Well I took on the heat and humidity and I have lived to tell about another Grandma’s.  Two down!!!!

DH, roommate from college, and I all made the trip to Duluth on Friday.  When we got to the DECC for packet pick-up we found out that they would be closing the roads in 45 minutes for the 5K.  So we didn’t stick around the expo to long which didn’t really bother me since there were too many people for me.  Then one last carbo load and off to bed.

Sat morning I am up at 5am to get ready and be on the first buses to the start.  The first warning sign that I got about what the weather was going to be like was that I had put on a sweatshirt for the trip to the start and I was way over-dressed.  Then the second warning sign was when you looked out over the lake it was as smooth as glass.  Now anyone that has ever seen Lake Superior when the heck is it calm enough for there not to be any waves?? 

Then I found out that a person has a really hard time being patriotic in the porta-potty.  I was standing in line for the potty when the F-15s flew over.  What a great thing to see them again!!!!  Then it was my turn to go to the bathroom just as they started singing the National Anthem.  This then caused a dilemma since what is the protocol for this, can you sing in the porta-potty.  I did since I was dedicating my run to my brother in Iraq.  Then off to the starting shute.

My goal was to break 6 hours this time around so my thought was to stick with the 5:30 group as long as possible and then settle into my finishing pace.  Good plan in theory right?  Then the next thing we know the crowd starts bobbing in front of us and we are off.  It was an awesome sight when we made it to the first gradual incline and you can see the sea of thousands of people bobbing along.  The pacer for the 5:30 group was great and once again I wished that I could have hung out with them longer but it just wasn’t meant to be. 

Miles 1-8 were great.  The pace felt good and things were going great.  Taking in the little bit of supporters out along the route and the marching band.  Fell off the pace group at mile 8 but still feeling good.  At mile 9 I had to stop and take a potty break.  Funny since that was the same place that I had to stop last year.  But the good thing this year was that there were no stomach issues that made me stop this time.  Miles 9-13 were just taking in the sights, sounds and the runners around me.  It was about at mile 14 that the heat really started to kick my butt and my stomach felt like I should just start tossing cookies.  Took a lot of water at the water stop at mile 15 and things started to feel a little better.  Then came the lonely miles out on the course where there really is nothing to see or any spectators.  But there was a solid group of us trying to stay together and see this thing to the end.  The drop-out bus would come up on us every once and a while and you just wanted to yell “I am not getting on the bus so just keep going.”  Then there was always the eerie sound of the ambulance sirens going.  Boy did it seem like you could hear a lot more sirens this year. Miles 20-25 I struggled a lot but I knew that I was close enough that I was going to finish this thing!!!  At mile 25 I started to pick the pace back up and I could feel the end.  Rounded the last corner and I could see the finish!!!   I was going to make it!!!!  Just as I stepped over the finish line I lost it and started to cry.  It seemed like I had to fight more to finish this one compared to last year but it felt just as great to finish!!!!

Final time 6:24:11 which was a 4 minute PR over last year.