On May 18, I ran the Med City Marathon in Rochester, MN. Rochester is only 75 miles from where I live. That’s close enough that I could easily drive there, but far enough that I still chose to stay in a hotel.
Until a few days ago, we were
having highs near 90 degrees. Cooler
temperatures arrived just in time for race weekend. On Saturday, the high was in the 50s. Overnight, it dropped into the upper 30s. I brought my warmest tights, T-shirt, and
hat. That’s the cheetah outfit.
I drove to Rochester after
lunch on Saturday and checked into a downtown hotel. Then I walked to packet pickup, which was
held at the Historic Chateau Theater.
The race shirt was a tank top. I
always like it when that’s an option, because I already have too many T-shirts.
Before dinner, I sampled some
beers at a bar that was across the street from my hotel. I was talking to a runner sitting next to me
who was doing the half marathon, but his daughter was doing the marathon. It was going to be her first marathon, and
she was nervous about it. I offered to
run with her, and I told her what I would be wearing, so she could look for me
before the race. I asked what her name
was, and she said it was “Abbi.” I’m
putting that in quotes, because I didn’t ask her how it was spelled. It could be Abby or Abbey.
I had dinner at an Italian
restaurant that was close to my hotel.
After dinner, I went to bed as early as I could. I was able to get to sleep right away. I slept well at first, but I woke up around 1:45. Then, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I got at least seven hours of sleep, so I
wasn’t too worried about it.
I usually run with a fanny
pack, which I use to hold things like car keys hotel rooms cards, and my driver’s
license. As I was getting dressed, I
realized that I neglected to pack my fanny pack. If I had noticed that the day before, I could’ve
bought something at the expo. Now, it
was too late.
The only thing I needed to
bring with me was a hotel room card. I
found that the least intrusive way to carry it was to tuck it inside my waistband.
The race finishes in the
downtown area, but the start is at an event center near the airport, which is
eight miles away. They had buses to take
us to the start. The buses left from in
front of the Mayo Civic Center, which was about four blocks from my hotel.
The race website said the buses
would begin loading at 5:20. It didn’t
say when the last bus would leave. I
probably should’ve asked at packet pickup, but I didn’t. Without knowing, I showed up at 5:20. I was on the first bus.
The start area was only eight
miles away, so it didn’t take long to get there. Then, I had a long wait outside. We were dropped off next to an evetn center,
but the building wasn’t open.
They had a gear check, but I
chose not to use it. To stay warm in the
start area, I brought a Tyvek jacket and a heat shield. It was windy, so I stayed close to the
building, where I wasn’t as exposed.
Two members of the 50sub4
Marathon Club live in Rochester, and others had traveled here for the
race. About 20 minutes before the race,
we posed for a group photo.
I discarded my heat shield when
I went to line up for the race. I kept
the Tyvek jacket on. I was originally
planning to take it off and tie it around my race before I started running. Instead, I unzipped it in front, but I kept
it on until I got warmed up.
I’ve run this race before, but
the course has changed since the last time I ran it. The old course was hilly in the first half,
but flattened out in the second half.
The new course approaches the city from a different direction, so it
doesn’t have any of the hills I remembered.
The big challenge in the early miles was the wind. It was a cold wind, and we were mostly
running into it until we got into the city.
I didn’t know if I would recognize “Abbi.” I'm not good at recognizing people that I've only met once. I remembered what her hair looked like, but most women with long hair wear it differently when they run. “Abbi” had told me she was going to start the race with the 4:00 pace group, so that’s where I lined up. When a young runner with blond hair recognized me, I assumed it must be her.
I asked “Abbi” if she was
planning to run the whole race with the 4:00 group or if she was just starting
with them. She said four hours was her
goal. I also asked her how far she went
in training. She told me about her last
few long training runs. The longest was
22 miles.
Early in the race, “Abbi” and I
both followed the pace group. In
addition to the 4:00 group for the marathon, there was a 2:00 group for the
half marathon. The two groups were running
together, so it was a large group. I
found running behind this large group to be useful to shelter from the wind.
“Abbi” was wearing ear buds, so
I seldom talked to her. To hear me, she
had to take them out, so I just stayed with the pace group. Every now and then, I looked to see where she
was, but I assumed she would be able to stay with the group in the early
miles. If she struggled to keep up the
pace, it wouldn’t be until later in the race.
