Months and months ago, our friend and former MMC coach (Ryan) organized a group of alumni and friends to run Grandma’s Marathon and Half-Marathon in June. Joel signed up right away and began his training program in February.
My non-MMC friend, Lin, decided to run her first full marathon in honor of her 30th birthday – she let me tag along for many of her weekend training runs until I was too pregnant to huff it up 12 miles of Jones County hills.
We left a couple of Thursdays ago, after Emma’s last tball game. The kids went home with my parents for the weekend (they didn’t miss us this time!) and our foursome headed north for the Twin Cities. We spend a short night with Lin’s sister, went for a morning run to stretch our legs, joined Lin’s sister for lunch at a pasta bar, and continued onward toward Duluth.
I always love cresting the hill when you come into Duluth, and looking out over Lake Superior. If you look at just the right moment, it seems as if you could drive off the edge of the road into the great blue beyond.
We stopped at the convention in the harbor to pick up race packets and stroll the booths for freebies. I was bummed that the cowbells were gone by the time we went through.
Our accommodations were in campus apartments at UM-D; our entire MMU group shared a wing of one building, split into two bedroom apartments. Joel never mentioned it, but I’m sure he was overjoyed to have a twin bed to himself instead of waiting for me to settle in like the night before the Chicago marathon.
Another meal of pasta and catching up with Ryan rounded out our evening. Soon the runners were pinning on race numbers, packing energy gels and drop bags and laying out breakfast for the early morning.
Joel and Lin were bussed to the start with the other MMU runners, while Rick (Lin’s husband) and I were left with the car to drive up Hwy. 61 looking for spectator access. We hit up a grocery store for doughnuts on the way, and I was thrilled to find Joel’s favorite doughnut from our former Family Foods in Monti – a glazed croissant. I saved it for him for after his race!
Rick and I were worried about making it to the finish with parking and traffic hazards if we stopped at too many viewing points, so we decided to park at mile 5 and then head towards the finish after our runners passed.
A string group kept us company while we waited for our runners; cheering for the wave of wheelchair competitors and the elite runners kept us busy until our pace groups approached.
After receiving an email about red flag warnings for heat and humidity for race day, I purchased a new running singlet for Joel to keep him cooler than a short-sleeved shirt. I picked a bright blue thinking that it was a somewhat unusual color and would make him easy to pick out of the crowd. Nope. 57% of the males running wore the exact same singlet. *Sigh* Joel earned an ambulance trip to the ER after a college cross country race for IV fluids after an extremely hot run; runners who have this happen once are extremely likely to have it happen again. Even though Joel runs smart and within his limits, it is always nerve-wracking waiting for him to arrive home from weekend long runs, and waiting for him to run through our spectator spots during the marathon was even worse.
Eventually we found Joel, packed in with a group of MMC/MMU guys-seeing him in a pack of friends made me feel better…until one of them tossed us a shirt. Too hot for a shirt at mile 5 of 26.2 is not a good sign!
Lin spotted us first on her way through, and she was all smiles! I felt bad, because she had worried about the course being crowded. I told her that usually after two miles the runners have thinned out a bit; she was still shoulder-to-shoulder at mile five!
Rick and I hopped in the car and headed for the finish. We arrived in plenty of time to stake out a spot near the finish, eat some pizza and catch the last half-marathon finishers before the elite marathoners arrived. I had never watched a marathon as a spectator before, and was incredulous with the lack of organization among the course spotters at the finish. There were still several half-marathoners finishing at the same time the elite marathoners were finishing, and nobody seemed to know which way to direct the runners. The elite runners were often forced to weave in and out of walking half-marathoners because there was no direction. As non-elite runners in the 2:30-3:00 hour group finished, it took a lot of restraint to not run out onto the course to help; so many runners were weaving and disoriented in their last .2 miles, and desperately needed guidance to the finish. I understand not touching the elite runners so as not to disqualify their race performance, but these were lay runners in danger of passing out and hitting their heads on curbs. So not cool…
We watched the newish MMU track coach finish in under 3:00 hours – a great time, and two MMU female alum finish in under 3:30 – an amazing time! Joel’s crew begin arriving around 3:40, and Joel did not look good – shirt off, extremely sweaty, and really blue lips. I left Rick to watch for his wife, and hustled to the finish area to find Joel. He collected his medal, finisher’s shirt and foil blanket after the finish and crossed over to me at the barricades. Spectators are not allowed in the finish area, so we walked together for a bit with the barricade between us until he recovered enough to hand me his soaked singlet and head toward the refreshments. I met him on the other side of the finish area as planned, near the letters TUV. Most people choose letters of their last name or something significant to meet their party, but we chose TUV because we thought less people would use those letters. Poor choice! TUV was the first stop out of the finisher’s gate, collecting all the weak bodies as their legs could no longer walk.
Joel arrived at the gate with lips even bluer than before – a drizzle was setting in a temperatures had really dropped. He tried to warm up in his foil blanket, but just shivered uncontrollably. I had towels and blankets in the car, but didn’t think to bring them because it had been sunny and warm when Rick and I arrived downtown 2+ hours earlier. I didn’t want to leave Joel to fetch them, and he didn’t seem to keen on me leaving either, so our group bundled together near a pine tree to wait for all of our finishers.
Everyone arrived safely and coherently – an amazing statistic I’m sure in a group of 20 or so runners! We split up into cars and busses and headed for the dorms. While Lin and Joel showered and nursed their wounds, Rick and I returned to our grocery store for food. We weren’t quite sure what to get our runners, and ended up loaded with a wide range of comfort foods; soups, potatoes and gravy, egg rolls, broccoli supreme, and beer. It actually took us three stops to find beer; apparently gas stations and grocery stores don’t sell beer in Duluth!
After food and naps for all, we headed back downtown for the after party. We supped at Grandma’s, the namesake restaurant of the marathon, and later crossed the street for karaoke and people watching in one of the party tents.
We beat the rain out of town on Sunday – the day the Duluth began to suffer from massive storms and flooding.
Joel took a week off then ran our hometown 5k. He was thrilled with his performance and the way his body felt, which he took as a sign to begin a new training plan for his fourth marathon; Des Moines in October.
He ran an eleven-miler Saturday already, and luckily I was able to bike the trail to hold his sweaty shirt, and provide water and a couple bites of fresh peach. While I’m not looking forward to weekends of worrying again, at least I will be able to track and support Joel along the way this time, instead of running behind him somewhere assuming he’s okay!
