Grandma's Marathon

In the crisp dawn air, looking down a corridor of pine trees, I can see Boston in the distance. Granted, it's a 1500 mile drive from where I stand now, and a good 9 hour flight from my next home, but today, all that lies between me and that race is a 26.2 mile time trial along the lakeshore. 

But let's not forget the title of this blog. After humidity, gastritis, 53 hours awake traveling home, 1000mi of driving in 3 days and housework, I had a tough transition to say the least. But the hits kept coming as we found our flight leg from Chicago was delayed (17 hours in the end). This would lead to a missed connection to Duluth. We tried to get there another way, another airline, no go. What if we flew to Minneapolis, Madison, or Milwaukee? No, full. What if we flew from Lansing, Flint, or Detroit? Sorry, no seats on connecting flights till Sunday or Monday. We had no choice; we drove. I put in a good 5+ hours to Beloit, WI before we took a rest in a Super 8. After 6 hours rest and a quick bite, we drove on trading the time behind the wheel in order to save the legs, arriving after about another 6-hour haul. Expo, dinner and rest was all we could manage before a 4am wake up. 

Not the quick flight we planned on

Jumping into the last open seat on the bus, I sat and joined 59 other hopefuls singing "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield which was blasting over the radio. I would hear those lyrics in my head throughout the day. 

Staring at the blank page before you, Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find 

All feelings of guilt about my cheat shoes left me when I look around me in the corral and see nothing but Nike Vaporfly shoes on every competitor. The weather, which has been in the high 70s the last week and is aiming for 80s and 90s on Sunday and Monday now has cooled to the mid-50s. The sun is out and the wind, with strong gusts, is from the Northeast, so we have a tailwind the entire way. There could not be better circumstances for the race. 

I break tradition, Sometimes my tries are outside the lines We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, But I can't live that way 

Early miles peel away. Though I have targeted a 7:01 (3:04 marathon), I can't seem to avoid running between 6:51-6:57. It's all time in the bank, and I have to ease way back in order to not drop even more time. By 10k I have nearly a minute in hand, and by halfway, I cross in 1:30:20, which is just too fast. I can't go slower it seems, but at the same time I have no delusions about going sub-3. My only goal from this point forward was to not hemorrhage back time.  

Full stride near the finish

I see Sarah and my friends with whom we worked in South Africa, Jay and Sara, at mile 19. All systems are go, and I feel as if I have not yet began to race. But a letdown sets in, and Lemon Drop Hill looms in the distance. In 2017, I don't remember this hill but as I see it coming over the next mile, I know I am going to remember it this time. Slowing significantly up the overpass, I managed to grab back most of the time lost on the up, though it is my first "slow" mile at about 7:03. My stomach sours significantly and I now have 4 miles left to hang on. At 24, there was not much left in me. As Gary Bjorkland said, "Grandma's Marathon starts in the middle of the woods, runs along the beautiful shores of Lake Superior, and finishes at a pub." I say, it was "19 miles of bliss, 5 miles of work, and 2 miles of absolute pain."

Trying to hold on to sub-7 pace around 23 miles

Reaching for something in the distance, So close you can almost taste it

Thank god the bricks have been removed from Superior Street, but even though I wanted to push at this point, I had nothing. The bridge over the highway was a zap, and as I came off the back side, a stiff headwind blasted me in the face. I had been yo-yo'ing between 6:55s and 7:03 per mile for the last few.  I turned off the water along the freighter and a guy that I had been near all race said, "Go with me. Come on!" I told him I was broke, and he said just go, but when I stuck the pace, he was not with me. Oh well. I rounded another corner, saw Sarah at 26, and just held on. I could go no faster, and I crossed the finish line in 3:01:39 with absolutely nothing left. I put it all out on the course and came home with nothing to spare. Collapsing into the arms of a support crew, I was put in a wheelchair, my vision blurred and dizzy. It took a few minutes but I got up and walked out of there, 8 min and 21 seconds to the good of Boston. In all my training I did not think I would get here, especially not after the injury and the heat and stress of leaving China and driving all the way to the race. I probably have not run a better race, or at least not in a long time. 

Pretty jacked at the finish but looked at watch for first time

Drench yourself in words unspoken

I have not run faster in over 20 marathons, spanning back more than 8 years to my last Boston. 

My time put me 11 min faster than 2017 but yet I finished 129 people back this time. This race has obviously become much more competitive. The number of women around me for multiple miles outnumbered the men at that time, something I have never seen in any race. But I didn't come here for anything other than a time to get me into the Boston Marathon, and it is pretty safe to say I have done that. While there are no guarantees, I must be in. In no time in the 10 years since the BAA has held a graduated qualifier has the accepted time been over 8 minutes. I expect to be admitted, but I will have to wait until September to be sure. But for now, I am a BQ'er and that makes 3 straight decades of my life that I have qualified for Boston. 

