Bret

My first Grandma’s Marathon - I was not trained for the race as originally I registered to run with my daughter, but she became injured and had to back out fairly early-on.  I was also supposed to run with Richie who was registered - but he has a lot going on outside of running and I expected that he may not be able to participate.  However about 3 weeks ago he said he was committed and that since neither of us were trained enough to run well - that we would just go and run it as a long training run in preparation for a fall marathon.   Unfortunately he came down with a case of shingles last Friday.  So... I thought I would cancel as well since it is not too much fun traveling alone to out of town races and moreover - I was undertrained.   Nevertheless (with a little coaxing from Rob who said I should do it) I decided about Wednesday this week that since I had to travel to Chicago for a business conference on Sunday - I might as well just run.

So my plan was to run this as a long training run - keeping my HR in the 140’s and just enjoy this unique event. We were fortunate with the weather that had been threatening with thunderstorms in the forecast (in fact there was discussion about delaying the start or canceling if the storms were severe.) But we got none of that.  Foggy and cloudy with some misting rain in the latter miles and temps in the mid-50’s.  Most of my splits were between 8:15 and 8:25 with a couple faster and a couple slower.  Really enjoyed the day with the racers quietly making their ways between the pines on this rolling country road along the shores of Lake Superior.   I was pretty fatigued by the last few miles and my HR climbed considerably but I kept the same pace relatively from start to finish.  Got a nasty blister on my left little toe and was quite cold making my way back to my car - but overall - I was pleased with the effort and glad I decided to do it.