On May 9th, my twin and I woke up early in the morning and prepared for my 6th marathon and her 2nd. We both got up early enough to eat some food and then hit the pillow for another hour worth of sleep. It was a chilly windy morning in Fargo with a feel like temperature of 21 degrees. It was however 32 degrees outside with temperatures increasing throughout the morning. We wore our warmest clothes that we had brought as it was suppose to have been 10 – 15 degrees warmer at the start then it was. Luckily, it did start warming up and we ended up wearing the right amount of clothes. We were just glad that it wasn’t like the day before which had been rainy, colder and very windy. We took the chillness of the morning and the wind instead of the cold rain.
Brent graciously woke up and took us to a bus drop off point which was not too far from where we were staying. The bus was nice and toasty warm. The buses started taking people to the start which was being held at the Fargodome at 5 in the morning. We would told to get there as early as we could because it has been a hassle in the years past to make it to your race on time. The marathon didn’t start until 7:30 am, so Krista and I decided to board a bus at 6 am. We figured that we would have plenty of time to make it a few miles that early in the morning. We were right. In fact, I think we could have waited even longer which would have meant more sleep. Although as usual, I didn’t sleep very well that night anyways. I guess it wouldn’t have mattered too much.
The bus dropped us off at the Fargodome minutes after we had hopped on to it. We headed inside quickly to get out of that wind and cold. Yes, the race started and ended inside the dome! What a great way to start a race on a chilly day. We wondered around the dome loosening up our legs and wasting time. We had over an hour to hang out inside this building. What to do? We took a couple photos, went to the bathroom, walked around, sat in one section, walked around and sat in another section and then finally about 15-30 minutes before the race we finally headed down to the starting area. I wasn’t too nervous for this race knowing that I didn’t have a specific time goal other than to try and make it under 5 hours. Being 15 weeks pregnant, I didn’t know what to expect. Not having too high of expectations made it easier for me to run and enjoy the race with my twin.
The final preparations were being made to start the event. There were a few speakers includind Deena Kastor (take a moment to look her up if you don’t know who she is). Then that was followed by a prayer. This wasn’t just a quick little one either. It was a nice 5 minute or so long prayer. I was astonished and loved it! I have never been to a race that has done that. Then the National Anthem was sung and we all moved closer to the starting line. The gun went off along with fireworks. My twin and I were now starting our marathon.
We ran out of the Fargodome and into the fresh air. It was chilly outside, but it had warmed up a couple of degrees which made a difference. We were both feeling good and we were very excited to be running. We finally started warming up after the first couple miles and we were ready to ditch our first layer. We both were feeling great expect like most pregnant women, I needed to use the bathroom. We passed a few by due to long lines and I waited for several miles pushing myself faster to find a port-a-potty. We however found Brent first and threw our tops layers at him. He was somewhere around mile 7 and we were feeling great. After passing by him, we finally found a port-a-potty around mile 8.5. I felt so much better.
My twin and I kept the pace going for a while with several bathroom stops along the way. The sports drinks and GU energy gels weren’t sitting right with the baby. At least, I am going to blame it on that. We eventually ran over the bridge and into Moorhead, MN. Over there we went through a couple of colleges before heading back into Fargo. I later asked Brent if this counted as a marathon in Minnesota as well. He said no. It has to start and finish! Ha! I wasn’t planning on really counting it anyways. I don’t know if you know this, but I want to run a marathon in all 50 states. I think it is a good lifetime goal. I have done 6 marathons in 6 different states now.
Nothing eventful happened during the rest of the race other than I started slowing down more and more. My body was starting to feel the pounding of the road. I once again blame it on the baby. My body is changing and I could tell that it was a little rough. With about 6-7 miles to go, my twin and I decided to start taking a few walk breaks every mile to help with the hips starting to get sore. Of course when we decided to take our first walk break, we saw Brent again. Figures, right? Oh well. I knew the rest of the race would go slow.
We kept moving and just took our time when needed. We saw Brent and another family member several times over the last few miles. Since we were running slow, it made it easy for them to move to another spot to cheer us on. It was great to see them. With a couple more bathrooms breaks and taking a few more walking breaks during the last 2 miles, we could finally see the Fargodome again. Yes! I was ready to be done. I don’t think my hips could have taken it anymore. We walked one last time before running the rest of the race out. We ran across the finish line at 4:49:03 making it under 5 hours.
We caught up with Brent and our family member just at the end of the finish line and made our way to get some post race food and drinks. Our medals turned out to be pretty cool! They even have a bible verse on the back Hebrews 12:1! Once again, I was really impressed by this. Overall Fargo put on a great marathon even if it was in North Dakota. They did a great job. After a little walking around we took a short break sitting down in the bleachers before headed out for a nice warm shower.
I recovered fairly quickly over the next couple of days. My hips only bothered me that first night and then it went away. I was thankful for that. Now marathon number 6 is in the books and I can’t wait to see when and where the next one will be. Where should I go next? I think it will have to wait until fall of 2016 though. The little one that is on the way might have something to do with that.