Go Far

I know I previously mentioned that my mom and dad were going to participate in the Fargo marathon awhile ago, back when the weather was cold and it seemed that May would never come! It came to pass yesterday, with Cindy running the 10K and Tim running the 1/2 marathon.

The 10K started at 7 and the 1/2 marathon started at 7:30. Andrea and I mixed up the times so we arrived at the dome right as the 10K racers were starting to finish. There was an endless line of runners as far as we could see! The drawback was that it was raining with gusty winds and our umbrellas kept inverting in the wind. We didn't want to miss Mother finishing so we ran around to the entrance of the dome and went into the stands near the finish line. We waited for awhile and still didn't see her finish. Soon some of the wheelchair racers started finishing and we were wondering if we had missed her finish. Andrea opened her phone and connected to the "Internets" and her time was already posted! We missed her finish, probably as we were trying to find a place to sit! We found her eventuatlly and discovered that while out on the road she had encountered Elizabeth, our cousins' cousin on their dad's side and they had run together!

Here they are! They finished in 1 hour and four minutes. Cindy finished 11 out of 86 women in the 50-54 age group! Way to go ladies!

These two were feeling invigorated and full of energy, the feeling that can only come from physical activity. We looked at the time and figured out that soon Tim and Elizabeth's fiance, Wes, were going to be nearing the finish. We went outside and waited near the mile 26/13 sign and soon Tim came into sight!

He's the one in the yellow. That is my mom in the corner holding a coffee. I find this strange because I don't drink coffee and can't imagine wanting it after running 6 miles!

He looked pretty tired but seemed to be doing fine! I am confused by that woman pushing that stroller because I thought that that stuff wasn't allowed and I just looked up the rules online and it says strollers were only allowed in the 5K that took place on Friday night. So who knows what that is about. Who would want to push a bunch of kids for 13 miles anyway?? I can't see her number so maybe she just jumped in somewhere?

We went inside and saw him cross the finish line. His time was 2 hours and 18 minutes. Both Cindy and Tim had a 10:35 minute mile pace. You can kind of see him behind that girl in the middle. This isn't the greatest picture.

After the runners finish they walk around the dome past an area where they get their medal and are handed water and some snacks. Dad was given a little plastic cup fill of cookie dough! That seems really gross, but there must be some reason for it. . .Alot of people were eating bananas and little slices of pizza.

Due to the rainy conditions and every runner being wet as well as sweaty the dome smell similar to a boys locker room. Well, I guess it wasn't as bad. I have experience in this area because I used to play basketball in ND back when girls basketball was still a fall sport accompanying football. For away games, we girls had to leave the hairspray and Jergens lotion scented feminine sanctuary of our girls locker room and move into the opposing school's boys locker room. This meant that we were changing into our uniforms in the presence of the smelliest items I can think of right now...boy's football pads. Oh wow, do those things smell awful. Our own boys locker room developed such a stench that visiting girls teams were, on occasion, forced to flee into the public womens' bathroom to fix their hair and to a deserted hallway or classroom for their pregame and halftime meetings. I have had a debate with a friend about which pads are worse between football and hockey pads. Although I don't have alot of experience with hockey pads I am going to stick with my opinion about football pads because they are worn in the hot August sun. Now that I think about it, the dome didn't smell nearly as bad as football pads but it had a locker room-ish feel to it for sure.

As soon as he stopped running, Tim's legs immediately stopped wanting to do anything and he could barely walk! I hear from other 1/2 and full marathon runners that this is a typical reaction. I'm sure it must have something to do with adrenaline, the wonderful hormone that gives women the ability to overcome pain, whether it is in the form of wearing painful shoes for hours while out on the town and not feel the pain until the next day and allows moms to give birth through excruciating pain and after the baby is born say "I don't even remember it hurting." It might also have to do with some sort of "autopilot" muscular reaction. Whatever it is its pretty fascinating to see what humans can do.

After it was over we all went back to Andrea's house so they could shower and change and when I parked Tim was laying in her front yard stretching the cramps out of his legs! Pretty funny.

We went to eat a big lunch and Andrea said that Tim should challenge my 79 year old grandfather who has a horrible limp to a footrace since he was moving pretty slow! The thought of this happening is hilarious.

There are the two runners in thier medals and their Hatton Flyer black and gold! (I don't think it was on purpose but who doesn't love those colors?) Now Tim is drinking coffee! Haven't these two heard of Powerade before? Electrolytes? OK, whatev... You can see their stats and the stats of any other runners you know on the fargomarathon.com website by clicking the "results" links for each race. They wore little microchips on their shoes and it is really interesting to see how they have data for gender and age, as well as pace.