After a few miles, I started to
notice that I was getting splits from my watch way before we reached the
banners marking each mile. It’s not
unusual for a GPS watch to be off, but the discrepancy seemed unusually
large. I think the placement of the
banners was inconsistent.
I talked to one of the 4:00
pacers, and she said they were pacing according to their watches, but going a
little bit faster in case their watches were recording splits too soon. Our target pace was 9:09 per mile, but the
pacers were keeping us closer to 9:00.
About halfway through the fifth
mile, I started to feel perspiration under the sleeves of my jacket. That’s when I finally took it off and tied it
around my waist.
The early miles were gently
rolling, but with a downhill trend. At
one point, one of the pacers told us we were about to start running down a hill
that was about a mile long. Some runners
went ahead, but I held back and stayed with the pacers.
They had a marathon relay. After running downhill, we reached the first
exchange point. There was also an aid
station there. A bus to transport relay
runners was parked in the middle of the street, forcing us onto the shoulder
just as we were going through the heavily congested relay exchange point. Making matters worse, there were rumble
strips between the driving lane and the shoulder.
I realized at some point that I
would need to make a bathroom stop. I
knew I would need to pee before too long.
I also felt pressure in my intestine, and I wasn’t willing to assume
that it was just gas. I told “Abbi” I
was going to make a bathroom stop the next time we reached an aid station, but
I would try to catch up later.
Somewhere near the end of the eighth
mile, we ran under a bridge, and I saw an aid station with two port-o-potties
just past the bridge. I took the
opportunity to stop.
Taking care of my business took
longer than it should have. I had to
take off my gloves, and I also had to be careful not to lose my hotel room card. The pressure I felt was just gas, but I still
took the time to empty my intestines as much as I possible could.
When I was done, I got a drink
from the aid station. As I resumed
running, I looked at my watch. I had
lost roughly two and a half minutes.
I’m used to running marathons
at a slightly faster pace than the pace I was running today. I was confident that I could speed up by
about 15 seconds per mile, but at that pace it would take 10 miles to catch up
to the group. I didn’t know if “Abbi”
would begin to struggle at some point.
If she did, I wanted to be there to help her get through the late miles.
I was now surrounded by runners
who were going a little bit slower than the pace I was going before. To pick up my pace, I needed to be passing
everyone around me.
I picked up my pace until it
felt tiring. I passed the 8-mile banner
almost immediately, but I wouldn’t know my pace until I finished mile
nine. I was surprised to see how fast I
was running. I ran that mile in 8:02.
At that pace, it would only
take another mile and a half to catch up to the group, but I knew this pace
would wear me out. I eased up a little,
but then I realized I was no longer passing people. I had to accelerate again to make sure I was
still gaining ground on the group.
Mile 10 was almost as
fast. I ran it in 8:09. Looking ahead, I could see where runners were
making a U-turn and going up a ramp. I
saw the 2:00 pacer, but I didn’t see a 4:00 pacer.
As I got closer, I saw a sign
indicating this was where the marathon and half marathon routes diverged. The runners doing the half marathon did the
U-turn. The runners doing the marathon
kept going straight. Looking farther
ahead, I saw the 4:00 pace leader. Now
that I could see the group, I knew I would catch up to them.
Midway through the next mile, I
caught up with the group. As I pulled
alongside “Abbi,” she noticed I was back.
I told her I had been running 8-minute miles, and I would probably
regret that later. I was really worried
that those fast miles would destroy me for the late miles.
Most of the runners were
wearing extra layers, but as it gradually warmed up, they discarded them. “Abbi” had started the race in a green
long-sleeved shirt. At some point, I noticed
the shirt was gone. I still recognized
her from her ear buds and a pink case on her lower back that held her phone.
By the time we reached the
halfway mark, I was finding it more difficult to keep up with the group. Most of the time, the pace felt manageable,
but if I fell behind at an aid station, it was more difficult to catch up. It was also tough keep up on hills. In general, the rest of the course was fairly
flat, but it wasn’t perfectly flat.
There were occasional small rises, and now I found them to be tiring.
In the second half of the race,
I started getting splits from my watch after we passed the mile markers. I never trust my watch completely, but I
trusted it more than I trusted the mile markers.
