Nurse on the Run

 

So now the moment you’ve all been waiting for while sitting on the edge of your seats and hoping to avoid doing work…or at least that’s what I’m hoping for.    On Sunday, October 2, I ran my ninth marathon in the form of the Twin Cities Marathon over in the comforts of the midwest.  If you missed my pre-race escapades, you can learn all about my excessive spending at the expo by checking out this post.

But let’s fast forward to the good stuff for now!  I set my alarm for 5:45am on Sunday morning after spending a night on the futon with Jeri, where we both managed to stick to our sides and keep an appropriate amount of covers.  I have a tendency to crank up the alarm on my cell phone because I’m afraid that if I put my ear plugs in to sleep during the day for work, I won’t hear it…I must have done the same since I believe the first thing Jeri said upon waking on Sunday was, “Well, that’s kinda loud.”  It gets the job done.

I set to work with the morning routine of brushing my teeth, putting in my contacts…all that boring stuff that you don’t really care about.    Since I had laid out everything the night before, I got dressed with all the goodies and we were headed out the door by 6:15am, with Jeri snapping this final picture of me putting my shoes on:

I felt almost as foggy as this picture looks!

Repping the nuun, Michigan State (for my brother…), and the RUN sweatshirt.

Soon enough, we were on the hunt for coffee and made it to a second Caribou Coffee within half a mile to fill up for the morning.  We navigated Minneapolis in the early morning hours on the way to the Metrodome, home to the Minnesota Vikings and my haven to stay warm before the marathon.  Jeri got the directions like a champ and sometime around 6:50 I got a final “kill it!” from Jeri before I was on my own.

Hey there, Metrodome.

I headed inside and claimed an empty spot on the wall, surrounded by other runners who were stretching, listening to music, and chatting it up with their fellow runners.  I put in my headphones and set to work on my breakfast…a banana, peanut butter toast, coffee, and some strawberry lemonade nuun.  I made my first bathroom stop around 7:20am and was happy to know that the coffee had kicked in…I was also grateful for the use of real bathrooms and not port-o-potties!

Post-bathroom stop #1, I pinned my bag of nutrition to the inside of my shorts, realizing that I’d never done a long run that required nutrition with these shorts, so I wasn’t sure how my pin job was going to hold up…a few jumps in the hallway showed that it would probably be okay.  Listening to my power songs of the morning (Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory” and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers’ “Gravity”), I continued to sip on my nuun and realized at about 7:35 that I should get dressed properly and hit the bathroom one more time.  I slipped out of my sweats and put on my “arm warmers” in the form of tube socks with the toes cut off, compliments of Erika.  I planned my last bathroom stop as close to the start of the race as possible, as I apparently failed to consult my 100% regular menstrual cycle when planning this marathon and let’s just say that without giving away too much information, I needed to swing by the bathroom as close to race time as possible.  Mission accomplished, and that’s about all I’ll say about that.

I started to get nervous heading to the starting line, as it was taking forever to get out of the Metrodome…everyone was leaving through two revolving doors!  Some people finally got impatient and headed out the normal “emergency exit” doors that were everywhere.  One person in front of me sneaked out so I headed right behind her before making a beeline for bag drop.  I started to get nervous as I heard the Star Spangled Banner being played for the wheelchair start, so I jogged a bit to try to get into the corrals. 

I headed up to position myself between the 3:10 and 3:15 pacers, and a fast looking girl was right behind me.  We were both clearly trying to move forward a bit, so she asked me, “What’s your goal time?”  to which I responded, “3:15.”  She looked at me for a second and replied, “Oh, we’re about the same pace….wait, no.”  Then bolted ahead of me.  Okay then.

I found a nice spot between the two pace groups and waited for the start of marathon #9.  I retied my shoes (nervous habit…) and the minutes started to count down.  Breathe in, breathe out, here we go.

Miles 1-4:  Away We Go

I was pretty close to the front of the pack, so I crossed the starting line about sixteen seconds after the gun went off and started my Garmin.  For marathons, I keep my Garmin screen on the “average pace” screen where I can see my average pace for the mile I’m currently running, how much time has elapsed during this mile, and how far into this lap I am.  I like this setting because it keeps me in check from mile to mile and gives me focus instead of freaking out about ten miles from now or the fact that I’ve been running for ten miles.  Autolap is also turned off, so I hit the lap button with each mile marker to get accurate mile splits even if my tangents/signals are off.

