It's my grandpa's 90th birthday next month and we are having a surprise birthday for him. To get ready for it my parents have been going through boxes and found one with a journal from my grandma when she was engaged to my grandpa. My grandma died when I was 4 years old so I don't have too many memories of her which is too bad because my mom speaks so fondly of her. Which has brought me to why I started my blog, how fun for my future kids/grandkids and whoever to read about what I was like in my twenties and to hear about the fun everyday life that usually is forgotten. I would give anything to read what my mom was doing in her twenties!
The new announcement in the Bjorklund house is that Tyson and I have decided to run Twin Cities Marathon together, which brings me to my first topic...
I ran 3 marathons in one year with one of my dearest friends Carissa. THe training, racing, recovery etc with her have been some of the best experiences I will have in my life. Having trained for a marathon by myself and knowing how lonely it can be I couldn't believe how easy and fun training is when you are with a friend. Which is why i think it will be great training for one with Tyson. I'm a little apprehensive about training for another marathon for a few reasons...1) since Chicago marathon (October 09) I have struggled with a low immune system (bronchitis, flu, 2 sinus infections, and 2 streps). 2.) It usually takes me about 5 minutes after a race to forget about the pain I endured but I am still feeling it from Chicago. It could be that I ran it with an annoying head cold or my hands swelled up so big my fingers looked like cheddar bratworsts just ready to explode...or 3 which is the big one Twin Cities Marathon was my very first experience and is one I would like to forget! Not only was it record high temperatures for the day but the rookie of me decided to go balls to the wall for the first 13 miles and then my body just stopped. It was pretty unbelievable. I wanted to quit SO bad, but every time I got close to that curb I would remember the cake that my mother in law had gotten me with "congratulations on finishing" written on it. Would they let me still have a slice if I didn't actually finish? I couldn't risk it so I just kept trudging along. I would say "Katie, run for 4 more minutes and then you can walk" 30 seconds into the run I was back walking. Crap.Got.Crazy! I should have known when I was sweating like I do for job interviews before the race even started that it probably wasn't going to be my best day, but I finished and got to enjoy the cake:). I will post pictures as that really can only explain how terrible it was...
After that race I swore I would never marathon again. Then one day I ran into Carissa Carroll (who had done several marathons) and she told me they aren't all like that. We then started talking about how sweet it would be to qualify for Boston (which would mean I would need to shave an hour off my time!). We would meet for casual runs, and another marathon would always come up along with were we capable of qualifying. During this time our Runners World Magazine was featuring the best Marathons in the United States and on picture really stuck out to us. It was of a handsome fireman handing out Tiffany necklaces from a silver platter. I mean THE TIFFANY! I mean HELLO, you had me at TIF!!
We signed up, booked our accommodations and told the husbands it would be a ladies weekend. We started reading reviews about how challenging the course was and that people were even putting books under their treadmills to create even more of an elevation to mimic the hills in San Francisco. Almost everyone we talked to told us not to even try qualifying there because the course is just too tough. It's a good thing we are both pretty feisty because we went for it anyway. Snail Lake and Gramsy Hill became our domain, up and down, up and down. People thought we were crazy! We trained through the summer and were never around on the weekends so we would get up as early as 4:30 on the weekdays to get our long run in. Weaving our way around in the pitch black was quite exciting and a tish spooky at times. The best part about it was when we would get to North Oaks and start running around the lake we could look into all the houses that had their lights on. Little stalkerish but fun to see how people decorate:)
For the most part training miles flew by as we never ran out of things to talk about. For one of our 20 milers we decided to sign up to race it in White Bear. We finished in 2:43 and not until we were in the car heading home did we realize that we could totally qualify.
We arrived in San Francisco with spirits high, at the expo I got my first ever manicure along with massages, pictures and the very best....a speech from Kristin Armstrong. She is my all time favorite and I totally have a crush on her in the way that I know we would be the greatest friends if she lived in Minnesota:) Carissa and I went to listen to her speak at the Twin Cities Marathon and on the way Carissa had given me a gift of Kristin's new devotion book. We both brought our b ooks in to get them signed when she was done speaking. When I got up there I couldn't even speak so Carissa did the talking and I just stared! I then proceeded to cry as we were walking away because I was so excited...little embarrassing since we were managing our way through thousands of people while I'm blubbering about seeing Kristin Armstrong. It was great. Seeing her again in San Francisco I wanted to let her know my plans of being friends but still couldn't speak and I don't think she remembered us so decided not to. However, I did add her as a facebook friend but she didn't accept, no hard feelings though:)
ANYWHO so race morning comes and it is DARK, we walked to the start, said our prayer and we were off. The start was so chaotic because they had a group of walkers take off in front of us making us swerve around them all. I grabbed Carissa's arm so I wouldn't lose her and a lady yelled "not going to work girls, not going to work!" It's a good thing I was so worried about conserving my energy because I could have shown her something that did work!
