Twin Cities Marathon 2008
Tomorrow I am running in my third marathon, the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon - 2008. I ran this marathon in 2006 and 2007 as well.
In 2006 the weather was beautiful. You couldn't ask for anything better. This race was mostly fun with only a little pain, well, unleast until after the race. It was an excellent experience that made me want to continue running marathons.
In 2007 the weather was way too hot. The starting temperature was 74 degrees and the ending temperature was 86 degrees. For 20 miles of the race there was no clouds, no breeze, just sun and heat. The marathon officials would likely have called the race had the cloud cover not rolled in for last bit of the race. It was a very painful race. I was exhausted and dehydrated. I experienced heat stroke symptoms the rest of that day. As a statistician, or I should say, biostatistician, I thought to myself the probablity of similar weather conditions in next year's TC Marathon was highly unlikely.
Here I am running the marathon tomorrow. I am going into this race knowing that this is my last marathon for the next few years. I am thinking more and more about running half-marathons or maybe the TC 10-mile. I think the training runs over 15 miles this year were on the boring side. So if I run a marathon again, I will have to join a running club.
In previous years, I built up anxiety before the race. However, this year, I am just plain excited. I have set no goal for myself. I feel that way I can really just enjoy the run. Tomorrow there is a 68% chance of rain during the marathon and a small chance of thunderstorms. If there is lightening then they will call the race, so let's just hope there is no lightening. I actually ran my 20-mile training run in the rain. So rain, though not ideal, will have to be good enough. I know I can do it!
Thank you all for your emails of support and sharing your experiences with me. I haven't had time to respond to all of them, but I can assure you I have read all of them. Best of luck to all you runners out there!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. ~ I have learned so much more this summer while running again. I am thinking about continuing my blog segments about running techniques, methods, and running chemistry, like building up blood vessels and different sources of protein. Things I never thought of until this summer. Very interesting and I would love to share!