Marathon Breakdown part 1

So, here's the story of my first marathon. The Fargo Marathon (26.2 miles? Uff da!) was May 20th, a week ago tomorrow. Just got our pictures finished today.

The Fargo Marathon starts at the Fargodome on the NDSU campus in north Fargo. The course runs south through downtown & several residential areas, loops around a golf course south of I 94, crosses into Moorhead and runs through downtown and some residential areas, then crosses another bridge over the Red River before winding through the area around NDSU and finishing inside the Fargodome.

The morning of the race I was pretty pumped and really not all that nervous. I had been training since January and figured that after doing a 20-miler in cold, wind, rain and hills around Barrett, flat ol' Fargo was going to be a piece of cake. I wasn't entirely right, but I wasn't entirely wrong, either.

We (Kris, her mom Annette & yours truly) got to the Fargodome around 7:15 that morning. I found a place to stretch and started warming up. I use a pain relief cream called Biofreeze, and did it ever work that day - no knee or ankle pain until almost the end, and that's saying a lot for me. Here I'm stretching, putting on the Biofreeze and trying to figure out how in the hell the timing chip is supposed to go on my shoe. You know, first marathon stuff. Notice also that I came to represent - that's my Husker running cap I'm wearing, the same one I've been wearing on my runs for almost five years. Ain't it a beauty? You wouldn't believe the number of times I heard "Go Big Red!" on the course. It was freakin' sweet. Gosh.


I did finally figure out how to get the chip on my shoe, but I did it wrong. The red tie is supposed to hold it on the shoe, but I looped the damn thing around itself & attached it to nothing. So I tied it through my laces and hoped that would be good enough. When you go over the starting line, a magnetic reader remembers your race number and starts your personal clock, so hefty boys like me who start in the back of the pack don't get the added two or three minutes it takes to actually reach the starting line after the gun goes off.

One last hug and kiss from my sweetie before I go to the starting line. Again, I'm reminded that I'm a lucky guy. What kind of woman marries a guy who wears running shorts like that?!?!?!?!?

And we're off! It was almost perfect at the beginning of the race - cloudy and 48 degrees with just a little drizzle. The only ominous part was the north wind that hit me as I moved out of the Fargodome toward the start; the final 16 miles were mostly going north, and a wind in your face is bad news at that point.
I should tell you that there are few things in life that are cooler than the start of a marathon. Music, cheering crowds, anticipation - it's pretty intense. Rumor has it my wife started crying just a bit. I think that's pretty awesome.

I felt really strong in the early part of the race, like most first timers. I had set a goal of around 5:00 for the marathon, which meant my early pace should have been about 12:00 per mile. Imagine my astonishment when I ran as slow as I felt I could and started hitting splits of 10:00 per mile. At mile six, Kris and Annette were surprised to see me coming almost 15 minutes ahead of schedule. But I felt like I was taking it really easy, and so I kept going. My 10K split was 1:02.






"Movin' right along [tcha tcha tcha, tcha tcha tcha]...footloose and fancy-free..."

Here I am at mile 10, the point at which the race turns north. My plan was to get to mile 10 at two hours, but I was still on my 10:00 mile pace and so I got here at 1:40. But my breathing was easy and it was still just a fun jog - a really, REALLY long, but fun, jog. Kris & Annette seemed to really enjoy their tour of Fargo, too - apparently they had time between this meetup and the next at mile 17 for Annette to go get a latte. Then they wouldn't let me have any coffee after the race. Meanies. :-(


At Main Avenue the race crosses from Fargo into Moorhead, the first of two times over the Red River. There was a cameraman sitting on the bridge, I guess, although I swear I never saw him. Anyway, he took these two pictures, right about mile 15.5 or so. We had been winding on golf car paths & bike trails along the river for almost four miles, doing lots of short but steep hills and many small but sharp curves, and it was nice to get back onto flat pavement for a while.