For the second time in 5 years …. It’s rarely ever a good sign when a healthy streak has more NOs than YESs. With three DNFs – 2024 Grandma’s Marathon, 2025 Grandma’s Marathon and 2025 Marquette Marathon – in as many attempts and few more DNSs, such was the nature of my streak of marathons in recent times. If this opening sentence sounds like Déjà vu all over again, you aren’t wrong. I was in a similar situation heading into the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon and the abstract of its report had begun with similar emotions. Treating the DNFs in 2024 and 2025 as blessings and benching myself wasn’t easy. While I’d neither wish to retake missed steps nor wish them for/on anyone else, they taught me very valuable lessons … paying better attention to little things and developing faith in a simple yet systematically slow process that incrementally and tangibly rebuilds fitness and boosting said fitness by enduring with good and supportive friends … to list just a few.

da Past Lessons

Just like 2024, the 2025 calendar year and the 2025-2026 season were a very grounding experience. The highlight reel of missed steps and mistakes included the following:

1. Inconsistent training and a first known bout of Iron and Vitamin D shortage had limited the 2025 Grandma’s Marathon to the first 8 miles while inappropriate pacing had ended the 2025 Marquette Marathon about 10k shy of the finish line.
2. A second known bout of Iron (and Magnesium, Vitamin B and who knows what else) shortage had led to nursing and recovering from a rather painful Jimmy Legs situation and scrubbing the late Autumn marathon.
3. While the jump from 3:27:44 (2020 Holland Haven Marathon) to 3:21:47 (2023 Grandma’s Marathon) had felt great, training for and finishing marathons in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025 might have been more enjoyable had I set intermediate goals – say, 3:25:ss, 3:23:ss, etc.
4. Attempting to replicate the performance of 2023 Grandma’s Marathon in subsequent races might not have done justice to that new race.
5. Not ending the training block with the target event hadn’t given the body and mind they richly deserved rest. This was especially true when the target event hadn’t gone according to the plan and I had tacked on a few more weeks in pursuit of one more chance to redeem myself.

These and discussions with friends and mentors (Alex, Anne, David, Jason, Laura, MikeY, Nik, Ray, Rob, Ryan, Sawyer, Shannon, Shannon, Sten, Stephen, Zeb and more) and guidance from healthcare professionals and nuggets from various books, peer-reviewed research studies (A Trade-Off Between Cognitive And Physical Performance, With Relative Preservation Of Brain Function, The Effectiveness Of The Psychological Intervention In Amateur Male Marathon Runners and The Training Intensity Distribution Of Marathon Runners Across Performance Levels) and podcasts in later parts of 2025 taught me how to

1. train through around obstacles,
2. diversify the modality/surface/distance/effort portfolio,
3. set intermediate/incremental goals even for major events,
4. time the consumption of supplements to improve their absorption, and
5. translate the trust in training to faith on race day by way of intermittent doses of belief.

Given the trend of PRs Grandma’s registration process had been setting over the past 2-3 years and knowing that hotels in a 20+ mile radius had been setting their own PRs for even longer, it had made sense to set aside a dedicated amount of time … first to find housing and then get in line to register … before the hotels and the event sold out. That’s precisely what I did on the penultimate day of September 2025 – finding familiar (to me) housing and on 1st October 2025 – adding my name to the list of registered participants. With 2026 being the 50th year and all … the 5k sold out in 106 minutes, the half marathon in 75 minutes and the full marathon in under 12 hours … all massive PRs for the race org!

da Training

Operating under the overarching theme, Keep It Simple and Sustainable (KISS KIS-aS), running and strength training – approximately 2x each per week – kept my body used to the impact throughout our lovely Winter months. If trying out the elite-sounding Norwegian Doubles in 2023 was purely an accident, exploring the Dating App-sounding Norwegian Singles in 2026 was entirely intentional. I believed then – and still do – that the term Sub-Threshold (or SubT) is misleading to describe the nature of efforts / paces associated with the latter method’s intervals and unnecessarily daunting and intimidating … especially since most of us are trained to interpret Sub-Something as Faster Than Something. Replacing Sub-Threshold (or SubT) with Slow Threshold (or SlowT) made its adaptation easier.

