What a weekend!

Mission: Accomplished! 26.2 miles and 4 hours, 21 minutes, and 52 seconds worth of mission: accomplished. And I have to say, I don’t think I’ll be able to stay away from that newly-discovered world for long. It truly was an incredible weekend. For anyone not interested in the play by play, you can stop reading here. But, for memory’s sake, and because I’m still excited about this, the entry continues =)…

"Friend from college" Carl, "Friend from small group" Rachel, "Friend of a friend" Laura, and I drove up Friday afternoon. We then took in the expo (stocked up on power gel, which is 500,000x better than clif shots, for anyone who can use the info!), and ate a nice spaghetti dinner. Back at the hotel I went over my carefully-planned packing lists, laid out clothes, attached my number, and played some cards w/ Carl (in an attempt to think of anything but running). I think I also drank a full Nalgene and a Powerade during that hour of card playing… every time I thought about the marathon I’d get thirsty!

The alarm went off Saturday morning at 5 am. Rachel, Laura, and I got ready quickly, and headed to the little bus Rachel’s dad had to bring the Dischinger family (and guests, such as myself) to the start. We hit the port-o-potties right away, threw our sweat bags in the truck, and spent some quality time trying to pretend we were not going to be running for the next 4+ hours. We then waited in what had become quite a line for the port-o-potties again, during which time we heard “O Canada”, and the jets flew overhead. Pretty sure that was supposed to happen during the US National Anthem, as opposed to Canada’s, but it was still pretty sweet =). The Star Spangled banner followed, the port-o-potties opened up, and we then wove through many many people up to the 4:00 start to find Rachel’s family. Her cousin was just polishing off a pre-race Mountain Dew (what!?), and the crowd started moving. Yep, shocker, being that I hadn’t even heard the gun (guess we were quite a ways back… no sound of the gun, and the clock read 3 minutes before we hit the actual start line).

The first few miles really did fly by, and Laura and I stuck together for quite a while. The fog was thick, and we hit the lake somewhere around mile 6 I think. We walked through the water stations (every two miles) to make sure the fluid actually made it into our systems. Mile 7 was designated as a bathroom stop and Rachel passed us… saying we’d catch up later. Mystery of the weekend is that we never saw her again, but passed her along the way somewhere… who knows.

I read many things beforehand saying you have to have a game plan for a marathon. So mine was to save my energy for the first 10 miles… go out slow, keep a nice steady pace. Mantra for the next 10 miles was to be “This is what I saved for”, and the last 6.2 were to be run completely on the energy drawn from the spectators, bands, music, cheerleaders, etc. Mile 10 still felt good though, so I decided to save for a little longer, assuming I’d crash later on and be glad I had taken it easy. Well, the wall never really hit… miles 6-21 were spent in awe of the beautiful landscape. The fog on the lake, the stretches of road completely lined by trees, and then the brief stretches of crowds cheering us on. It was nice to have some areas of quiet, as that was how I had trained. Some great time to just think about beauty, the pre-race encouragement I received from so many of you in the form of e-mails, notes, and phone calls, and chat with my ever-faithful running buddy Laura.

Let’s talk weather for a minute. Now I knew about the flag system… green means good, but slight chance of hypothermia. Yellow means caution… drink lots of fluids. Red means slow pace and drink lots of fluids. Black means you should consider not running. I knew it was foggy, and warmer than expected, but I didn’t find out until today (two days after the race) that the flags were red at the beginning, and black by the end! I believe I enjoy warmer running temperatures than others, because I thought conditions were really pretty ideal, despite the fog at the beginning which was difficult to breathe, and the sun which was a little beady toward the end. I’m glad to have trained in a variety of conditions, as the weather Saturday didn’t really surprise me.

Carl met us around mile 12.5 w/ some bananas, and again at mile 15 or so w/ some extra gel and chapstick. He was a real trooper for the weekend, and did a great job of catching us at different places along the way! Laura got dehydrated at mile 16 or so and decided to walk so I lost my running buddy, but it felt like the race was almost over by that point (ahh, how easily deceived I was!). I chatted for a bit with some nice guys behind me who were fascinated with the fact that the back of my shirt said “Hal” (the front said “Mik”, to avoid the pronunciation difficulties that come w/ the whole name which would only result in frustration from myself), but mostly spent those last 10 miles in prayer, and soaking in the faces of the spectators cheering us on.

