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May 10, 2014
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Marathon 47, State 41 (Age 45)
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Fargo, North Dakota
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3:52:33
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Those that know me know that I'm not a big fan of logging
long running millage as part of my marathon training. I am tho a believer of cross training and
substituting longer runs with cycling of need be hours of cardio, however, 2014
weekends the first part of the year have been booked with other commitments which
forced me to miss many of my weekend rides that I'm accustomed to fitting into
my schedule. When busy, the simplest
workout is simply running. While I
logged only 2 long runs this time around, one about 10 miles seven weeks out
and another 11 miles about 3 weeks out.
Knowing I was missing the miles on the bike I instead substituted my
evening 4 mile runs with slightly longer 5-8 mile runs which would give me a
weekly average of over 25 miles.
Since I'm not running marathons for new PR's I have an
unwritten goal each marathon of 4 hours.
This is just a random time I've chosen so I can say I broke 4 hours and
typically doesn't cause too much suffering on race day and also an easy
recovery. Other than a few races either
at elevation, very hilly, or just plain too hot I've managed to reach this
target time every marathon. Fargo is as
flat as a pancake so if someone wanted to run a PR this would be a good course
to do it.
It's been my experience that most marathons are on Sunday,
only a few that I remember (Country Music Marathon in Nashville &
Mississippi Blues) were on Saturday, however, a Saturday night on in a new city
with 1,000's of runners usually makes for a fun after party on Saturday
night! The previous two Saturday races
were with my good friend John which meant I had someone to go out with however
I was flying solo for this adventure so what would unfold I wasn't exactly
sure. Another fantastic thing about a
Saturday race compared to a Sunday race is that it doesn't entail a late hotel
checkout and racing back to the hotel to clean up, pack, and catch a flight
home. At the same time logistics getting
to town require some sleep deprivation in that I had to catch a 5:30 flight
from Los Angeles on Friday morning to get to town, stop by expo, and get
bearings straight. This early flight required
a 3:15 alarm to get to the airport on time which with a 2 hour time difference
I think is equivalent of getting up the day before a marathon at 1:15 local
time so come race morning I'm essentially tired before reaching the start line.
So off from LAX to Denver, not much of a layover so
immediately board next flight to Fargo.
I've been successful at not over packing and fitting everything in a
carry on size backpack. My second flight
was what they call a regional aircraft so while everyone else's carry-ons had to
be checked at the gate I marched on and all my belongings fit easily in the
very small overhead compartment. The
flight was par for the course except the guy that sat next to me on the plane
had his desktop background set to a John Deer lawn mower, which is probably the
last thing I would ever change mine to!
Fargo airport easily could be the smallest airport I've ever flown into,
only 4 gates. A welcome booth was set
up with information for the race so received my directions to the expo, only a
few blocks away, no need to for any highways or exit ramps! Always chances are good when all the
presets on the car rental are country channels there has got to be a good
classic rock station signal nearby. Of
course even more of a bonus my Ford Fusion was equipped with an active Sirius
XM radio subscription, too bad I discovered that on Sunday on was returning to
the airport!
Downtown Fargo was a bit historic and with all the athletes
in town was very vibrant. I parked and followed a trail of runners with their
swag bags from the expo a few short blocks away to the convention center. Very well organized expo and I learned there
were quite a few races along with the marathon including a 5k Friday night and
a 10k, 13.1, and a relay. I think the
marathon had the fewest number of runners at over 2000. Runners received a long sleeve, later I
realize it's a crappy 100% polyester fabric, and a fairly nice Under Armor tote
bag. Never a big fan of this brand they
were one of the sponsors and had a great showing of their products at the
official merchandise table. As a bonus
they heat pressed 3 letters of your choice on your bag, I opted for
"26.2"! It took about 30
minutes to have the letters glued on which was just enough time to walk around
the rest of the expo. This is when I
realized I had forgotten to pack some electrolyte tablets which I've learned
are ever so important for long endurance events such as a marathon, however,
not a single vender had any.
I hopped back in the car and noticed an old train depot that
looked like an interesting place to check out.
While sitting in the car in the parking lot of the depot I looked up on
Hammer Nutrition's website a contact number to see if they could direct me to a
local distributor. Crazy thing is while
still sitting in the car in the parking lot of the depot the address I entered
into the GPS was exactly the location where I was parked, that is, the old
depot was converted to a bike shop and they had my precious Endurolytes! They
also had this cool sign in front of the store!
For the next part of my adventure was finding my hotel, only
a short 4 miles from the downtown area.
