Well Grandma’s most definitely did not go as expected this
year to say the least. After completing
a nearly flawless 18 week training cycle leading up to this race I got smacked
down hard by hot temps. The trip however
was an awesome time and we had a ton of great performances despite the hot
weather on race day!..
Myself and a crew of about 20 members from the Dubuque
Running Club all made our way to Duluth this year to tackle Grandma’s Marathon,
a huge increase from two years ago with myself, Shannon and Bill. Same as 2014 we stayed together at the
College of Scholastica in Duluth which rents out their rooms in the summer for
marathon runners. It’s a great setup
there, reasonably priced and plenty of room for the group who took over one of
the dorm lounges to hang out when not prepping for the race. Race morning they have buses that shuttle
runners to the start and then back from the finish later that day. Since Grandma’s Marathon is a point to point
race this is very handy in getting the 26 miles out of the city.
The morning of the race we had a fun bus ride with the DRC
crew and you could really feel the excitement in the bus full of runners ready
to take on the race. It was a warm
morning already in the mid to upper 60s and pretty humid so I was chugging down
a lot of fluids, specifically tailwind which is my go to electrolyte mix. I have had major struggles in the heat before
so I was doing my best to make sure I had taken in the most fluids and
nutrition I could. Before I knew it we
were at the start so we all unloaded, handed off our drop bags and got a group
photo prior to lining up. I made my way to our spot, since there was not
a 3 hour pacer I lined up just a little ahead of the 3:05. With a just a couple minutes to go I made
myself comfortable and tried to focus a bit while cracking some jokes with
Bill, Jose and Matt. I was excited and
optimistic about nailing my 7th marathon since I was last here two
years ago, but I was in for quite the surprise…
The gun went off and we quickly broke into stride, I felt
great and within the first half mile Jose and I hooked up and were pacing each
other out. Cruising passed the first mile we starting
feeling the temperature which had already jumped up about 10 degrees in the
last hour and decided to cut back the pace to a more conservative 6:55 vs the
6:47 I was training at thinking we could push the last few miles to make up for
it. Miles 2, 3, 4 and 5 went by well and
although I recognized I was really heating up, I consequently tossed my hat
just before mile 6 to let out some steam.
Just passed the 10K mark is when the first sign of trouble hit, it
started with a burning sensation in my quad which over the next half mile
turned into a quad cramp. I was worried
immediately as I’ve only gotten cramps in the past after 20 miles in a race and
they were pretty debilitating. I slowed my pace down and even walked through
the upcoming water station thinking it was something I could quickly shake off
and get back to my race plan. It was
right at this point where Bill came up behind me and I decided I would stick
with him for a while, Bill was gunning for around a 7min pace at that point. I started back up and after only about 20
yards with Bill my quad cramped again and I had to drop back. This was at this point about 8 miles into the
race (18 miles from the finish line) and things went downhill fast in a real
snowball fashion.
After the cramps started up I just couldn’t shake them, I
resorted to running about ¼ mile at a time then walking for 30 seconds and
repeating. This worked well from about
mile 9 to mile 18 although as the race progressed the time I was able to run
dropped back and the walking increased.
It was just a horrible experience, I begged for the ability to just run
at an easy pace.. heck just 3 weeks before I was able to finish a marathon
distance training run around 8 minute average in high heat without issues, the
fact I couldn’t run for more than a few dozen steps at a time before my legs
seized up was a painful, embarrassing and humbling experience. I passed each drop spot questioning how much
further I could do this and if this was even a good idea, I feared I might be doing
more damage by continuing on but no matter how much I wanted to drop out I stubbornly
kept pushing on.
By mile 20 heat exhaustion had taken over, I was unable to
run at this point and found myself dizzy and wondering back and forth on the
course looking for shade. Around this
time the officials had black-flagged the event for temps over 105 degrees on the
course and they were pulling people out of the race who couldn’t make it
through, I had several race personal try to do the same to me but I wasn’t
having it. The guy I was walking next to
fell over the curb and as soon as he hit the ground he was pulled from the race,
I made the decision at this point to walk on the center line of the road as not
to risk getting pulled if I tripped. I
had to be quite the site at this point I was hobbling along with my head down,
holding my weak leg and pushing myself step by step down the spectator packed
cobblestone lane that lines the last few miles of the course.
This is where the last phase of horribleness started. Due to head exhaustion every 5 to 10 minutes
from here on out I started vomiting uncontrollably… I was just a couple miles
to the finish but it seemed like forever, I remember hitting mile 25 and I didn’t
think there was any way I could get any further, I had to walk backwards down
the next hill as my leg had completely seized up not letting me bend at the
knee... I seriously was thinking about rolling down the hill on my side but I didn’t
think I could get back up. Then about a
half mile from the finish my buddy Shannon popped out of the crowd, he got
joking with me a bit and it was the total mental boost I needed, I was able to
turn the corner and hobble across the finish line, about an hour and one half
after what I had expected but I had finished nonetheless!!
Shortly after
finishing I collapsed hard, continued throwing up pretty bad and was starting
to get real fuzzy mentally. A few
members of the DRC crew helped me get some ice and carried me to the medical
tent where I got some great care to get me feeling better. The nurse gave me a hard time but also very valuable
advice which I was take to heart and use in my future training and runs. After an hour or so in the tent cooling down
and rehydrating I was able to meet with the rest of the crew and learned the
heat took it’s toll on everyone. Despite
a lot of missed goals, we had a lot of finishes and some very happy people, it
was a great day!
So to wrap up the experience I will say this… Grandma’s Marathon 2016 for me was a lot of
things, I could describe the race as painful, disappointing, and humbling which
it certainly was but without all that pain and struggle I would have never
known how tough I could be…. and after dragging myself one legged over 18 miles
I feel like I can accomplish so much more than I thought was possible.
So I am thankful in a way as I feel I came out of the race a stronger
person than I went in and even though I missed my time goal there will be
others.
Happy Running!
-Cory
