague about my dad and my race plan but we seriously hadn't discussed anything beyond run until we feel like stopping while staying in front of the sweep bus . Since then, though, we've come up with a plan of a 12 minute pace. That's roughly a 5:15 marathon (and 4 minutes slower per mile than my PR ). The course time limit is 6 hours. He has a history of starting too fast and burning out so my goal is to keep him slow through mile 18 and then we can pick it up from there. RACE DAY The weather on race day should be phenomenal, albeit cold at race start. Throw-away sweats are being sourced. If you're spectating, please leave
Saturday was the first time I've pinned on a race number since Ragnar Relay last August. I ran the the Trail Mix race at Hyland and I found three other poor souls to do the 50K relay with me. Relay is misleading because it's not a relay at all, rather a team event where everyone runs the 7.75 mile loop together and then all our times are added up. Because I haven't been running much lately, I wanted to run this just for fun and stayed with my brother the whole time. We both crossed the finish line at 1:13:29, roughly a 9:27 pace. Since we had speedy dudes on our team, we ended up finishing 22nd overall (out of 95 teams) and 5th in our division of uneven mixed. Not too shabby. Team "Three Men and a Lady" It was actually a great day for the race weather-wise but by the time I got home, my sweat had cooled me down significantly and I was freezing! I spent a good twenty minutes just trying to warm up in the shower before jetting off to see my two lit
One of the races that made its way onto my 2013 race calendar is The Bear Run in Linville, NC. The Bear is a five mile run up Grandfather Mountain (here's my 2011 race recap ). The race is near one of my favorite cities in America, and it would be a good excuse to sneak in a little vacation. We'll call this my destination race of 2013. Here's the elevation profile of the 5 mile course: So how does one go about training to run up a mountain? Hills. Lots and lots of hills. Even if you're not training to run The Bear, hills are a totally beneficial part of training. (Stud runners Carrie Tollefson and Matt Gabrielson break down the benefits of hill training in this video .) But what if you live in Minnesota where every hill looks more like a glacier? Two words: treadmill incline. When I was first training to run it, someone much better at math than me figured out a treadmill run that would simulate the elevation profile of the course. I honestly
Wow, Good Job Hannah - that takes perseverance!
ReplyDeleteYour race report makes this seem like the most fun marathon ever! Congrats to you and your dad! Also, self portrait pics are totally cool.
ReplyDeleteGIN LOADING. It's the new thing. We should sell this to RW as a training guide. I did a Boom Island Hoodoo myself.
ReplyDeleteHannah, congratulations on another marathon on the books and running what (could be) is apparently right now your father's last marathon. I cannot wait for our self-created end-of-season party to finally see your lovely face!
p.s. HE WAS RUNNING WITH A HERNIA?! I almost fell out my chair when I read that at work yesterday.