One thing I learned for this race is that it’s such a big event for the
community of Fargo that there are more people than hotels. Even reserving a room 3 months out I think I
was lucky to have any room at all so I should be thankful, but with the laws of
supply and demand with scarcity prices are raised. A typical night in downtown at a hotel such
as Howard Johnsons is $76 however marathon weekend this same room goes for
about $175. When I found a room with
about the only hotel with a vacancy and a rate of $73 I wasn’t sure what I was
going to get, reviews online were not favorable but how bad could it be? After all, free wi-fi and continental
breakfast was included so why not give it a shot after all it was actually just
me traveling. Well no surprise the
place was a dump, however, I give them credit they were doing modernization so
decided to stick it out for the two nights, it’s not like there were any other
choices at last minute! For the purpose
of my recap I won’t go into any of the conditions of the room or property, but pretty
much I committed myself to spending absolutely as little time in this hotel as
possible.
So a quick shower and off to find my pre-race grub. The area just outside of downtown where my
hotel was located was actually located in a nice area with all sorts of
attractions for dinning and shopping.
What better than pasta the night before a marathon and how convenient
the first restaurant I see was an Olive Garden. I know the routine, walk past the long line
of athletes waiting outside for a table and have a seat at the bar. Always a great salad and some carbs to wash
it down. Still very early and while
tired, trying to avoid going back to the hotel prematurely I decided to head
back downtown to walk around, find the start line, and explore the area. Delighted, as soon as I arrived downtown to
see that the very large number of runners were just starting the 5k. All shapes and sizes, great to see everyone
exercising! After my jaunt walking
around downtown I stumbled upon a cute little coffee shop which looked like a
great place to grab some wi-fi and sit down and relax before heading back to my
dive for the night.
Finally back to the room, checked weather, confirmed wakeup
call and backup alarms were set, and headed to bed. Little scary morning temperatures to be low
40’s but a relief to see showers weren’t till later Saturday afternoon. Wake, do my morning routine, snag a bagel
with peanut butter, some OJ, and a banana for a light breakfast and head the
couple miles back again toward downtown finding a parking spot a block away
from the finish line and just a few blocks away from the start line. I knew the course was going to be entirely
flat, but didn’t pay much attention to the route other than it started on a
bridge. Since I saw the 5k Friday
night start and head over a bridge downtown, I just assumed that was the same
bridge the marathon started, however, all the cheers and people were
congregating one bridge farther, no problem, just have to walk a little
further. Ends up with only 5 minutes
before the gun, I enter from the start of the race instead of going all the way
to the rear and trying to make my way to the front, much simpler just to go in
from the other side as well makes for a great starting position! =)
I just happened to pick the right bridge, which was the
marathon line, ends up the runners on the other side of the divider line were
all running the half and had a slightly different course. Included in the marathon line were also the
10k runners which I thought was a little strange, but so be it, and also the
relay runners were in the mix as well.
No way to really tell who was running which event, other than bib colors
may have been slightly different in color.
Starting at the front of the line the pace of the pack was fast, however
I planned to stick to my game plan of following my heart rate as well as GPS to stay on track of my 8-9 minute pace from
start to finish.
Since I was lined up in front of all the pace groups, one by
one each of the faster groups passed me.
My goal again was to break 4 hours, so that means the 3:10 group, 3:15
group, and every group in 5 minute intervals began to pass me. For a moment I followed the 3:40 group for a
while then wondered why I was doing that, so settled back into my game plan and
waited for the 3:45 group to go by. Of
course they like the rest surrounded me and then continued on. What was weird is the next group of 3:50
never caught up with me. Either I kept
my pace or they slowed down or both, but I eventually crossed the line with no
signs of them. This meant the flat fast
Fargo course was good to me and I ran one of my fastest marathons since 2011 at
a time of 3:52:33.
The course was great, starting downtown then mostly running
in nice subdivisions throughout the community.
Eventually the 10k’s peeled off and went their own way, but later the
half and full crossed paths again and I caught up with that whole group and
slowly added them to what are known as “kills”, that is passing other
runners. While I got “killed” myself by
a boat load of runners at the start of the race since I started up front so
far, by mile 18-19, I became the “killer” and picked up each runner one by one
all the way to the finish I don’t think anyone passed me beyond mile 18. I did try something new in that I started my
endurolyte tablets very early in the race starting at mile 4 and every two
miles until I ran out about mile 20. I
felt good the last 6 miles of the race and have to believe this is somehow
related vs. not starting intake until later in the race.