The first miles flew by and at one point we went up a short incline and my ignorant brain thought "that's what everyone has been talking about?" At around mile 6 I found out what everyone was talking about as I was trudging up a mile high hill. We kept looking at each other like this can't be right, they can't put these kind of hills in a race, can they? We clocked in at over 10 minute miles which means we would have to make up some serious time in order to average around 8:20 miles. As the saying goes what goes up must come down, and down we went. It was almost painful because your quads were trying to hold you back from wiping out! At around mile 16 Carissa had a minor breakdown, but after a short little pep talk we were back at it. That is until mile 24 when my wheels completely fell off. You can see the finish from over a mile away but everything was just falling apart. I just wanted to walk for a few seconds but we new we were close to the qualifying time and probably didn't have any extra seconds. At one point I was closing my eyes running with one hand up asking God to save me! The last stretch Carissa was fist pumping and yelling at me to keep moving, which is pretty hilarious when I think back on it. We finally finished and it was just how I imagined. Firemen with silver platters of the beautiful Tiffany necklaces lined up all the way down the chute. We got our necklace, got out of the way and plopped down on the curb. Carissa checked her watch and we saw that we QUALIFIED. We were two grown babies just crying on the curb, totally a sight to see! I know it might sound pathetic but for me it was one of the best moments in my life. I had never gone for a goal that I didn't think was possible to reach. Accomplishing it was a feeling I can't describe, let alone doing it with one of your best friends is totally priceless!
So then we began training for Boston! Training for Boston was probably more amazing and mind-boggling then the race itself. We would go to Lake Calhoun area for our long runs every weekend.We would arrive in a warm car and just dread having to get out in the Minnesota cold. We would wear layers of tights etc but my legs never seemed to warm up no matter how many miles we would go. You saw people with icicles hanging from their ears, layers of snow or ice on people’s facial hair and the craziest farmer blows you can imagine. We always loved going to get Carmel Skinny Lattes right after runs but those tasted a million times better when you have been in the freezing cold running for hours! As terrible as it was getting out of our warm down comforters in the dark on the weekends, we would both agree getting that Minnesota air in our lungs was extremely rejuvenating and would always start the day off right.
Boston Marathon once again was a hilly course and to make matters worse I think I poisoned Carissa with my cooking a few days before the race. Ty and I had never been out East before and with Tyson working and getting his Masters we thought we could use some time away and get to know each other again☺ I flew out by myself and met the Carroll’s because Tyson had to finish up a championship. We got to stay at a prime hotel spot because Tyson was able to find us a good rate through a hotel contact. Boston looked like it had just dropped acid with all the runners with nervous energy just bouncing around. It was crazy! I must say since I’m not really a die-hard runner I found it weird being with all these runners that you knew lived, ate and breathed running. I’ve never seen so many fit bodies in one room before!
The morning of the race a little different as Boston has a late start time and you have to take busses to the starting area AKA athlete’s village. The bus ride up to the village all you can think is “so we have to run all that way back?” It took forever! We talked to two nice gentlemen who let us know that the hills wouldn’t be like San Francisco which we were eternally grateful for☺.
Up in Athletes Village was crazy, we saw all kinds of people just dropping trow to change etc. It was bizarre. I as always had to pee the entire time so we pretty much stayed in the potty line for an hour and a half. Not the best idea to be on your feet for pretty much two hours before your marathon. The start was super organized which made it great and we were off before we new it. The course was so much fun, I loved it. Just the mentality that you are running to town was great for me instead of loops etc. I can’t remember what mile it was but Carissa started to feel like crap and we were both there with the mentality that we made it and that was good enough. So we plugged along. Carissa was able to maintain our pace for pretty much the entire race, which is unbelievable considering she was puking her brains out 3 days before the race. We finished with a 3:42 which we were happy with but both being competitive in nature were hoping to beat our San Fran time. Which leads us to entering the Chicago Marathon for some revenge…
For Boston we really just put the miles in as the roads were never dry enough to do speed training so for Chicago we really got back into the speed training with track and pace workouts. Since training was through the summer again we went back to getting up early on weekdays to get the long runs in. Training seemed pretty easy since we had built up our endurance. We knew Chicago was a flat course so we wanted to beat our time for San Franciso but we REALLY wanted to finish in 3:35. I came down with a terrible head cold and was questioning if I could even do it so we made a pack that she would go ahead if I couldn’t keep up. Race morning was crazy as it was freezing out, like 20 degrees. Friends of Chris & Carissa’s that are from Chicago came to cheer us on and brought us sweatshirts and stocking caps the night before which ended up being our lifesavers!! That morning we were huddled with garbage bags and heaven sent sweatshirts. The start was pretty normal and it was a sunny day and I was thankful for the cold, I knew they were prime-racing conditions for me at least. The course winded all over downtown Chicago, at about mile 7 I see this guy with a t-shirt about serving our country and I of course start crying and saying thank you so much for serving our country and he was like oh it’s my son. That is when Carissa said maybe we shouldn’t cry every time we see a serviceman like we did in Boston. It was pretty funny. At mile 13 I started feeling rough. I blew my nose and got dizzy and was just feeling all around terrible. Carissa was feeling great I kept telling her to go ahead but she said the pace was fine. She was running just ahead of me so I just stared at her calves for the last 13 miles. If any of you know the Carroll family you know their calves because they both have the most amazing calves you will ever see, truly they are amazing. So for that I was thankful. I don’t’ remember China Town or anything after mile 13 but at mile 22 Chris and their friends were there cheering which made me lift my head and got my mind off the race for a few minutes. It is so great having someone to cheer for you! I don’t remember much about the end but Carissa yelled out to the motivational speaker on a microphone something about how amazing he was.☺ It was great! The one and only hill in Chicago is at mile 26 and it’s not big but goes straight up. I thought I was going to puke but could finally see the finish line so I decided not to. Good choice because we finished with our goal time of 3:35.
I thought Chicago was going to be my last marathon unless I got the guts to do a full ironman. However I've been antibiotic free for over a month and feeling encouraged. I'm in week two of training for a half-ironman and feeling strong and somewhat athletic again. However anything can happen and we'll take it week by week. We are both really looking forward to quality time together and all the wonderful things that running can bring to people. Like they say couples that run together, stay together or something like that☺
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