Just a quick recap of our event on Saturday. We dropped the kids off at our friend's place on the way to Duluth. They were thrilled to see their buddies. I was grateful to my friend for playing Auntie for an entire day. Hobbes wasn't too happy to let Julie help him with things, including night-time visits when he woke up crying, or in the morning. He wanted Mom, not Julie, to get him out of bed. He also didn't want to pee in her toilet. What a weird thing. He had an accident and locked himself in her bathroom because he was so upset about it. He told her, "I will pee in my mom's potty." She told him he needed to pee in her toilet or he needed to wear a diaper, which was the perfect threat to get him to relax enough to pee in someone else's toilet with someone else helping him. So weird.
Besides that, Spiff and I had a great time. We drove to Duluth, picked up our race packets, and checked out the inline skating expo. Spiff was thrilled to be in a building where there were actual speed skating vendors. It's such an obscure sport that we only know of one actual store with a business space and store hours (happens to be in SLC) where they sell inline skating supplies. Otherwise, purchases need to be made online. Pretty neat to be where the birds of his feathers could flock.
We also happened upon a fantastic Neopolitan Pizza Place where we ate dinner. That pizza was heavenly.
My half marathon was okay. Not my best. Not my favorite, either. This event was an inline skating event, and they happened to tack on a running 10K and half marathon. There were only about 100 people running the half, which is the smallest event I have participated in. It was difficult for me to not be competitive in such a small group. I wanted to be able to run faster than I was able, and I started out too fast. My first 6 miles were great (8:30 miles), and then I ran out of energy and dragged myself through the last 7 miles (9:30-10:00 miles). It was supported like a skating event. Water stops were fewer and further between. The course was beautiful, running right down the shoreline of Lake Superior into downtown Duluth, but it was a straight, almost flat run, and not the most interesting one I have ever done.
So, even though I had a good time of 1:58, it is hard for me to feel good about it because I didn't finish strong. Next time, I will train differently. I apparently care a whole lot more about speed and strength than I thought I did.
The best part of my race was being able to recover all by myself afterwards. I walked back to the hotel, got myself a vanilla steamer, took an ice bath and shower, cleaned up and checked out without having to worry about the kids or anyone else's schedule. Heaven.
Spiff had a GREAT time doing his first inline marathon. He skated a great race, all 26 miles. He felt good and finished strong, despite the strong headwind. He finished in 1:47 (faster than I have ever run a half marathon, by the way), which was 7th place in the open division. He had a lot of fun, and he wants to do it again next year.
I loved watching the speed skaters come in at the finish line, which was right in the harbor. It was beautiful (I saw a huge ore ship come in under the draw bridge, and there was also a sailing regata going on the harbor), and a ton of fun.
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