Like any race, having nice weather can make it or break an
experience. Ends up for me, Fargo was
near ideal conditions. There was a threat
of rain on race day afternoon, but for the morning the skies were bright blue, later
clouds did roll in and rain, but all morning was fantastic. Apparently wind can be a big concern in the
area where common it can blow 30 mph, however, there was a little wind race
morning, the route which most meandered between housing subdivisions provided
adequate shelter from the wind. Also the
course had so many changes of direction, if the wind was in your face it never
was for very long. 
Actually something cool I learned after the race is that Fargo
actually borders Minnesota, so there is a brief section of the course where you
actually go over the bridge and run a couple miles through another state! Also this was part of the torturous part of
the route because just when you are about back to the finish line and can hear
the music and cheering the course takes a turn and sends you across the river
into the other state! Not for long,
soon you’re back in North Dakota and funneled back downtown on the main drag of
Broadway street. All in all the course
was great, again flat and fast, but also great crowd participation
throughout. There were also many bands
as well as dj’s cranking out music for both the runners and fans lined up along
the route.
The finish line was a happening place with a live band set
up in the middle of the street. A great
finisher medal as well as a paper jacket which would have come in more handy
had the weather became crummy. From
the finish line again back to my weekend strategy of avoiding my own hotel, I
staked out a downtown hotel with easy access to shower and pool, so grabbed my
change of clothes and got cleaned up and relaxed in the hot tub for a while
enjoying the company of a couple Canadians that had driven south for the
weekend for the half marathon.
By this time I was feeling a little hungry so finally jumped
in the car to head back out a few miles into the suburbs where I had a great
lunch at a place called Granite City Food & Brewery. After lunch right out the door stood a very
nice Ramada Inn & convention center, so stopped into check out the place
and burned another hour in their pool area enjoying my 2nd hot tub
post marathon! I’m starting to dig this
not running to catch a flight after the race routine such as any typical Sunday
race. Next to the Ramada was a mall, so
bought some more time and loosed up the legs a bit by doing a once walk around
to check it out.
By this time I was already thinking about eating again and
for some reason a burrito was sounding good, however, after stopping in a local
Mexican restaurant it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so I decided to head
back downtown. There was supposed to be
a post marathon party in the streets of Fargo, however, with the rain I wasn’t
sure what would be going on. I also did
a search online for the best buffalo burgers in Fargo and all the reviews
pointed to a place downtown called HoDo Restaurant. Well, ends up HoDo was right dab in the
middle of downtown next to the stage and I lucked out to find a seat at the
bar, ordered my dinner as well as a frosty beverage. Positioned well, I was able to meet several
groups from all over and share our marathon stories.
Too much excitement for one day so time to head out and go
to bed. When I returned to my (dive)
hotel I could see that I had a message from my airline, they had notified me
that my return flight was cancelled Sunday and to call to reschedule. So much for hitting the hay, now I had to
figure out a plan how I was going to get home.
The first representative suggested I stay a 2nd night and fly
home Monday, I think not. Finally they
switched my travel completely off of United and over to Delta, which meant
instead of flying home through Denver I get to fly home through Minneapolis. No problem, still get home the same time, I
accept and out in no time at all.
Sunday morning began the long adventure home, however, with
no wake up call I could hardly believe I slept in till 10:30, but no worries,
flight doesn’t leave till 3:30, just enough time to pack, stop by Qdoba for
lunch and head to the airport. A little
different checking in when there are only 4 gates. I found a table and sat down for an hour and
enjoyed a Red Bull, then walked over to my gate, this is where I was greeted by
a TSA agent for walking around with an open container. After explaining there was no alcohol we
both laughed and I was soon on my way toward home.
Last part of the adventure that I thought was a little
funny, I actually logged my race time on MarathonGeeks.com exactly 1 hour to
long, a friend pointed this out when I went to change it I figured out there
was another MarathonGeek that I actually had met years ago in Portland and he
finished Fargo Marathon exactly 60 seconds after me. Since I didn’t realize this until a day
later, it was funny I didn’t even know he was in town for the same race at the
same time and nearly the same finish! Small
world!
Fargo Marathon (North Dakota) 5/1014
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Total Marathons
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47
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Total States
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41
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1
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8:09
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2
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8:09
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3
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8:13
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4
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8:16
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5
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8:43
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6
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8:24
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10k
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51:47
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7
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8:38
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8
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9
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17:38
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10
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11
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17:38
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12
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8:49
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13
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8:57
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13.1
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1:52:10
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14
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8:50
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15
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9:00
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16
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9:00
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17
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8:49
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18
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9:02
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19
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20
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18:13
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21
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9:13
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22
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23
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18:59
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24
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9:40
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25
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9:13
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26
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9:24
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0.2
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1:56
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26.2
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3:52:33
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Avg/mile
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8:53
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