I watched that documentary on this crazy-ass race a while ago, but I’m still surprised when it pops up in my social feeds each year (at random times). This year was awesome because of 40-year-old Brit Jasmin Paris, the first woman to finish the 100 mile race (with 99 seconds to spare before the 60 hour cutoff). BBC has a nice story here.

Bravo!

Congrats to all the runners who ran the five boroughs today. And note to race directors and website operators: all anybody wants to find on your website the day of the race is results from the current year – don’t bury the link to the live results…

UPDATE: official results here

For my first mini post, I’ve decided to look at my current relationship with running. The 2017 Grandma’s was my last marathon and it was a disaster. I never did get my right knee looked at and I haven’t attempted a double-digit run since then. With the bike challenge last month, I boosted my riding mileage, but still felt some knee pain from time to time. Guess I will break down and make a doctor’s appointment after I post this.

Bigger picture, though, something else seems off. It used to be tough when I started training from scratch, but things would get better after a few weeks. This year, it seems like no matter how many miles I ride, golf rounds I walk or miles I do on the treadmill, I never seem to move on to the “feeling fit” stage. My legs always feel sore, I’m still retaining water in them (based on the indentations my socks make), I have a general sense of fatigue most of the time and I’m not losing any more weight (I lost ten pounds during the bike challenge, but three of those pounds have come back this month).

My Apple watch does provide good insight into how much I move daily and I did have a 60+ day streak of closing all three rings at one point. My current move goal just dropped down to 1080 calories, after peaking at 1180 (which I only hit three times last week). Haven’t changed my diet or nutritional balance much at all, which I guess I’ll have to consider at some point. Also not taking any vitamins right now – only pills are one daily aspirin and losartan for regulating blood pressure.

There are still a number of longer bucket list races I’d like to do, but the physical side is slowly starting to impact my mental approach to running. I liked running Get in Gear this year, but I was really slow. The 2019 Get in Gear is the only race I’ve signed up for right now and don’t want to waste money on longer races I can’t finish in a respectable amount of time.

Alright, where is that link to my doctor?

With my lack of miles this spring, I wasn’t expecting much from Grandma’s this year. What happened last Saturday, though, was really something else. Talked into this race by my colleague Shannon, I was hoping to keep up with her for at least the first half. She followed a real training plan, though, and I had only one long run in the last month (and only 162 miles for the year).

The forecast looked warm (again), with clouds and a strong chance of rain. We rode the train to the start, which amazingly had no line to board this year. One last bathroom line wait and we were off. We stayed in front of the 4:15 pacer for a few miles, then I told her to take off (which she did, finishing in a strong 4:17). I crossed the 10K mark in 1:02:29 and was hoping to hold on to a ten minute pace. Unfortunately, a mile later I experienced a pain behind my right knee that I had never felt before. I tried the walk/run thing several times, but ended up basically walking the next 19 miles to the finish.

I believe last year was the first year they expanded the official race limit from six to seven hours, so I kept doing the math in my head to make sure I could walk and still get an official finish. When I finally got downtown, I asked a police officer when the streets re-opened and found out I had 30 minutes left to walk the last mile. No problem, right? I hobbled on and crossed the finish line after 6 hours and 36 minutes (nearly three hours slower than my PR – full stats here).

During that time, the green flags turned to yellow, the sun came out (frying my neck and face), it rained twice and the temp surged past 72F. Walking that long created large blisters on both feet, which caused me to walk crooked (and hurt my ankles). Most of the food was gone at the finish line, but I still got the coveted finisher shirt and medal. The music tent had a nice merchandise stand, so I was able to keep the race poster tradition alive too. The long walk from Canal Park up the hillside to the car was a struggle, as was the shower at my sister’s apartment. Hopped in the car and drove back to the metro right away to get to the Pantages for the Seu Jorge Bowie tribute show (which was amazing – story to come).

Not really sure what my running future holds now. I did sign up for the Donut Run in August (and am still registered for the Get in Gear next year). I’ll leave my name in the London lottery (since I didn’t have to pay anything and there’s like a 2% chance I’ll get picked). To be honest, it’s rather nice to not have any pressure to train right now – plenty of other stressors these days…

When the good people at Grandma’s Marathon announced plans for the 40th anniversary of the race, I perked up when they said runners who registered early would get a special jacket. When they published a picture of the medal, I signed up right away.

Guess I’m still a sucker for nice bling.

Lots of other people were apparently excited by this year too, with 9,100 runners selling out the race for the first time in quite a while. This was my eighth Grandma’s (and 26th marathon), but I hadn’t been up there to run since 2011. Love the race and how the city embraces the weekend, so I’m not sure why I waited so long to return again.

With my work schedule completely out of control right now, I was not nearly as prepared for this race as I would’ve liked to be. I did get in long runs of 17.5, 21.5 and 15 miles in the weeks leading up to the race, but there wasn’t much in the way of short weekday runs (or any cross-training or speed work). Add in my Garmin dying the week of the race and a forecast for hot and humid weather and my time expectations for this race went out the window.

My A, B, C and D goals were all very low-key: get an official finish under seven hours to get the damn medal, beat my worst Grandma’s time (5:26:54), keep it in the fours and, finally, try to beat my Des Moines time (4:37:23). Three out of four was pretty good on a day when the weather warning flags went from green to yellow to red to black as the day went on.

We stayed at my sister’s apartment again and I got dropped off downtown to catch the train to the start. I thought getting there at 4:50 was plenty of time, but the line to board was already down the street. Capacity must be way higher than it seems, though, as everyone in line before me only filled the front half of the train. Talked with three other runners on the way to Two Harbors, including a friendly woman from Colorado and a sixty-year-old gentleman who is a fan of the Galloway run-walk method.

We arrived at the starting line just before seven and I actually waited in line for a port-o-potty (which I think is a first for me). Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think they did the flyover before the start (which was always a highlight for me). Looked around a bit to see if I could find anybody I knew, but decided to head to the chute when it got crowded. No real announcement to start this year either – everyone just started moving slowly to the line and we were off.

Running without a Garmin was strangely liberating. I just wanted to take it slow and let my muscles take over instead of my brain. The only anxiety I had was due to the 4:15 pacer, who I traded places with twice. This race doesn’t have many clocks on course, so I knew I hit the halfway mark around 2:10. After that I had no idea until mile 25, but I knew I was going slower the second half because of walk breaks through each water stop to rehydrate, take on ice and sponges and pour water over my head (all tricks I learned the last time it was too hot).

As I’ve said before, this race takes on a whole new feel when you enter Duluth city limits after mile 18. The crowd support is amazing and they helped me run non-stop from the last water stop at mile 25 to the finish line, where I finished in 4:47:36 (10:59 Minute Miles). Full results can be found here, including my official splits (10K – 59:02, 13.1M – 2:10:22, 20M – 3:30:47 and 25M – 4:34:45).

Next up: Afton Trail Run 50K on July 2