Effort-based field tests helped stay away from premeditated (or worse, hallucinatory) paces/efforts as a starting point for my Norwegian Singles era. I don’t believe the Ingebrigsten family will adopt me any time soon … but I was (and still am) quite proud of exercising control over intensity week after week. Treating various training modalities as equals made it easier to respect variations in weather conditions and in turn, played a vital role in maintaining a consistent training load. Working through each activity at an appropriate effort level for that day and using the observed trend to guide subsequent training helped develop necessary fitness organically. The long runs were used to practice chunking, hydration and high carb nutrition. One of them was used to work through not so pleasant emotions associated with the scar-y locations along the course – 8th mile (2025), 14th mile (2024), 18th mile (2019) and 22nd mile (2019 and 2023) – where I had either struggled or DNFd in previous editions.

In spite of good intentions and in spite of having realized that … attempting to replicate the performance of 2023 Grandma’s Marathon in subsequent attempts / other races might not have done justice to the day / attempt / race, I had been comparing the progress of the current 8-week plan with that towards the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon far too frequently. On one hand, it had made sense since the 2023 edition – specifically, the race day – had been a pretty magical and almost an out of body experience ending up with a personal best. On the other hand, it made no sense since the lead up to and through those 8 weeks were drastically different. In 2023, I had come off the most voluminous cross country ski season built mostly on unstructured / unplanned BIG outings (nearly 1600 km split evenly between classic and skate styles) with minimal running and no injuries / setbacks. In 2026, I was coming off the third most voluminous cross country ski season built almost exclusively on structured / planned short-to-medium outings with a conscious inclusion of running while recovering from self-inflicted setbacks. Reflecting further on one of Milan‘s remarks in La Crosse, WI, several weeks ago brought along the following revelation:

Every new day (and in turn, every new attempt at an event – old or new and familiar or new distance) brings a certain amount of unavoidable (and beautiful) randomness. Instead of forcing ourselves to replicate a past performance, we’d be better off further developing the processes, skills and tools to embrace the uncertainty of a new attempt and in turn, devise an approach to handle the new uncertainties to the best of our abilities on that new day.

The numerical summary of the trackable activities I completed is in the table below. The button below the table reveals many interactive eye candies. While one of them – my favorite – quantifies the distance that my good and supportive friends shared with me during Dead Carp Run (Alex, Alex, Ella and Zeb), Pike Lake Half Marathon (Hanna, Karen, Liam and Sam) and NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships (Andy, David, Josh, Laura and Marlee) as well as in the expanded home region (Alex, Amelia, Ani, Bernard, Ceci, Colman, Dan, Karah, Scott and Zeb), it fails miserably to capture the wisdom they imparted and physical and mental fitness they helped elevate. The finer details associated with individual activities may be found in Strava.

8-Week Marathon Phase - Interactive Eye Candies, etc.

da Race Week(end)

My gracious boss granted me an extra day off and I left Houghton around 10 am (local time) on Thursday. The drive with a pit stop in Ashland, WI – stocking up on essentials from the Chequamegon Food Coop and liquid sustenance with Casey and Laura at Black Cat Coffeehouse – was pretty smooth and uneventful. Checking into the housing was a breeze and folks at Days Inn graciously honored my request for a specific type of room! After taking care of a few necessary items in my checklist, I swung through the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) … catching up with known friends and making some new ones … followed by some quality time with friendly WURDs at Chester Park (thanks be to Hanna for including me in the festivities!). Being veterans of many marathons and knowing the value of the night before the night before, we retired early to catch (as much) shut eye (as possible).