I meet a friendly face at mile 23 in the form of my dear roommate Brooke, and it was a joy to see her! What a difference it makes to know there are people out there cheering for you! That extra encouragement was needed. I still wasn’t pushing as hard as I could, but lemon drop hill did sap a good bit of energy at mile 22! Thank goodness I had been warned before-hand that it wasn’t all downhill from there… there were still a couple of pesky hills (not to mention many many turns) before the finish line! But from 21 on (when we hit Duluth), the spectators did a great job of providing some extra energy. The music was great, and helped a ton, as did the other wonderful faces… miles 23-25 were probably the hardest, but then there was Sandy around mile 24 ½, and my parents at 25 ½ to keep me going! Plus, I still did feel I had some left in me… I knew I could do it!

I’m not sure at what point that realization hit me, that I really was going to finish, but it was pretty great. Not to mention the fact that I had set a goal of 5 hours, and ended up running (not on purpose, just worked out this way) with the 4:15 pacers for a good bit of the race. I never thought I’d finish in less than 4:30, and was overjoyed to finally catch sight of those beautiful balloon arches around the last turn in the course, and the clock over the finish line displaying 4:24-something. I sprinted (what was to me, at that point, sprinting) the last .2 miles or so to beat the clock to 4:25, crossed the finish line, and smiled in amazement. It was over. What had been my goal for 4 months, and a dream for longer was over, accomplished, and it wasn’t even that bad! I slowed to a disjointed sort of “oh wow, my muscles DO hurt” sort of walk, got my medal and shirt, stumbled to the line of beautiful people taking chips off of shoes so we didn’t have to bend down, got my flower, and was on my way out of the finish shoot. I met Dad and Dana soon after, took a dip in the lake, and reveled in the fact that one big life goal had been accomplished. That cold water felt wonderful on tired muscles and sore feet, but I reluctantly got out to begin the search for my dear friends. Miraculously, we found Carl w/ no designated meeting point, then Laura came along not long after, and Rachel soon after her (finishing in 4:33, and 5:15). It was pretty fabulous to have friends with whom to share the sense of accomplishment, the tired muscles, the sunburn, and even the armpit chaffing.

I was too full of water and Ultima to even want the ice cream offered at the end, and I never saw those free turkey sandwiches, so that meal we ate later at Grandma’s tasted pretty amazing. Chicken Cheese French and a Honeyweiss never tasted better. In between there was a good-bye with my parents, a few moments of downpour, an adventure re-connecting with people, a long and unsuccessful attempt to find a shower, and finally, a really fabulous shower back at the hotel. After dinner there was an unsuccessful attempt to redeem our drink coupons received at the end of the race, and then we spent the remainder of the evening at Grandma’s Sports Garden.

Yesterday (Sunday), we woke up, bought a Duluth paper to read about the marathon, stretched a bit, and were on our way back to the cities. The ride was a little rough (rather, getting out of the car at the END of the ride was a little rough), but we made it in one piece, and I even managed to play a bit of ultimate frisbee that afternoon with some friends in South Minneapolis. The evening was spent with roommates and couple of quality episodes of Lost, on the couch, feet in the air =).

I tested my body, and the result is back: it works! It can do pretty incredible things, and the challenge truly is fun! I may have spent some time already researching different marathons around the US, but I think the next might just have to be next year, back in Duluth. A marathon in a city might be a little difficult after the beauty of that lake and the tree-lined road. Besides that, marathon was only goal #1 for my 22nd year on this earth. I need my time back! ...Now it’s time to study for and take the GMATs, a little brain discipline as opposed to the physical challenge.

I praise God when I think about all the factors contributing to this phase in my life. The discipline and determination in training were purely from Him. The moments when I could go no further but just kept running were from Him. The cold rain I trudged through on the 15-mile run which gave me the confidence I could deal with any weather was from Him. Similary the heat over Memorial Day weekend when I ran the 20-miler was from Him. And you, my friends and family who provided much support and encouragement are wonderful gifts from Him. I do praise God from whom ALL blessings flow, and look forward with excitement to what next marathon-day will bring!