Memorial Day weekend is well known as a busy weekend to travel. My flight was a Friday evening red eye flight from out of LAX. The place was a zoo. It was also one of the few times that I've flown with Delta. With a window seat, I tried to sleep as much as I could on the plane, but the seat was just too uncomfortable. The pilot must have somewhere to get to because he got us to Minneapolis St. Paul airport about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I took my time heading over to the car rental area. I had to wait a bit before I could get my car. I got a nice little Kia Rio. They always try to give me a bigger car, but it's just me and I always travel light so I declined the bigger car.
I made the nice and somewhat long drive down to Rochester. This was my first time using the GPS on my smartphone. It does come in handy, but I pretty much ignored the directions the whole time. Stupid machines. :) Unlike driving in Southern California, the drive was nice and relaxing. I could drive the speed limit, 65 mph, and not feel like I was going to get run over by the millions of cars behind me. This was also my first time in the Minneapolis St. Paul area as well as Rochester. I kind of like the slower pace... but I'm guessing it could get boring.
I got into Rochester a bit early around 8am. I thought that I would park at a ramp (aka parking structure) and take a nap, but the free weekend parking doesn't start until 9am. Fortunately parking was free for the first hour, so I parked anyways and walked over to the Mayo Civic Center area to check things out. They were in the process of setting up the finish area for the weekend races.
The finish line
I went back to my car and had to find a few things to do to kill some more time. So I drove to a nearby McDonald's to eat breakfast. I rarely eat here, but only do so when I need to save some money. I had a sausage McMuffin meal with orange juice. I waited until it was after 9am before heading back to one of the ramps near the Civic Center. I waited in my car until it was closer to 10am before heading over to the expo. The expo was pretty crowded. I picked up my packet and got into a secondary line for the shirt.
Sausage McMuffin, breakfast of champions
Packet pick-up at the expo
After leaving the expo, I stopped by the Hy-Vee supermarket across the street from my hotel, the GuestHouse Inn, to pick up Pringles and drinks before attempting to check into my room early. Housekeeping needed time to get the rooms ready so I hung out in the lobby with my smartphone and charger. After the lady at the desk was able to check me in, a huge thunderstorm had rolled right through Rochester. It was pouring too hard for me to get to my car, so I went up to my room to wait out the storm.
The room was pretty spacious, but on the older side. I noticed that the toilet was dry. I flushed it and it was backed up. So I located housekeeping and asked for a plunger. It looked like the previous tenant wiped too much and stuffed it with too much paper, but it was pretty easy to unclog. :)
GuestHouse Inn
I like rooms with a fridge
I relaxed while watching TV. The storm lasted a couple of hours with some areas being pelted with quarter-sized hail. I was hoping there would be no hail where I was at because I don't need a damaged rental car. Lucky for me, the car was not hit by hail. Once the storm passed through, the weather slowly warmed up and become really humid just in time for a marathon. :)
Since I needed to get my stuff from the car, I decided that I might as well get something to eat and drove back to McDonald's for a late lunch/early supper, which I took to-go. I got 20 pieces of chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac. I'm not sure when I last at McDonald's twice in one day. Probably never. Well, McDonald's was one of the event sponsors for the race. :)
McDonald's for a late lunch/early supper
I went through the stuff I got from the expo. The participant's shirt was pretty nice, nicer than most races. We also received a souvenir timing chip which I kind of like. I'm kind of tired of those orange disposable ones. If anyone wants the Subaru water bottle, let me know and it's yours.
Participant shirt, bib, souvenir timing chip, and water bottle
Since I ate lunch kind of late, I ate a tube of Pringles as my final meal before the race while watching the NBA playoffs. In the future, I probably should eat a baked potato with salt instead of Pringles, but I really do love me some Pringles. I've limit myself to eating them only for races. I haven't been very successful in giving them up entirely. Before calling it a night, I got my gear ready. I brought my new pair of Asics Sky Speed 2.