Most of the time, we were on
roads, but some sections of the course were on paved trails through a forest. At one point, we saw a family of ducks
running across the trail. They were the
tiniest baby ducks I’ve ever seen. Earlier,
we had seen a wild rabbit run across the trail.
If not for “Abbi,” I would’ve
dropped back and finished at my own pace.
I forced myself to keep up with the group, because I wanted to help her
get through the difficult miles at the end of the race. All first-time marathoners struggle at least
a little bit. My only goal for this race
was to help her get through those miles.
Finishing your first marathon can be a life-changing event. I wanted to see her finish.
At one point, our remaining
pace leader told us we were coming up on “the hill.” This was the only tough hill on the
course. It wasn’t steep, but it was
long.
For the first half of the hill,
I was able to keep up. Then I started to
lose contact. I kept the group in sight
until I reached the top. As we started
running back downhill, I worked hard to catch up. I was actually breathing harder on the
downhill than I did going uphill.
Up until now, I rarely talked
to “Abbi.” Now I started talking to her
more often. When we got to 20 miles, I
told her that most first-time marathoners would be struggling at this point,
but she was going strong. She
appreciated hearing that.
Since reaching the city, we had
been running in a big loop. At 22 miles,
we completed the loop and began to repeat a section we had run before. Miles 23 and 24 were the same as miles 9 and
10. Coincidentally, those were the two
miles I had run much faster the first time around. Knowing how fast I had run these miles before
made me feel more confident that I could keep up with the group as we ran them
again.
When I saw the “23” banner I
told “Abbi” she set a PR. What I meant
by that was that she had run farther today than she had every run. In reply, she asked, “I told you that?”
I reminded her that she said
her longest training run was 22 miles.
Then she said that she had run marathons before. Her PR was 3:59. She thought I meant that she was on pace to beat
that time.
I realized now that my entire
race was based on a misunderstanding.
This woman obviously didn’t need my help to get through the tough
miles. This wasn’t her first rodeo. I was left wondering if I had completely
misunderstood my previous conversations with “Abbi.” I also wondered if I was still talking to
“Abbi.” Did I somehow get her mixed up
with another runner in the pace group who looked similar. It didn’t help that nobody was wearing the
same clothes now that they were wearing at the beginning of the race. I’m going to continue referring to her as
“Abbi,” but I didn’t really know if this was the same runner.
“Abbi” was obviously feeling
strong, and she was determined to beat her previous best of 3:59. The two of us were now pulling away from the
pace group. I was tempted to ask her
what her name was, but I felt awkward asking.
If this really was “Abbi,” she already told me her name. By the time I finally decided to ask, it was
too late.
As we passed the 24-mile
banner, “Abbi” was clearly feeling strong.
She picked up the pace to the point where I could no longer keep up with
her. I had lost my chance to ask her
name.
“Abbi” was wearing her race bib
on her back. I could make out the first
and last digits, but I couldn’t read the middle digit. Her hair was in the way.
When I reached the “25” banner,
I made one last attempt to catch up with “Abbi.” I sped up as much as I could, but I was still
losing ground. By the time I reached the
“26” banner, I could no longer see her.
I finished at the best pace I
could. I finished in 3:57:27. Despite running miles nine, ten, and part of
eleven at a pace that almost broke me, I managed to run fairly even splits.
After I got my finisher medal,
I started to look for “Abbi.” I couldn’t
find her. She was already gone. I picked up some post-race food and headed
for the results tent.
They had monitors where you
could type in your bib number and see your official result. The sun was shining on the monitors in such a
way that I couldn’t read them. I had to
ask one of the volunteers to look up my result.
That’s when I found out that I placed second in my age group. Nothing about this race went as planned, but
it had a happy ending.
My hotel was just around the
block from the finish area. As I was
walked back to the hotel, I spotted another 50sub4 runner. We’re in the same age group, and he had
finished in 3:45. He was the winner of
our age group. If I had been trying to
go all out for a fast time, my goal would’ve been 3:50. I still would’ve been second in my age group.
After the race, I searched the
results for every possible bib number starting with “4” and ending with
“2.” My best guess is that the runner I
was talking to in the late miles was a woman named Emily who finished in 3:56:10.
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