Friday morning’s run at Hermantown High School Track (Go Hawks!) served as the final piece of the puzzle for objectively overanalyzing the training log for progression over the past 8-10 weeks and helped make the race plan: follow the 3:20 pacer and fellow racers in that group and implement planned nutrition and cycle through other intervention strategies. Choice of the 3:20 pace group was quite deliberate even if the said analysis indicated 3:15-ish as a possibility: I’d rather speed up a little over the final mile / 5k / 10k instead of slowing down. A portion of the Friday was spent working remotely and the rest making new friends as well as exploring Minnesota’s Northshore with Casey and Laura – sustenance (Vitta Pizza and homemade goodies) at Brighton Beach, scouting the course and start line and quick stops at Gooseberry Falls and Betty’s Pies – mostly from the comfort of the car. After carefully laying out everything I’d need for the next day, I called it a night around 9:00 pm (local time).

Most big races and/or the ones that employ a point-to-point course end up starting the race day pretty early. Starting around 3:30 am after a pretty good night of sleep, this one wasn’t all that different. Using past experience, I parked south of the course to be within an easy walking distance to the DECC. Although trains are my preferred mode of mass transportation, I opted for a bus ride in lieu of (rather slow moving and often arriving just in the nick of time) North Shore Scenic Railroad service. Though the logistics – while waiting for, boarding and the first few miles of the ride through the heart of downtown – were clumsier than past editions, chatting with a kind and gracious teacher from Ohio made the journey to Two Harbors seem short. I had plenty of time to wrap up the final preparations, drop the bag, use the facilities and make my way to the assigned corral.

With a couple more years of experience and feedback, the organizers did a fantastic job of arranging corrals with designated entry points and staggered start times. To top it all off, kind but fiercely strong grandmas were in charge of the most such entry points – the kind whose disappointed look would sting more than a smack … should we be caught doing things we know we shouldn’t be doing (e.g., entering a higher corral than was assigned). I did minimal mobility and activation drills while catching up with Ella, and after a brief chat with the 3:20 pace group leader – Nate – about his strategy, we all lined up for a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem accompanied by a majestic flyover!

Lap By Lap Analysis, etc.

Unlike 2025, weather wasn’t an issue and the event started on time. After sending off the wheelchair athletes and able-bodied elites, Corral A wasn’t too far behind. Following Nate as he lived through strategy – 7:35 min/mile every mile with manual splitting of miles – mile after mile wasn’t very difficult. Just to be safe and not be an inadvertent inconvenience to others, Ella and I stayed about 20-25 feet behind. Around the 10 mile mark, lung burning sensation showed up – quite similar to the one that had led to DNF in 2024. Back then, I had gone through both RSV and COVID in the 8-week build and didn’t really know the long-term impact of residual effects of COVID or RSV. This time around, however, an analysis of my recent blood work by Shannon had shown that I had neither COVID nor RSV. With Science on my side, I opted to continue but hung back as Ella disappeared into the course. To make things interesting, adductors/hip flexors stiffness decided to join the party over the next mile as well.

With cloud cover disappearing and mercury rising ever so slightly with each passing mile, I chose shade in favor tangents and one of my feet didn’t really appreciate my bias towards the other. It’d suffice to say that my nutrition plan went out of the window and copious amounts of water (and occasional sips of Powerade) took its place. Pouring some of that water ovehead and wiping extremities with a wet sponge kept me relatively cooler. There was some amount of walking in every mile through 21 and the Tylenol that I got from the mile #19 aid station kicked in shortly after quick chats with Kurtis and Tryg. I won’t lie … cresting the Lemon Drop Hill with relative ease was a BIG surprise. I don’t remember everything that the 4:15 pacer – a kind gentleman – said but all I do remember is that I didn’t walk again until after the finish line. My pace over those final 4-ish miles wasn’t as fast as when I followed Nate in the beginning but certainly felt like it compared to how slow I had been running on my own for the previous 10 miles. It was the second time in 7 years and first time since the 2019 Illinois Marathon that I found a second wind and picked the pace over the final miles of a marathon … something Bill had been strongly encouraging me to do over the past few years.

Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction.

