Honestly; I had no clue until I found out about this race last year. I was hoping to run the inaugural race, but wasn’t in the area1, but this year when my wife and I decided that we definitely wanted to be out of Washington before September, I shifted my fall marathon search east and […]
Dig in to any subculture enough, and you’ll find the fanatics. They come in different flavors – the statistics fanatics, the novelty fanatics, the linguistic fanatics, whatever. You find them in academic circles, sci-fi and fantasy fan groups that border on cults, actual real life cults, music fans of every genre, professional sports fans, and […]
Grandma’s is one well run race. It’s a beautiful course, a smooth rolling route with no killer hills, full of awesome volunteers, and lined with incredible spectators! Yeah, the expo was pretty blah and I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the shuttle driver (could’ve just been my guy’s attitude), but the race itself was wicked awesome. I pretty much recommend it to anyone – even if you don’t run, come cheer, drink, and hang out.
So they claim. Didn’t realize Duluth was a “small town,” but I guess compared to other cities that can handle a 9500 person marathon and 5000 person half along with a 1500 person 5k, it’s pretty small. But it’s certainly a city. A pretty cool, mostly industrial city three hours from anywhere else right at the tip of Lake Superior.
Tomorrow morning I’m running the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend, Indiana. I’m up way too late for a 6 am start, so this will be short and sweet. They’ve got six different events running tomorrow (in addition to the stroller-friendly family walk 5k tonight); the Marathon, a Half Marathon, a wheelchair Half, a 10k, a 5k, and a 5k walk. All six events start at the College Football Hall of Fame, and finish at the fifty yard line of Notre Dame Stadium.
I woke up feeling strong, prepared, and ready to run a great race. It was pouring all night and was supposed to pour again in the afternoon, but rumor had it that the odds of a dry run were pretty good. So I was feeling pretty confident and decided to shoot for my stretch goal; qualifying for Boston. It would be a 20 minute improvement on my PR, but this is my second to last reasonable attempt to BQ in the open division. So I set out at a 7:15 pace with the plan of dropping back to the 3:20 pace group if things went to hell. And off to hell they went.
© 2024 Ramblings From The Road