Grandma's 2006

I did it! With great pain and a tremendous lack of mental fortitude, I finished the Garry Bjorklund half marathon in Duluth on Saturday, June 17, 2006. OMG!! The pain was much more than I anticipated. For someone who was formerly a very experienced 10K runner (20 years ago, almost feels like a former life), I couldn't believe what a difference it makes to run those extra miles.

In the old days I was all about speed. I could run at a six minute per mile pace for the 6.2 miles of a 10K. Probably never ran more than 7 miles on any one day in my life, and that includes the "training" I did for the half marathon which was minimal at best. As you can imagine, it is hard on the psyche to end up with a pace of almost 11 minutes per mile after mixing in several walking stretches just to make sure I didn't pass out. Now it is the day after and I have never had such pain in my legs. Going up the stairs hurts, but going down the stairs is about five times as bad.

My friend Mark Peterson (# 988 in the picture) is the CIO at Inver Hills CC and he ran with me for the first twelve miles but I just couldn't keep going so I pulled back and let him keep running all the way to the finish. He has done this several times and knew exactly how to handle it. As painful as this was, I'll still consider doing it again next year since I really believe that I can do better....and I'm all about continuous quality improvement (although my legs are not in agreement right now).