A Brisk Run

Spring in Minnesota, well maybe Fargo too, consist of having your heated seats on in the morning and your sunroof open on the way home. One day it is 90 degrees and the next a brisk 50. I didn’t plan on running Fargo at all but signed up in late April for the marathon to use it as a training run. The real goal this summer is IRONMAN Wisconsin 70.3 and Grandmas Marathon which are back to back weekends. Crazy, I know, but it's in our blood to be a little crazy.

I was off to a good start with assuming i coulD just drive up race morning and run. Small issue with no race day packet pickup left me homeless race night. Thanks to some stellar friends, I had a perfect little place to stAy. As i found out on Race day, it was just the place I needed to stay! I was surrounded with medals, awards and even big foam board checks. I think there was even something speciAl in the water! Thanks number 616 for the place to stay! (Did you see that PERFORMANCE at IMCHOO 70.3!?)

Race morning came around quickLy. Sleep has been less than favorable lately with a crazy schedule and Emie. The dome was scheduled to open at 5:30 per the event guide yet the security guards felt 6 was good enough. Just had to keep the positive mojo going you know! Anyways, I ate some snacks, walked around and ran into Mike and some other folks from Alex. (Did you notice how Mike crushed it too!?) You would think smooth sailing from here, wrong. Bag check was on the floor of the doMe and for all the 26.2 runnerS, they had 3 people taking and checking bags. The line was a good 30 people long as they were starting the announcments and Canadian/USA national anthem. Some added stress for us marathoners for sure!

The race started and it was cold, windy and well...Fargo. The first 6 miles or so were spent just trying to warm up and find my stride. I was hanging with the 3:55 pacer for as long as i could. Then my stomach had other Plans and I made a pit stop! Rather than chasing him back down, i took the next 3 miles to catch back up to him and was just hanging in the “draft pacK” for some miles until that damn stomach made me take another pit stop. That was twice! Woof! Anyways, at this point the 4:00 pacer was next to me and i made the decision to leave him in my dust.

I was feeling good, not tired, not winded but the legs were SHREDDED. I had just went on a 21 mile run the weekend before so once again, that taper thing...I just kept running and pushing harder. The discomfort is short term, the times are posted on the internet forever! With that, i buckled down and made that last turn down into the loading dock of the Fargo DoMe to see the clock still under 4:00 (gun time). I crossed the finish line, Stopped my Garmin and snagged my medal, some chOcolate milK and some pizza. Did i mention they had cookie dough!? I didn’t look at my watch time till after some nutrition and saw 3:53! A flippin’ new PR for me. Sure makes me excited for Grandmas were I hope to break that 3:50 mark or better!

But first, IRONMAN WiscoNsin 70.3 in Madison so me and Stealth need some one on one time for sure. Hopefully those new parts I installed were asSymbled right!

Again, huge thanks to KIa who doesn’t kill me for being gone training and racing. A huge thank you to Branden for the place to crash and thAnks to all the Vounteers on the course!

​#TribeRacing #TribeRules #wattieinkhitsquad #baseperformance