Fargo Marathon (Armed Forces Day)

               Here we are in Fargo for my 5^th time participating in the Fargo Marathon Events (1 half marathon '05 and 4th Full Marathon 09' 11' 12' 13').  Last year I ran the marathon 2 weeks after Ironman St George with goal just to finish under 3:45. This year was a different story as I entered into the race to qualify for the North Dakota State National Guard Marathon team and break my marathon PR as I started my train up for Ironman Wisconsin.  Fargo is a flat and fast course if you need a course to get a PR or Boston Qualifying time on; this is the one to do.  

Jess and I before the race

         
         Able to share race morning with my wife, Jess, this year as she was running the half marathon added something special this this race.  We were up early and to the dome at 6:30 an hour before her race started at 7:30. She didn’t quite share the excitement of race morning with me but she was there and ready.  It was cloudy and raining with temps in the upper 50’s that morning.  Jess was going to run with her brother and sister in law for the half so we linked up with them so they could head to the start line together. Once they took off for the start line I began my own preparation. The marathon started at 8:10 so I had a good 40 minutes before I needed to be at the start line myself.  I was able to take advantage of Jess that morning to apply some sunscreen.  I took in my 2 scoops of UCAN Cran-Raz and had a scoop of UCAN Lemonade mixed in a flask bottle to carry with me during the race.  I turned in my drop bag, headed outside for my warm up and then headed over to the start line.  I got to the start line around 8:00 with the rain still coming down I think some were waiting till the last minute to leave the comfort of the dome as the announcer was desperately calling runners to the start line.

                Had a plan to run with the 3:15 pace group but that morning I thought why not try to stay in front of them?  So I positioned myself behind the elite runners and in front of the 3:15 pace group.  After the prayer and national anthem I was pumped and ready to go. The gun went off and I crossed the mat only 5 seconds afterward.  I stayed comfortable, relaxed and kept around 7:20 min/mile pace.  Not trying to sprint the first mile with the lead group.  Settling in to my pace, I just took in the race.  With the overcast and light rain for a majority of the morning it made for perfect running weather.  I was able to bump up the pace after linking up with another runner from the Mankato Multisport Club who I ended up running the rest of the race with.  He had run Boston the month before and was looking to make another Boston Qualifying time (3:10). I figured that was an obtainable goal with the training I had done prior.

                Fargo has always been a great race with the volunteers and community support so it was good to be running the streets again.  This year the race was on Armed Forces Day and American flags lined the race course which was a great feeling.  With my National Guard singlet on for this race, I was getting a number of “Thank you” and “Go Guard” comments throughout the day that helped push me along as seeing a number of familiar faces along the route as in previous years. We continued to clip away the miles with a number of out and back sections; we were able to see those in front and behind a couple of times.  Ended up keeping close to a 7:12 pace through the 20k and half marathon point, not sure at what point the rain stopped. But by that time I was already soaked so it didn’t make a difference. Coming up on mile 17 I started to take pulls of my UCAN that I carried with though the next few water stations.  (Side note on nutrition: complete marathon was done on UCAN and water.)  I was feeling good and was ready to pick up the pace to the finish. The sun had decided to come out which compounded with the humidity making the running conditions tougher then the first 20 miles.  It was some tough going but I realized it was affecting the other runners too because I was passing a number of marathon runners during the last 10k of the race. We were finally about 2-3 miles from the end I could tell the pace started to fade, my running partner had started to pull away but I just kept the pace I was at. I took a look over my shoulder, there wasn’t anyone behind me.  Now it was just down to the heat, humidity and last 2 miles of the race. It was all familiar area, once I hit mile 25 I knew I was going to be close to 4 minutes under my goal time.  Now just to run this last mile, with the dome in sight it was all coming together.  I had made my way to the dome parking lot and coming around the north side to run down the ramp in the dome. I think just the downhill and feeling the cool air in the dome pushed me just pass the runner in front of me. Which he of course began to race me, I wasn’t going to let that happen so the last bit was a deadsprint(click for proof). I came crossed the finish line 3:10:58 (Results)!! 50^th place overall and 11/137 in my Age Group can’t complain about that.  Last year (previous fastest marathon in Fargo), I was 383 overall and 57/166 so have come a long ways.

                After crossing the finish line I turned around and shook the guy’s hand and head toward the water, met up with my running partner for most of the race with another hand shake. Then finally met up with the family, wow what a great race and then to have the support of all of them at the finish (Jess and my boys who brought both sets of their grandparents).  It was a Marathon PR, qualified to represent the North Dakota National Guard at the Lincoln Marathon in May ’14 and got to talk races stories from both the full and half with Jess, couldn’t have asked for a better race. 

Next year the Fargo Marathon will start on the Main Ave Bridge between F-M just like it did its first year in 2005 when I ran my first half marathon. This won't be one to miss lets just hope no white stuff like there was in '05.