This weekend Bryan, Chris and I travelled to Grand Rapids MI. Bryan and I were running the half and Chris was running the marathon. This was a race we had participated in last fall and it was a horrible day. The race itself is great. It’s on the smaller side with just a few thousand people, it winds you through both the city as well as a nature area and the spectators are fantastic. Last year was terrible because of awful weather conditions. It had rained the entire day before and the morning of the race we all lined up at the starting line in a downpour! There were some areas of the course with standing water last year! We felt a redo was in order so we signed up for this year’s race. The forecast was for a cool, crisp morning with little wind, sounded perfect! We set out Saturday morning to make the 2 1/2 hour drive from home and all of a sudden the sky turned black and this happened…
pouring rain, gusting winds and so much hail it looked like snow!! We were a little afraid this year’s race would be a repeat of last year! I’m happy to report, while we did have occasional rain and gusty winds, it all cleared out by evening. Whew! After picking up our race packets at the race expo, we hit up a local restaurant called Butcher’s Union for some dinner. Now usually I like a nice bowl of pasta the night before a long run or a race but this training season I changed things up a bit and I’ve been keeping a bit of meat in my diet the night before, specifically beef, and I’ve been feeling good. With that in mind, I ordered the beef stroganoff which they served on a bed of brown butter spaetzel (tiny dumplings). It was AMAZING though sadly I didn’t get a picture since I was too busy scarfing it down! I did get a picture of my beet and arugula salad which was equally delicious
After dinner we found a Target to browse around and headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime. As I mentioned earlier, the rain and wind moved out in time for the race but what they left behind was some pretty chilly temperatures in the 30’s. Still, much better than last year.
The three of us lined up at the starting line and we were off! After a conversation with my coach about a week ago I had decided to try and push myself for a PB. I’ve been having some really good runs the past month or so and I mentioned this to my coach, she convinced me that I should try to get to out of my comfort zone. Worst case scenario is I go out hard, have to pull back but still finish the race. Bryan was also really encouraging me and offered to run with me rather than try for his own PB. It took a good mile or so to really get moving what with trying to get around the starting line crowds but then we picked up the pace. By the time we hit the midway point, we were hovering in the low 8’s per mile which I couldn’t quite believe I was maintaining! We stopped for water/fuel around mile 6 and again around mile 10 (something our coach trains us to do) these are only a couple seconds each stop. I was feeling great until mile 11 when I really started to feel fatigued. I just kept telling myself that I was almost done and kept checking the pace on my watch. Some people are better off not knowing their pace but it helped me to focus on something else other than the tiredness that was setting in. Once we hit mile 12 I kept repeating “I can do anything for 8 minutes” in my head. With the finish line just ahead of us I gave one final push and when I stopped my watch at the end I was so excited to see 1:52:56!! I had beaten my previous PB by over 3 minutes! I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but for me it was like climbing a mountain! We quickly went and changed and then went back to the finish line to wait for Chris.
Look how happy she looks after 26.2 miles!! It turned out to be a great day for everyone! I’m so thankful for all the support I’ve received and especially for Bryan for sticking by my side and getting me across that finish line.
Judy says
Woot! Woot! What a great day!! Look at you go!