Grandma's Marathon results...

Well, that was fun!
It's Monday, June 20th, and I've had a couple of days to reflect on this weekends marathon...and I have to admit, I'm still kind of on a high!
First, lets talk about the taper.  My Wed.-Fri. before the race went off without a hitch.  75 minutes on the bike on Wed, OFF on Thursday and a quick 4 mile run with strides on Friday...along with a lot of core/lifting and stretching over those 3 days.  Felt great and the feet/legs felt awesome...ready to rumble.


I wasn't able to drive up on Friday, instead I had to leave early Saturday morning, getting to Duluth around 6 a.m.  It actually worked out pretty well, and Mike was nice enough to pick up my race packet seeings how I missed the expo. 


Toeing the line with me on Saturday was Bill, John, Mike and Paul...all ready to rumble.  BANG, and we're off.  Needing to run 3:14:59, we needed to average 7:26 per mile.  Mile 1, 7:31, mile 2, 7:28...7:26, 7:25...and so on.  At 10 miles we were 2 seconds fast...right on plan.  At this point I'm questioning as to why I didn't race it...I felt amazing and the miles were clicking off fast and easy.  But, the plan is the plan.  (...and I have to admit, a lot of my motivation lately is coming from a clown posting on YouTube...it's amazing where one finds motivation...I'm currently being driven by hatred!)
Miles 11-18 are kind of a blur...all the miles were right on, and still pretty easy.  No pains, no aches, no laboring whatsoever....  By the time we hit mile 20, we were down to 3 of us, myself, Paul and Mike, and about 20 seconds slow of plan....time to make up some ground boyz!  Mile 21 we gained 6 seconds, mile 22, another 7 seconds...we ran plan on Lemon Drop and gained another few seconds on mile 24...still feeling great like I could go at any time, we upped the ante a bit and ran 7:06 on mile 25 and cruised in to finish in 3:14:02.  Paul was a few seconds behind us and John and Bill followed us soon after...a great run for all!  Everyone stuck to the plan and finished strong!  Another PR for John (by 5 minutes in 5 weeks), Paul got his 'sub 20' clocking for Boston, Mike ran a 40+ minute PR, and Bill and I beat the 'sub 10' clocking for Boston and also gained All-American status...on a training/pace run!  Post-race, I felt great, though I was really craving a Diet Pepsi :)
Here is my official time:  1:36:59 for the first half/1:37:03 for the second half.  
RESULTS


Sunday, I felt great...core, lifting, my PT workout and a solid stretch.  I feel GREAT!


D