Back to the marathon!  The weather on race morning was perfect.  It had been a little bit chilly and windy on Saturday, but Sunday morning brought low 50’s and minimal wind.  We took off and I could immediately hit my pace since everyone around me was running more or less the same pace.  My goal was to stay between the two pacers (3:10 and 3:15) and run even splits at 7:25.  The 3:10 pacer must have gone out super fast because they were out of sight within the first few miles, but they only should have been 20-30 seconds ahead of me!  (Did anyone out there run with them?)  At this point some people were going past me while others seemed to have lined up inappropriately, and I kept telling myself to keep it easy and disregard what other people are doing…this is my race and nothing is ever accomplished in the marathon in the first few miles.

I have a habit of getting caught up in the crowds and not being able to sense what kind of pace my running, so for better or worse, I had a close eye on my Garmin to keep my pace in check.  I came through the first few miles more or less right on pace, and I told myself to relax and keep it steady.  As I checked my splits on the first few miles, I said (out loud!) to myself, “Perfect.”  Feeling easy, let’s roll along.

Mile Splits:  7:25, 7:21, 7:25, 7:15

Miles 4-8:  The Lakes!

Somewhere around mile 4, you hit the lakes, which is what Minnesota is known for!  This course is absolutely beautiful as you hit many lakes and the leaves are changing colors at just the right time.  I had dropped my arm warmers on the side of the road right around mile 3.5-ish and felt really comfortable in the temperature…not too hot, not too cold.  I kept telling myself this was going to be a great day for a race!

Lake Calhoun, stolen from Alyssa!

The crowds picked up around the lakes and that’s when many of the cheers began…I’ve never put my name on my shirt for a marathon (except for Chicago 2010, but it fell off after about six miles…), and it was so awesome to have everyone cheering for me!  I tried to give a little smile or wave to anyone who cheered for me, and shouts were coming from all over the place.  Love it!  I knew Jeri and Erika’s mom would be somewhere around mile 4.5, so I started to keep my eyes peeled for Jeri’s green sweatshirt and the red sign she made me.  I was super excited to spot them and probably waved my arms like an idiot as I always do.  Definitely love seeing people I know out there!

The approach!

Flying!

I ran along and continued my mission of keeping it comfortable and relaxed, but I’ll admit that the crowds do get to you and it feels easier to run faster when running through streets lined with spectators than it does just to run around Central Park.  Sooo my goal of running 7:25 wasn’t exactly happening.  I dropped a little below that, but felt okay so I kept going.  (Ah, one of these days I’ll learn…)  Alyssa said she was going to be running around Lake Calhoun somewhere around mile 6-ish, so I started to keep an eye out for her.  It’s amazing how a familiar face just pops out at you, and I instantly knew it was Alyssa when I saw her on the side of the road.  I was sooo happy to see her and glad that the timing worked out so she could cheer me on in Minneapolis.  (I live in NYC and she lives in SF…woo!)  She snapped this video of me…I love it:

Once I passed Alyssa, I knew that I wouldn’t have any of my own personal spectators until around mile 17, so I focused on getting into a zone and running my race.  The race continued on around a bunch of lakes, and I must have tunnel vision (or focus?) while running because even though so much prettiness was going on around me, it was more like, “Oh that’s cool……back to the race.”  I paid attention to some random signs, waved at people who cheered for me, and chuckled at the lady yelling, “Thanks for burning calories for me this morning!”  Ha, love it.

Mile Splits:  7:20, 7:16, 7:16, 7:20

Miles 9-13:  Mentally Challenging

As the race continued on, we ran around some more lakes and some small rolling hills.  The uphills weren’t too bad and some of the spots had noticeable downhills, which I definitely appreciated.  When I crossed the mile marker for mile 9, I got really excited…only 16 miles to go!  Wait…what??  That’s right, since I don’t keep my watching with the overall mileage, I somehow got confused and thought that mile 9 was mile 10 (they’re numbered very obviously, I’m just dumb sometimes…) and it was a HUGE mental problem when I hit the real mile 10 and realized it was mile 10 and not mile 11.  (Confused yet?)  Oops.  I gave myself a little pep talk, told myself I was fine, and got over it…but it was a little rough there for a bit.

