Mission Completion!

D-Monk & Mrs. D-Monk after the Marathon

Sunday marked the third time that D-Monk has run the marathon. And while the weather was a bit miserable at times, the run was great for D-Monk!

The question leading into the race was weather: Is it gonna rain and how cold will it be? I monitored three of the local news stations to get a sense of what to expect on race day. All three seemed to be in agreement that there was a chance of rain, but there was disagreement as to when. Two stations felt that the rain would hold off until noon or later (approximately 4 hours into the race). The other station thought it would rain early and then stop half way through the race.

The other question was temperature. How cold would it be at the beginning of the race and how cold at the end? And - more important - what should I wear for the race? Predicted temps looked to be mid- to upper-40s at the start with anywhere from 50 to 60 at the finish.

I decided not to worry about the rain and the night before the race I chose a long-sleeve shirt for the race. On race morning it seemed warmer so I switched to a short-sleeve shirt. But by the time I arrived in Minneapolis, it seemed colder again, so I went with a short-sleeve shirt and a throw-away long-sleeve shirt to wear over it.

Neither of my first two marathons gave me any chance to see what I was capable of in such a long run. With the first marathon I just wanted to finish. I didn't know what I could do or what it would be like, so I took it easy the whole way. My time was 5:26. The day I ran my second marathon was so hot that it immediately became all about survival. People were dropping like flies and so again I decided not to push myself. I finished at 5:15. This year I wanted to see what would happen if I pushed and decided to try to set an 11-minute a mile pace for the first six miles and see what happened.

Well ... nothing went as expected. I changed my mind several times on how to dress for the race. I lost the electronic chip that was supposed to track my time. The hip-pack I was wearing didn't fit correctly and I tossed it away after Mile 3 (and moved my running gels to my pockets). And then the rain started coming down at Mile 2. It rained and rained hard for the first 1/3 of the race. I was soaked!

But despite the rain, I was running well. My first three miles were all 10-minute miles! I was able to stay at 11-minutes per mile or less for the first 12 miles of the race! I was feeling great and realized I was going to set a personal best! So I pushed hard the whole race and finished 25 minutes faster than my previous best at 4:51.

W O W ! ! !

So despite the rain, despite the bad hip-pack, despite the cold start, and despite the lost chip, I had a great race on Sunday and really felt proud of what I had accomplished. I am grateful for the marathon and all of those who supported me - both on race day and during the training. I could never have done this alone!!



D-Monk, D-Monk's son, and D-Monk's dad.