Today is where your book begins, The rest is still unwritten

For my Fourways boys - see you April 2023!

Pre-Race Jitters

When 2022 began, I set a goal to requalify for the Boston Marathon and join my friends from South Africa back in Beantown for the 10th anniversary of the bombings. My first real training in several years was sailing along and I was building mileage and nailing a pace that had me scoping the 3-hour marathon again. Then one day, for no rhyme or reason, I finished a run and went to the ground. Searing pain in my lower back had me doing MRIs and physical therapy. It ultimately proved to be a strained muscle, perhaps a stressed ligament in the hip area, which pulled on the back/pelvic joints. 

The injury cost me 15 days off and another 2 weeks to get back to reasonable running shape. In that time, the weather turned disgusting, and regular runs were leaving me stumbling to the finish, with legs twitching all day, a constant headache, nausea, and even occasional diarrhea. I'd had enough. There was no way I was going to be able to do the kind of training needed to run a Boston Qualifier in these conditions. Running was supposed to be my outlet, my break from the stress, and instead, I was going on runs and suffering, only to be more and more fed up with the Chinese on the path, cutting me off, covering their mouths and noses as I ran by, and blasting annoying music. I called off the marathon attempt - well, I would still run in June but easier, no pressure for the time. I cut back my mileage to 40mpw, took away the 20 milers, and readjusted the goal pace to around 7:19/mile (about a 3:12). I started to feel better and running became manageable again. 

When it became clear that my fall marathons would be too late to use for Boston, I had a choice to make - miss Boston or pony up and do the work and hope it was enough to give it a go. So I got back to it, adding mileage and resuming the long run. My weeks got back to 50 or so miles with a few workouts. I went from 0 runs over 16 miles to doing three 20 milers in three weeks. Karma for my injury came full circle when weekdays of gross heat and humidity turned to slightly cooler, rainy Sundays, making those long runs possible again. I wasn't running necessarily all that much faster than pre-injury but I was running longer, more consistent workouts in significant humidity, and I was feeling great, recovering well, and my hope is that all these months put together will pay dividends when the gun goes off June 18th. 

Then the humidity became bad. I got gastritis in the final weeks and no run felt good. I even took an extra day off at the end. Stress was at it's highest in the final days, trying to leave a country with no certainty of being able to get out. It was not an ideal finish. 

Some key workouts are listed below:

• 10x1K - most of them under 4 minutes.
• Continuous cutdown run. 1 mile easy. 3 miles @MP (7:10, 7:00, 7:02) 3 min jog, 2 mi @ HMP (6:47, 6:39) 2 min jog and 1 mile @ 10K (6:15). 
• After a 10 miler, I planned on 2 mi warm up and 4 mi MP. Instead ran 7:13, 7:12, 7:02, 6:53, 6:34, 5:58 in a cold rain, absolutely unloading. 
• 2 mi warm up. 3x2mi @HMP (6:40, 6:37) 3 min jog. (6:31, 6:31) 3 min jog. (6:38, 6:36) 1.5 mi down.
• 10mi "warm up" with Sarah in 1:18:47 and then changed into the new Vaporfly. 8mi solo sub MP (6:52, 6:49, 6:53, 6:52, 6:49, 6:46, 6:48, 6:44).
• 4 mi warm up. 2x4mi @MP (7:10, 7:08, 7:04, 7:04) and (7:09, 7:05, 7:08, 7:04) with 3min walk. 4 mi cool down.
• 2mi warm up. 4x1200m (4:46, 4:44, 4:48, 4:48) w/ 2min walk on each. Then 4x400m (88, 88, 85, 87). 2mi down.
• Yasso 8s (800m) in 2:59-3:01 w/ 2 min recovery. 

China was oppressive, both in weather and behavior. There was a lot of racism and anti-Westerner sentiment that made things challenging. Two years of no travel outside of China (and restricted, stressful jaunts here). It's one thing to be challenged by the weather and another to be challenged all of the time in every aspect - from professional to athletic, to personal. My only two marathons in China were 6 days after not running for 3 weeks in hotel quarantine and the other after a summer of no running due to heat and after 8 days off in Tibet. Hell, even before that I only jogged a marathon in my final year of India. So it's been a hell of a long time since I challenged myself to rise up. Just getting to the US was a breath of fresh air. I can only hope that just 6 days of not working, eating well, cooler weather, and stability/security will leave me primed for the hardest race I will have run in many years. Will it be enough? Time will tell.

Literally. Not only has the Boston Qualifying time for my age group dropped from 3:15 to 3:10 in recent years, but Boston has also become so popular that on any given year, it takes a time 2-7 minutes faster than the cut-off to be accepted. Not only does this mean I have to run faster, but I won't know how fast it takes to enter until September. Sitting on my run for more than three months until I find out my fate is not the easiest way to do this (assuming I go sub-3:10 in the first place). But I have no choice. Come decision day, my time will be accepted or it won't.