At this point, I kept telling myself, “Cruise, Susan…7:30’s, keep it easy, hold on til mile 20.”  Fail at that plan, I couldn’t get myself to pull back on the pace.  I was running faster than I wanted to me, but anytime I slowed a bit to try and reign it in, I would freak out and resume my pace.  Plus, this was the pace that was feeling natural and what my legs wanted to do.  I kept thinking, “Running too fast……someone’s going to say, ‘You went out too fast…told you so!’” later on.  No matter what I did, those miles kept clicking off.  Might as well go with it, I guess…

Mile Splits:  7:17, 7:18, 7:12 (oops…), 7:23, 7:19

Half Marathon Split:  1:35:56, avg pace of 7:20

Miles 14-20 – Keep It Strong

Somewhere around mile 14, the lakes end (I think?) and the river starts (I think?).  Like I said before, I somehow manage to run in a vortex where the miles are clicking off, I’m in some sort of zone, and I’m just…running.  I wouldn’t call it effortless by any means, but it feels like my legs are in control and I’m just going.  It’s a great way to run and probably the closest thing I can think of to a “running high.”  Nothing means more to me than a spectator on the sideline saying, “Looking strong and relaxed, Susan!  Keep it up!”

The one thing I do remember is that somewhere around mile 14 must be a donut shop because my thoughts went something like, “Oh man, that smells AMAZING!!” immediately to “I think this smell is going to make me hurl…”  Donuts at mile 14 = no good.

As these miles continued on, I got worried that I started out too fast, but it was too late to do much about that at this point, so I just ran and soaked in the cheers around me.  People were yelling my name all over the place (except around mile 15…it seemed a little scarce there to me?), and some guy pulled up next to me and said, “So, you must be Susan.” to which the guy on the other side of me replied, “Nope, that’s me!”  Runners are a funny bunch. 

Someone else tried to talk to me at one point, but I’m not going to like…7:15-7:20 is not conversational pace to me, so when he struck up a conversation with, “So, you seem to know a lot of people around here!” all I could muster to respond was, “And I’m not even from here!”  What a silly response, Susan.  He asked where I’m from…I responded.  He said, “So you’re not running New York this year?”  “Actually…I am.  We’ll see if that’s a good idea or not…”  “Isn’t that soon?”  “Five weeks.”  Annnnnd then I stopped talking.  I felt comfortable running, but running + chatting at 7:15 pace wasn’t going to happen.  Sorry, mister, you seemed nice!

For the rest of these miles, I concentrated on keeping pace while telling myself, “Cruise, Susan!  7:30!” over and over again.  Never really happened.  It made me a little nervous.  I kept going.  Took fluids at the aid stations every two miles.  Focused on eating my energy chews (Clif Bar Energy Chews, strawberry banana flavor) because I have a habit of stopping eating them after about mile 16-18-ish because I don’t want to chew anymore.  I know it’s a problem…I tell myself it’s okay to just drink Powerade, but I’m not sure that’s true.  Overall, I probably had 350 calories in energy chews and then some from Powerade.

Around mile 16, I really started to look forward to seeing some spectators who I knew…it’d been about ten miles since I had spotted Alyssa, and I really wanted a bit of a boost.  It sounds silly, but I did get a little mental boost every time I crossed a timing mat, as I knew people were tracking me and it made me think of them…it really does help!  Around mile 17, my eyes darted back and forth across the road searching for Erika and Jeri, and I finally spotted them…for some reason I saw Jeri looking across the street and was convinced they were going to miss me, so I might have started yelling, “Jeri!!” at her…I don’t know if that was in my head or not.  Either way, I got a high five from Erika along with some cheers that I looked strong.  I needed that.

Jazz hands at mile 17!

Proof that yes, those shorts cover my butt.

After I passed them, I knew some hard times were about to come…it made me a little nervous, but I told myself to stay strong and keep moving.  I was still feeling good, and if you can say that after 17 miles, you must be doing something right.  The miles continued to click off and as I hit the 18 mile marker, I told myself, “One loop of the park to go.”  From my apartment to Central Park is about one mile, the big loop is six miles, and then a mile back.  I consider this to be an easy run.  I can do this in my sleep.  Just another run in the  park, and you’re finished.  You got this.  Oddly enough, around mile 19, there was a bit of incline that made me think of Cat Hill…just in the right spot.  A bit too funny.

A mile later, we ran through a literal wall, a balloon arch type thing that said, “The Wall”…ha.  This about marked the end of the race in Minneapolis before crossing the mighty Mississippi into its sister city, St. Paul.

Mile Splits:  7:35 (long), 7:03 (short), 7:16, 7:22, 7:23, 7:32, 7:30

Miles 21-23:  Welcome to St. Paul

When I checked the course map on Saturday, I thought to myself, “I don’t think I’m going to like St. Paul very much.”  Minneapolis had the pretty part of the course, the lakes, the rolling hills, my spectators, and the miles that feel pretty good.  St. Paul was going to be home to miles 21-26.2 and these lovely little hills:

Let’s just say that my prediction was pretty spot on.  The main hill of the course starts with a little climb in mile 20 that wasn’t so bad, then it climbs about 140 feet over miles 21-23-ish.  That doesn’t sound so bad.  I run Harlem Hill multiple times per week.  I survive Harlem Hill.  It’s not that bad.  Well friends, after 21 miles of running, a two mile climb is hard.  In fact, here’s a quote from the winner of the marathon, as posted in the newspaper the next day:

Spot on, Sammy.