– Apocryphal quote attributed to William James (1906)

The last time I had legitimately crossed the marathon finish line was in Marquette, MI, in 2023 September, and it was a relief to do so again as the official clock recorded 4:10:51 – good for 4077 overall, 2794 amongst males and 206 in my age group. Although the time-goal wouldn’t get an honorable mention, checking off the process- and event-based goals was very satisfying. On a different day with better physical conditions (and a bit more mental fortitude), I’d like to believe I would have followed Nate for many more miles, if not end to end, than I did today and earned that time-based goal as well. It is worth noting and by no means it’s an exaggeration that … Jackie (3:20 pacer from 2023 edition) and Nate are about as honest – in word (i.e., explaining their strategy) and deed (i.e., metronomically executing their strategy) – as pacers can get, and I’d gladly follow them in any race!

After stopping the Garmin and saving the activity for posterity, I chatted with the finish line volunteers and slowly made my to pick up the materialistic memorabilia from the event: the ginormous medal and the t-shirt (Grandma’s remains one of the very few races I know where one has to finish the race to earn the finisher t-shirt). I believe a sufficient number of participants from the past 2-3 editions must have provided the same feedback and the organizers honored it by providing a changing tent very close to the dropped bag reclamation area! Once changed into warmer clothes, I stood in a rather long and slow moving line to get some sustenance – worth noting that a friendly volunteer brought out a boxful of bananas to keep us fed.

Shortly after catching up with Mike who graciously made time amidst his busy schedule (he is the kind USATF official who gets to certify the event, and any records that might get set and resolves any conflicts / protests / other technical issues), I gingerly walked back to the parking structure and drove slowly and safely back to the housing. To keep the legs from getting stiffer, we (Casey, Laura and myself) explored Park Point, Aerial Lift Bridge operation and Coldstone Creamery after a hearty meal – The Green Frontier (formerly known as The Vegan Socialist) – at the Burrito Union. Having had a 17-hour day, I couldn’t muster the courage to witness the drone show at 10:15 pm and called it a night around 9 pm. Sunday morning – as had been a common occurrence – came early around 4:30 am. After bidding adieu to my housemates and breakfast buddies from Alaska, Colorado and Oregon and a hearty meal at Duluth Grill, I started the slow drive back to Houghton. With stops to stretch the legs, breathe fresh air and enjoy sunshine (and some falafel at the Pita Hut in Ashland, WI), I safely made it home around 6 pm.

da Takeaways

All in all, 6-ish months from 2026 January through late 2026 June were sprinkled with sufficient bits of joy amidst purposefully long stretches of seemingly plain (or boring) ground work and developing confidence in a consistent and diversified portfolio's ability to deliver results while keeping me healthy and injury free. The list of I did well stuff includes

1. Seeking and accepting help,
2. Believing in the power of simple steps,
3. Designing a simple and diversified plan with specificity,
4. Making minimal tweaks to accommodate extra recovery,
5. Controlling ego/intensity and letting the fitness come to me,
6. Being mostly in the hour/mile/chunk/training block I was in, and
7. Ending the training block after the event and resting deliberately.

I was (and still am) grateful for the existence of guardrails that didn't thieve too much joy from the previously detailed comparison to the 2023 edition, and for the unwavering love for Grandma's on the day after the Midsummer's Night ... in spite of that love nightmarishly wandering off the course and leaving me miserable in 2024 and 2025. Shakesperean sentiments aside, crossing the finish line in 2026, to me, is a sign of successful test of returning to baseline fitness (i.e., covering the distance). With health under control and fitness on the rise, the list of I could do better stuff includes

1. Being in the training block I am in,
2. Treating every Monday as a real rest day,
3. Running in and adapting to warm conditions,
4. Practicing (nutrition at) race pace (in a fatigued state), and
5. Remaining calm and finding a way to continue / finish when things don't go according to the plan.

On to some much needed rest and recovery before resuming the journey!

Thanks be to

the rejections and opportunities life has brought my way, event folks (organizers, sponsors, volunteers, timers, law enforcement officials, photographers, fellow participants and spectators) and my family of good friends, mentors and coaches in and outside of my community for all the unexpected, undeserved and unrewarded acts of kindness and constant encouragement as well as offerings of constructive criticism to improve myself as a human and an athlete. I am eternally grateful to all those who let me train with them, who shared their meals and experiences with me, who helped keep me in good health, who helped me stay the course, and who cheered me on from home or along the course.