Scheels Fargo Marathon - May 17, 2008

We are back from our trip to beautiful Fargo where I ran the Fargo Marathon. Emily and Andrew made the trip with us and were a huge help to Gail in navigating the course as well as a huge help to me with their cheers and enthusiasm. Despite warmer than expected temperatures and head-on gale force winds during miles 20- 24, the weather was fairly nice. Race temp was 61 at the start and 70 at the finish, much improved from the tropical Twin Cities Marathon last October, but with the sun beating down all day and our unseasonably cool spring, it felt a bit warmer to me than it really was. The humidity was low which also helped.

It was a weird marathon in that it was 3 races in one.  2000 of us ran the full marathon but there were another 8000 who ran either the half marathon or the 4-person marathon relay.  But we all started the race together at the same time and same course other than the half marathon eventually broke off our course.  As we passed each leg of the marathon relay I would notice runners on the course looking fresh as a daisy and then I realized it was just a new runner several hundred yards into their 6.5 mile leg of the relay.

Anyway, my goal was to run my first sub 4-hour marathon and I did it just barely (by 7 seconds!). I also finished 439th among 1,440 who actually finished the marathon and 39th of 109 men in my age class (50-55). My finishing time was 3:59:53, which looks good on paper. I wish I could say I had to pick up the pace and finish strong to achieve this, but the truth is I was hanging on for dear life during the final 5 grueling miles - most of which were run into a strong headwind with fine pieces of sand in the air that tended to blind you if you didn't squint while you ran. My pace really fell off dramatically and I was literally running on fumes those last 5 miles.

Now the fun part of the race. The race began just outside the Fargo Dome. I felt great through the first 18 miles, running a consistent 8:35/mile pace which translates into a 3:46 marathon. I felt like I was on cruise control and could maintain this pace for the entire race. never felt like I was pushing too hard or wasting precious energy. Then I sensed one of my pistons was occasionally misfiring. The Fargo course was actually very interesting as we traversed through parks, golf courses, scenic river roads, quaint business districts and beautiful residential areas.

Since I already shared my actual time, you now know that my solid and consistent pace felt apart near the end.  I lost almost a minute/mile to my pace in miles 19-21, averaging about a 9:30 pace. Then I really hit the wall for the last 5 miles, running a 10:20 pace. My body wasn't terribly sore or hobbled, but I just had nothing left in the tank no matter how much water I drank or Cliff Bar bites I took to generate some energy. The wind and sun took their toll as well and it was all I could do to drag myself back to the Fargo Dome where the final 70 yards finished inside the Dome.

All in all, I am very happy to have achieved the sub 4 hour goal I set for myself, but also a little disappointed as I fooled myself during the race that I was going to cross the line around 3:50 or better based on how I felt through the majority of the race. This late race endurance thing is something I will need to improve upon this summer as I train for the Chicago Marathon in mid October.

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=7814&relist_record_type=result&lower_bound=0&upper_bound=1427&use_previous_sql=1&group_by=default#racetop