June 18th was the 40th anniversary of Grandma’s Marathon. MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I decided to make the trip to Duluth, Minnesota, to the race for our annual vacation. I was registered to run and he was my cheerleader. He’s sweet!
We left Tuesday evening before the race and drove up into Tennessee before stopping for the night. I think we pulled into our hotel around 9:30 that evening. We slept fitfully. It was an old hotel. It was clean, though! Really no complaints…I think I was just too excited about finally being on the road. That and I had forgotten my medication at home so I was nervous about getting it filled at a new pharmacy in the morning.
We got the medication refilled without any drama the next morning and were on the road by 8:30 am. Again we drove until late and were up early for the last day of driving to Duluth. It was a lovely drive! Super pretty weather! Lots of fun.
We checked into our hotel (it was Thursday by now) and then we went over to the Expo. I knew Friday the Expo would be a zoo so I had really wanted to get there on Thursday. MFH and I hopped back in the car and headed across the river into Minnesota (our hotel was in Superior, Wisconsin) and Ta-Dah! We were in Duluth and at the Expo. *This is me in a very long line waiting to get my Bib.
Once I had obtained my bib, MFH and I strolled around the Expo. You never know what kind of goodies you might be able to find there! I was a lucky girl in that I got to meet Jeff Galloway!!! What a very nice man!
After meeting Jeff Galloway, we went on a little walk and ended up at an Italian restaurant. It was delicious food. Kind of pricey but very tasty! We hadn’t realized how hungry we were from our travels. We stopped for food and all but burgers on the road? They really don’t do the job like a solid meal. MFH had some fancy, wide noodles. They had fresh peas and bacon in them. I had Fettuccine Alfredo with a Portabella mushroom. Mmmm!!!
Friday was a rest day. The race was Saturday morning. We were bused to the start for this race. You could NOT drive to the start. Everything was blocked off (road wise). We had a bus in front of our hotel at 5:30 am. I hopped on the bus and chatted with other runners. We had a lovely drive to the starting line where the bus stopped and kicked us off.
Now, I had worn my Zensah compression sleeves to the race. These are the calf/shin sleeves and are terrific for shin splints! As soon as I got off the bus, I knew it was too warm to be wearing them. The compression sleeves are the greatest things ever but they are toasty. It made me sad but I took them off and ditched them. I will be ordering some new ones!
As we lined up for the start, they announced the temp was 72*. I have no idea about the humidity. People were saying it was humid but I think Mississippi humidity and Minnesota humidity are two different creatures.
I am used to freezing my fanny before a race but I was almost a little warm standing at the start. This concerned me. 72*? That’s not too terrible. I can do this! That’s what I told myself.
Right before the race started, I ran into somebody I knew! This sweet lady and I have the same coach. We were kind of told in no uncertain terms that we HAD to get a pic of us together. We smiled for the camera and chatted a bit. Such a nice lady!!!
They sang the National Anthem. The gun went off and so did we!
It really was nice running through the first 10K. We were chatting and having a nice time. I was with a pacing group. My pacer had actually paced at the Mississippi Blues Marathon this past January and he was doing an excellent job. Kudos to him!
Soon, we could feel the temps rising. It wasn’t any 72* anymore.
The weather forecast had called for rain and a high of upper 60’s. The weather people were very sadly mistaken. It was full sunshine and warm. Actually a beautiful Minnesota day….except we were trying to run a marathon in those toasty temps.
Grandma’s Marathon is pretty much all along hwy 61. This follows the shore of Lake Superior. A stunningly beautiful marathon course! Just beautiful!
There. Is. No. Shade.
Under normal circumstances, this would be awesome! This was not normal circumstances. We were trying to run a marathon. The weather was not our friend.
There is this “thing” called the flag system. It is used in road racing to communicate to runners the weather conditions. When we started the race, the flags were green.
The first 10K (6.2 miles) took about an hour and in that hour’s time, the flag had changed to red: High.
When we arrived at the Half Marathon point, the half way spot, the black flag was flying. This was not good.
The real temps were in the low 80’s now and the heat index in the low 90’s. This was some seriously toasty weather!
I knew by this time the nice little PR I had been training for was long gone so I changed my race plan to #survivalmode. I started chatting with the people around me more. Enjoying the beauty of the surroundings instead of grinding out the miles. It was fun! It was hard, but fun!
Now, in just about every race I’ve run, I’ve witnessed people losing their breakfast on the side of the road but never to the extent I did at this race. The heat was making people’s tummies revolt. I felt bad for them but…it happens.
I also saw an incredible number of sag wagons! The sag wagons were short school buses (at least the ones I saw). They were packed with runners who had either quit or had been pulled from the course. I have NEVER witnessed this before! It was sobering. I knew I was hot. I knew I was getting dehydrated. I knew all of that but hey! I’m from Mississippi. This is part of being a runner in Mississippi, right?
Miles 18-20 we were in the Duluth city limits now. The neighborhoods were out cheering. Water and sprinklers were available almost every block. One person handed me a Gin & Tonic. I’m not a big Gin fan but it had ICE in it! It was COLD! It was glorious!
Mile 21? Where there was supposed to be an aid station? I witness the people running the water stop folding up their table! Another person was sweeping up the empty cups and throwing them away. I thought, what’s with that!?! The course was open 7 hours! Surely they’re not packing up shop yet? The course was still open another (almost) 2 hours!
All the way until mile 25, all the aid stations were packing up for the day. I couldn’t believe it. That’s a very long way to run without any hydration. No shade. That was very, very wrong.
When we reached mile 25 and I saw a paper cup with some water? I was actually crying! I really was dehydrated by now and discouraged. This last little part of a marathon always kicks my tail under the best of circumstances and this was NOT the best of circumstances. I mentioned to the worker at the water stop about the others closing up. The man looked puzzled. I don’t know if anything was done about it. All I could think about was all the other runners still behind me. I knew they would be needing that water and there wouldn’t be any unless somebody made those places set back up. I was a very sad panda.
Then, right past the spot marking mile 25 and that last wonderful water stop, I heard somebody yell my name and kind of run out to meet me. It was MFH!!! I love that man!!! He took all of the extra stuff I was carrying to lighten my load for the last 1.20 miles. He told me to RUN and he would meet me at the finish.
So, I RAN!
I crossed the finish!!!
I was done!!!
Success!!!
Here is my official race pic.
I have to give a shout to ChafeX. I sweated off 6 lbs on this race, even with starting hydrating at the very first aid station. With all of that, I didn’t have one single bit of chafing. I was doing the Happy Dance about that! Excellent product!!!
My first marathon, in Bar Harbor, Maine? I used to say that was the hardest marathon ever. I’m going to have to say that Grandma’s Marathon has taken that spot. Not because the course is that hard. It’s a beautiful course and I think if the weather gods had been smiling on us, I would have waltzed away with that PR. The heat? Killed me.
I found out later that in the 40 years of this race, I was lucky enough to run it on the second hottest race on record. Lucky me? Hahaha!!!
Even though I grumbled about the aid stations being taken down, those poor people had been standing in that heat for hours! They had to be as hot and miserable as those of us running the race. Without volunteers doing things like directing traffic and running aide stations and all the other little behind the scenes things, terrific races like Grandma’s Marathon simply cannot happen.
Huge kudos to those who worked behind the scenes at this race. They were fabulous! This is a definite, “I’ve got to run this thing again when the weather is more cooperative!” MFH and I might be driving up north again in a year or two. Why knows? Maybe I can get him to run it with me next time?
#IRun4Aiden
#teamZensah
#AbbottWMM
#OiselleVolee
#ChafeX