When I finally registered for the Lake Wobegon Marathon, it was mid-March. We were deep into a North Dakota winter, but an early May marathon seemed hopeful. Surely it would be warm(er) come early May. But as winter dragged on and dragged on, not just with cold temperatures but also with big city-closing blizzards, it became clear that we’d be lucky to have dry ground for the marathon let alone reasonable temps. There was a bit of a warm-up leading up to the race, but race morning dawned with 40 degree temps, a brisk wind, and rain forecasted.
Leading up to the race, I’d had the normal pre-marathon/taper aches and pains. Thursday morning, I woke up with a sore throat and a headache that was so bad, I checked the race website to see if it was too late to defer my registration to another year (it was). I resigned myself to starting the race regardless of the weather, potential injuries, and pending dire illness and even asked my coach if she was okay if I dropped at mile 18 if it wasn’t looking like I would meet my goals (A goal: sub 3:30; B goal: qualify for Boston). Yet, while I was definitely getting sick, the fatigue was mostly gone from my legs by my shakeout runs on Thursday and Friday mornings. My Friday run, a short 30-minute effort, felt “scary good.” I travelled to St. Joseph (the race finish and packet pick-up) feeling pretty good about my chance despite the extenuating circumstances. It was what it was, and there was nothing I could do at that point to make any changes. I didn’t want to go into the race over-confident, but aside from a pesky sore throat, I felt very well prepared.
As I mentioned above, race morning was cold. My running partner drove me to the start of the race about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start, and I did my warm-ups inside with the rest of the Fargo crew that had come over to do the race. We headed outside to the start a few minutes before go time; the race started on the track at a local high school but almost immediately hit the Lake Wobegon Trail, which we stayed on for the remainder of the race. Race morning, I felt very ready to go, and when the gun went off, I settled in with the 3:30 pace group along with my running partner.
It takes me a while to warm up when I’m running, and while I’d done some dynamic stretching, I hadn’t done any jogging. The first miles flew by but, as usual, felt harder than they would (and did) once I warmed up. My running partner and I had agreed on a race strategy early on in our training cycle; stay with the 3:30 pacers until mile 20 and then run as fast as we wanted once we hit that point. Throughout the first 20 miles, mile 20 was my target point – if I could get there, I could fly.
The initial group running with the 3:30 was 10 or so strong, but after I had to make a pit stop around mile 6 or 7, we lost contact with them. We ran pretty fast to catch them, and caught up after a few miles, but by then, many of the runners in the original had run ahead. There were three or four still with them, though, and we rejoined the group. At this point, and in catching the group, I was feeling really strong, and my running partner kept mentioning the pace to keep me to pushing it too fast before we hit mile 20.
After running with the 3:30 group for a few miles, we slowly pushed ahead. I was fueling well, hydrating well, and my legs felt really good. That continued even when the trail turned after the halfway point, and we started running right into a headwind. A few miles after that point, I felt my running partner start to fade – before I knew it, he was 100 yards behind me. As he’d just refueled, I thought maybe he was just running a bit slower to digest everything, but when I looked back a few minutes later, he was even further back. We were approaching mile 18, and I knew I needed to make another pit stop, so I yelled back that I’d be making a stop, so he’d catch me then.
I kept running but the anticipated pit stop didn’t arrive – I was fine, but I’d completely run out of water, so at the next water stop (that didn’t have a toilet), I walked through to make sure I was able to take a full drink. Even without water and needing a pit stop, I was feeling really good. I picked things back up and hit the mile 20 point with a ton of energy.
Once mile 20 came, I let myself go – I knew I’d need to walk through the water stops to stay hydrated, but with 40 or so minutes left in the race, I felt confident that I could finish strong. I never hit the wall, and I ran strong until the finish. The last two miles started to hurt and I slowed a little bit, but with the end so close, I pushed hard and finished. My official time was 3:27:35, 3rd woman.
It was a great day and a great race.
ultrarungal 