2023: Marquette Marathon

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Reflections on the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon and discussing relevant portions of the training log with the family indicated some aspects I could retain and some others that needed a little tweaking to continue racing a marathon. Faith-ing in the fitness gained over the past several months and trusting the athletic process were a bit easier on this go around. So was leaving some more room for cream and letting a missed repetition go or rescheduling an activity as the training plan progressed. The combination of heat and humidity got the better of me over the final 8 miles on race day, and I crossed the finish line with considerable help from an angelic fellow runner.

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2023: Grandma’s Marathon

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It’s rarely ever a good sign when a healthy streak has fewer YESs than NOs. With three DNFs – 2021 Marquette Marathon, 2021 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon and 2022 Marquette Marathon – in four tries (and far worse when DNSs were taken into consideration), such had become the nature of my streak of marathons in recent times. A review of my training log and discussions indicated few aspects that required some tweaking to race a marathon. Once I incorporated those tweaks, faith-ed very heavily in the fitness gained from cross country skiing as well as additional investments over the past eight weeks and left some room for cream, following a designated pace group with fellow runners felt gratefully smooth, strong and very much fun … earning me a new PR for this distance. Continue reading … “2023: Grandma’s Marathon”

2023: Pre-Birkie and North End Classic

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Last weekend’s racing opportunity shed light on things I hadn’t done well: paying careful attention to the wax recommendation (I had missed a glide wax layer) and nutrition before/during the race (I had forgotten the race day breakfast and had not carried my own gels). While they didn’t alter my result or experience in that shorter distance event, they had the potential to create a painful experience for longer distance events. I got a pair of opportunities to rehearse the pre-race and race day routine before those longer races come calling, and as my good fortune would have it, the two events (Pre-Birkie and North End Classic) were a stone’s throw from each other – making it the travel once and race twice weekend.

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2021: Vasaloppet USA

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Less than a week ago, the organizers of the Spring Marathon I had been training towards sent a note that the event was postponed and could likely take place in October instead of early April. I didn’t want to spend time looking for an alternate marathon for Spring and continue training only to have my hopes dashed again. Getting my hopes dashed wasn’t new to me. But In light what I have come to learn about annual training cycles for longer distance events with time-specific goals, it was the stress my body would go through as a result of marathon-specific workouts that bothered me more. So, I put the marathon training and running on the back burner for the time being and decided to focus entirely on cross country skiing until the winter (or at least grooming) ended in our region. Familiarity with this event, its people and the course from prior participation made it relatively easier to sign up, travel and be a part of it.

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2019: Vasaloppet USA

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If not for friends in high places (or as in this case, the highest of places), there was little chance that I’d even know about this event – let alone be a participant. Dear friend Alice had not only won the 58 km freestyle edition in 2017 Vasaloppet USA in Mora, MN, but had gone on to be the first US female to complete the 90 km edition in 2018 Vasaloppet in Mora, Sweden. She believed that I was good enough to complete the 42 km Classic. So, I believed in her belief and signed up for the 2019 edition.

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