I’m from the Prairie State, I’ve never been a good hill runner, and this was not so fun.  Okay?  I said it.  Mile 21 wasn’t so bad.  Mile 22 was bad.  Mile 23 wasn’t much better.  Was it the hill?  Was it the pace I had been keeping?  Was it the fact that mile 22 is never easy?  I have no idea.  Maybe a little combo action.  But holy goodness, that was horrible.  My legs were not in the mood to move no matter how much I told them to or how much I tried to keep up my pace.

I did get a little bit of a boost from Courtenay, who I found out late on Saturday night would be spectating around mile 22, so that gave me something to look forward to.  I must have put on quite the show because I don’t look like I’m totally dying in this picture that her husband snapped of me:

Looking pretty put together after 22 miles…

I definitely appreciated the cheers, but wished they had some sort of magical power to make the hills go away!  I tried to channel my Big Sur powers to get through the hills and the tough times, but it was rough!  Eventually I told myself that I would conserve some energy if I took a little walk break up part of the hill (it works for ultra runners…why not do that now?), so it was time for a twenty second walk break.  Not so sure that helped.  I told myself to get to mile 23 where the hills would supposedly end.  Well, when I got to mile 23 and the uphill didn’t seem to end, that notion went a bit out the window.

It was going to be a long haul to the finish…

Mile Splits:  7:52, 8:43, 8:34

Miles 24-26.2 – Let’s Get This Done

Marathons are hard.  They hurt.  I’m not surprised anymore when that happens because I’ve done these before.  I’m just waiting for the day when I do things right and am able to push through that.  During mile 24, I kept thinking how much I wanted a running buddy by my side…anyone who could jump in and make me run even an 8:00 mile pace would work.  I thought of my running buddies back in NYC and tried to picture myself running along effortlessly with them.  I suppose it worked for a little bit and I was able to get my pace back down.

But for some reason, it felt like those hills kept coming.  In the elevation chart, it looks like you have a nice downhill one you hit the peak of the big hill at mile 23.  To me, it felt like uphill after uphill was in front of me, and I even said out loud, “When are these going to end??”  It was mentally frustrating and my legs did not want to respond to what I was trying to get them to do.  My mind was in it, but those legs just did not want to move faster.  I had a couple walk breaks to try and shake it out, but that didn’t help much.  I swear the hills just kept coming!  Erika and I headed to a BBQ after the race, and one of the guys there ran the marathon as well.  He said that he trained on this portion of the course and the hills were no easier for him!  Glad I wasn’t imagining things…

As I crossed the 25th mile marker, I was at a walk break and a guy pulled up next to me and said, “We got this!  A ten minute mile…let’s finish this in 3:20!”  Well, that was the kick in the pants I needed…I did NOT want to finish this in 3:20!!  I better be way below that.  I guess I was kind of a jerk as I took off when he said that…sorry!!  I pushed myself that last mile, got my mile split back under 8:00.  I worked too hard to not PR here…I’d be kicking myself if these legs didn’t move faster.  We finally crested the last hill and took a left turn to where you can finally see the Capitol Building.

It’s time to book it.  Open up the stride and go.  I remember telling myself to run with whatever I had until that finish line was behind me.  So I did.  It’s a bit of a long stretch, but you can see the finish line and that makes a huge difference.  The crowds were yelling (so were Erika and Jeri, although I didn’t hear them…) and then…marathon #9 was done.  PR!!!

Book it.

I see a PR in the making!!

Mile Splits:  8:10, 8:53, 7:56, 1:27 (6:22 pace)

PR!!!

I finished the marathon and nabbed my medal, which looks awesome!  I grabbed a banana (that I never ate) and some chicken broth (which I chugged).  Headed straight toward bag check, hit the bathroom, got my finisher shirt (they don’t give you the race shirt until you’re finished!), and snapped this picture for the world to see:

Marathon #9, done!

Jeri called and I found out where they were…over by the VIP tent, so I started to walk over that way.  My legs felt pretty good and I called my parents on the way to let them know I was alive!  My dad chatted on about my niece who runs track and field and how I finished in time to watch the Bears game (very important, although it wasn’t on in Minneapolis…surprise, surprise!).  Eventually I said, “Okay Dad, I’m going to go find some beer.”  Except there wasn’t any beer…how sad.  Luckily, cheers from Erika and Jeri were almost as good:

Thanks for being my cheer squad!!