Celtics v. 76ers and Pringles
Race gear
Sunday
After getting ready for the race, I headed back to Civic Center to park at one of the ramps. Around 5am, I boarded one of the school buses for a short ride over to the Byron Elementary School. They opened the school for us to wait inside before the start of the race. As the start got closer, we were instructed to move over to the starting area up the road. They even had a jumbo screen setup. Pretty nice for a $30 race. I guess race costs are much cheaper in Rochester. One problem was that their speaker system was entirely inadequate. I was lined up right in the middle with the 4 hr marathon pacer, but we could not hear a thing, including the national anthem. At least we were able to hear the start signal.
Starting line
The Race
I started off the race very relaxed and kept reminding myself to go easy. I tried to keep all of the early miles 9 minutes or slower. Everything was going well until around mile 5. I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my right ankle. Very similar to the pain that I felt at the Houston Marathon. Coincidentally both times that I've felt this pain, it was also the week after running a Goofy (half marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday). It was the sort of pain that made me think that I would have to drop out. I walked and jogged in an attempt to try and alleviate the pain. Eventually it subsided. I noticed that it was set off by the road camber. I felt good enough to speed up a little bit through miles 9-12. I got through the first half in 2:09:46.
Race photo by Nicole Mathison
The race at this point was getting pretty toasty. The race director had extra aid stations set up all along the second half. There was plenty of ice cubes being passed out. I can't say that I remember too much of the 2nd half. It was just a whole lot of concentrating and trying to keep the effort even. I was very worn out by mile 25. The heat was getting to me. I was very glad that the race was almost over. They had a huge American flag about a block away from the finish line. That was a nice target to have as you're approaching the finish. The finishing chute was lined with a lot of spectators. I finished the 2nd half in 2:36:49.
1: 8:54
2: 9:12
3: 9:03
4: 10:01
5: 10:56
6: 11:25
7: 10:27
8: 10:32
9:-10: 18:50 (9:25)
11: 9:24
12: 9:45
13: 10:17
14: 11:46
15: 10:49
16: 10:52
17: 11:40
18: 12:25
19: 12:01
20: 10:51
21: 11:39
22: 12:47
23: 11:26
24: 12:05
25: 13:28
26.2: 15:59
Finish: 4:46:35
Post-race
One of the funniest thing I was asked right after I crossed the finish line was "did you remember to stop your watch?" Maybe he was seeing if I was doing okay by asking me a basic question. It was pretty dang hot and humid. Anyways, I got my medal and a very nice red finisher shirt. There are shirts you donate and there are shirts that you know you'd keep. This was definitely one that I would wear often. I picked up a few drinks and headed over to my car. I changed out of my wet race shirt and relaxed a bit in the car before driving back to my hotel.
Finisher shirt and medal
One of the things that I like about endurance running is that there is a lot of on-your-feet problem solving involved. I went from wanting to drop out at about mile 5 to running my first sub 5 hour marathon since the Carlsbad Marathon way back in January 23, 2011. There's just a lot of stuff that can happen over 26.2 miles.
A few of my friends had registered for this race, but bailed for different reasons. I had thought about doing the same since getting to Rochester, MN was not cheap. But in hindsight, I was very glad that I ran this race. I loved the small town race feel to it. The level of organization and the treatment of the runners was exceptional. I would run this race every year if I lived nearby.
A Famous Dave was conveniently connected to the hotel. I ordered to-go some rib tips, roasted chicken, and broccoli to eat in my room. Very good stuff after running a marathon. I was definitely craving protein and I love rib tips for the cartilage.
Famous Dave's rib tips and roasted chicken
Monday
The next morning, I vegged out in my hotel room until it was time to check out. Since my flight was later in the afternoon, I headed over to the nearby movie theater, CineMagic Theatre, to watch Men in Black 3. The movie was entertaining but not a must-see movie. I watched it in regular 2D. I'm starting to think 3D is very overrated. I then drove back up to Minneapolis St. Paul to catch my flight. I had time to eat so I ate at the Mill City Tavern near my gate. This place was pretty expensive and totally not worth it. The beer was good, but I could've bought a 6 pack somewhere else. The ham sandwich with Gouda was decent, but still it was overpriced for a sandwich. I think two flights got combined, which resulted in my seat being changed to one way in the back near the restrooms. Worst place to sit. My seat assignments almost always change when I book through Orbitz or Travelocity as opposed to booking directly with the airline. LAX was a zoo when I got back... home sweet home! :)
Rush River Unforgiven Amber Ale
Ham sandwich with Gouda
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