Grandma's Marathon 2010:

Well, another great Grandma's marathon in the books. 2010 was a little light on runners this year, with 5,500 finishers, but the competition was even stronger than last year and the post race festivities were just as fun.

This year only one of friend ran with me at the marathon but I had about 8 or 9 other friends from my run club run, which was great to get to see a bunch of people that I knew. This year the weather was actually pretty good, it stayed in the low 60's for most of the race. I managed to improve upon my time from last year by about a minute, but about 8 minutes off of my PR.

Unfortunately, I seemed to have died again the last 6 miles of the race, despite taking it a bit easier the first half, running a 1:22 first half slit. I think that my big problems is lack of leg strength and more specifically my hip flexors. I think it is more to do with muscular balance than anything. I think that too much of my strength training this year was focused on my gluts and calves or the back side of my legs. I guess I have about 3 months to strengthen up to get ready for Chicago. I really feel that I can run at or around a 6 min pace for the entire race, but just need a little more strength.

All in all it was an amazing time again in Duluth, I think that Duluth is one of my more favorite cities to visit, especially for someone you like to get outside and enjoy the outdoors there is so much to do in the Duluth area and there is so much beautiful areas near by. Hopefully I can get back up there sometime this summer or fall and get back on the trails and do some running.

Link to my Race Results

Finish Line Video:

Grandma's Marathon 2009 Results

Sorry for the delayed response and lack of posted these past few days.  I had some technical difficulties with my computer, my usually reliable Mac Book Pro crashed on me.  

Anyways the Grandma's marathon went great.  It was very hot out I think it was around 70 degrees at the start and high 70's-80 at the end.  I still managed to run a good race, I finished 2 minutes slower than my personal best.  Here are the results:

Grandma's Marathon 2009:

Time: 2:53:58

Overall Place: 67th

Division Place 40th of 1461

Sex Place: 56 of 3702

First 10K: 42:27

13.1 Mile Mark: 1:28:25

20 Mile Mark: 2:13:12

25 Mile Mark: 2:46:14

Last 10K: 40:46

Pace: 6:39

All in all another great Grandma's marathon, despite the heat and nearly half the number of finishers as normal.  Duluth puts on a great marathon and again I had a blast the whole weekend.

Count Down to the Grandma's Marathon 2009

3 Days until the Grandma's marathon.  I'm pretty excited for the Grandma's marathon, this will be my 4th year running and it is a really fast course and it is just a really good race the whole weekend is a lot of fun.  

I am hoping to do well, I don't really know how in shape I am but it is a fast course and I felt pretty good at the Minneapolis marathon.  I think that if I don't go out too fast I think I can do well.  I'd like to think I can break 2:50:00  We'll see, if I can break into the top 100 I'd be really happy.