I still felt really good, and we had those VIP passes to use, so we headed over to the tent.  Food was a bit limited, but I grabbed a Sprite and checked out the view from right next to the finish line…that was pretty cool.

At the finish line!

We I hobbled around a little bit more before heading back to Erika’s, where I devoured most of my chocolate covered pretzels.  Yummmm.  I showered and said my goodbyes to Jeri…she almost said, “See you later!” but we realized that might not be appropriate.  Hopefully I’ll get to see you again soon, it was great to finally meet you. 

Erika and I basically chilled the rest of the day…headed to a BBQ with some of her friends where I got my beer.    And some food.  And a cookie.  Maybe two.  I ran a marathon, I’ll eat what I want.

Final Stats

Sunday, October 2 – TWIN CITIES MARATHON
26.2 miles in 3:18:35, avg pace of 7:35

Overall:  556/8530 (Top 6.5%)
Women:  78/3575 (Top 2.1%)
Age Group:  28/1142 (Top 2.4%)

The marathon site also has these fancy displays:

And these “detailed results”:

Basically what I gather from these detailed results is that, while I may have had a bit of a crash at the end of my race, it wasn’t any worse (and in fact, was actually better!), than a lot of the other marathons.  My overall place in terms of overall, division, and sex placing improved over the last half of the marathon, so that’s not too shabby.  I’ll take it.

Glamour Shots

Gatsby and my medal hanging out by Lake Harriet.

The medal in a tree…I thought it was artsy/fitting.

Race Reflections

Well well well, that was quite the race!  When I race the Ocean Drive Marathon last year, I was disappointed that I didn’t run faster because I thought I could have.  I PR’d there and I PR’d here.  I’m not quiet about my goal to run sub-3:15 (and eventually 3:10), and the numbers obviously show that that didn’t happen.  I was on pace until about mile 21-22.  Those last few miles are always tough, and I honestly don’t think I could have run faster.  If someone has the secret to not falling apart in those final miles, I would love it if you would share them with me.  Or if you could just run next to me and pull me along.  Either one.

That being said, I PR’d!  By 1:24, which you can’t complain about at all.  Jeri said something along the lines of, “When you’ve dropped that much time, you can’t expect massive PRs all the time.”  Which is definitely true…am I reaching my limit as to how fast I can run?  Maybe.  (I hope not!)  But dropping twenty minutes off my marathon time probably won’t be happening anytime soon, so I’ll definitely continue to chip away.  Overall, my race was great!  I felt in control and strong for all except the last five miles.  Running felt easy and relaxed…miles clicked off, I ran along and soaked it all in.  I don’t know how to explain how fast these miles can go by when you feel like you’re in the zone and just moving along.  Working hard, yet all of a sudden you’re at mile 14?  I have no idea how that happens.  I’m pretty sure I would randomly smile during the race because I was just having fun.

Because I really, really like to run.  And races are fun.  And races where I’m running fast are even more fun.  I had a perfect day to run with some lovely ladies who were the best hostesses/spectators I could ask for…so double thanks to Erika and Jeri!  I never would have even thought about running this race if Erika hadn’t implanted the idea to come to Minneapolis and stay with someone I’ve never met before…but blogs are funny like that and it was a wonderful weekend.  Because everyone’s idea of a great weekend traveling involves 26.2 miles of fun.

And for the record, I can’t wait to race again.

About the Twin Cities Marathon

The Twin Cities Marathon is labeled as “the most beautiful urban marathon in America”…and it is!  It was so pretty running around the lakes and with all the trees changing colors at just the right time.  The spectators were awesome throughout the race, and I would definitely recommend this marathon to anyone who is looking for a fall marathon for next year.  A must do in my book!  Just be sure to train for hills late in the race…

Put Your Name on Your Shirt

No, really.  Just do it.  Best thing ever.

thank you to all of you!!

I cannot express how much it means to me to open twitter after a race to see so many people who were cheering me on, wondering how I was doing, and congratulating me after a race.  You were all in my thoughts every single time I crossed a timing mat and it really did help to keep me going.  Over 100 people commented/”liked” my race picture on facebook…it’s crazy to me how connected we all are and it means the world to me that all of you care about me and my running.  Blogland/twitter is a crazy place, but races like this never would have happened if I wasn’t involved in all of this, and I absolutely love it.  So thank you to all of you!