1:24:06

WARNING: This is by far the longest post I have ever written so brace yourself for some seriously long reading action. Keep all body parts and limbs in the blog at all times and please strap in for safety. I don't carry insurance on this thing ya know.


After meeting and picking up our older sister in Hinkley we raced up HWY 35 to our final destination. Knowing that our friend wouldn't be there until later we decided to take a few 'detours' and go sight seeing on the scenic drives that Duluth has to offer.

Thank heaven that our older sister L used to live in Duluth for two years back in her college days and knew the roads like the back of her hand. We went all over and she knew all the hidden things that most tourist never get to enjoy.

It was a wonderful start to one of the most enjoyable weekends I have ever had in my life.

After we drove for a while we ended up stopping at a beach and enjoying the wonderful breeze off Lake Superior and taking in the gorgeous views.

Here N and L are sitting enjoying everything.

A lot of the rocks were flat and smooth but there were quite a few that had carving in them. I took a bunch of pictures of them but this one stood out the most. I mean, I kinda thought it was sweet; romantic.

Hundreds of years from now, this will still be there ya know? Well, maybe the wear and tear of the lake will erode it quicker than I think but it was still very neat to read all the carvings.

Not soon after we were done taking in the views we got a call from our friend C and we mosied off to the hotel to check in and meet up with her.

Once we were all settled in we took a walk down to Canal Park and took in all the great weather.

While we were walking up the board-walk we came across the horse carriages and thought we would take one for a ride.

Here we all are in one of the carriages before we took off. The picture isn't that great but our driver was kind enough to offer so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Our drivers name was ..."Jerry Springer talk show guest in training". I seriously can't remember her name but I know everything that ever happened to her since she arrived in Duluth four years ago.

She moved here to be with her boyfriend at the time but he ended up being a dumbass and cheated on her from what I gather. She decided to stay in Duluth despite the fact that she was from Virginia. Or wait, was it Arkansas? I don't know.

Anyway, she knows all the great places to shop for $1.99 evening gowns (so she can look all classy on the Jerry Springer show) and she LOVES to layer on her make-up so that even if it rains and two or three layers sheds off - you can still see the 14 other layers.

Her horse's name is Gwenie and she is just a baby so she doesn't like to pull on her reins very hard and hurt her mouth.

They like to talk a lot when she has no customers as it keeps her occupied and Gwenie feeling supported as a working girls can sometimes lack self esteem.

Honestly, it sounds like I'm really giving this lady a hard time but that is only because she didn't shut up like, the ENTIRE 25 minute ride so not one of us four could actually speak to each other.

It was really kind of rude and needless to say she didn't get a tip. In fact, I can't believe we paid to hear about her miserable life. Oh well, live and learn. I can at least say that I have had a carriage ride which is something that I wasn't able to say before.

Once our experience with the horse and her owner was over we head to Bellisimo's Italian restaurant to have a good carb filled dinner. It was not long after that the girls and I headed back to the hotel. They dropped me off and they head out for a drink from one of the nearby bars.

Not feeling good most of the week and having some issues earlier in the day I opted to tuck myself into bed around 7:00pm in hopes that the extra rest would do me good. We had our alarm and our wake up call set for 4:30am and I wasn't about to feel poorly then.

Turns out that the extra sleep did wonders (or the excitement of the day) and I was the first one up and ready to go. We walked ourselves down to the DECC and caught one of the first buses headed for the start.

Unfortunately, we picked the bus where the driver 'forgot' that we were HALF marathon skaters and not the FULL marathon skaters. This mean that he missed a turn we needed to take and we had to back track at least 4-5 miles. All I can say is I'm glad it was only 5:00am when we left and we had the time to spare.

Once we got there we got dropped off in PITCH blackness. I mean, it was so dark that you couldn't see the person next to you while we walked. In fact, we had to walk nearly a mile to get to the starting line from where we were dropped off. If it wasn't a mile - it sure as frack felt like it walking with full skating gear on your back at 5:00am in the morning. It was a good warm up either way so can't be too broken up about it.

Once we got to the start, we started our streaching and hoped for the best. At this point we hadn't felt rain so we were hoping it was going to stay that way.

We were WRONG.

It rained on us. In fact, we were the only skaters throughout the entire marathon that did get rained on. This meant I had to wear all of the warmer clothes I brought with and was hoping to shed right before we left.

This picture was taken about 5 minutes before the horn sounded to start. You can tell that the sun was starting to rise and the light was coming around. It was at this point that the national anthem singer sang. It was so beautiful I got chills while he sang. He had a wonderful voice, especially for so early in the morning.

You can also tell from this picture that we inched our way to the top of the pack. There were 315 finishers in the Half Marathon according to the results. I wanted to make sure I had an edge even if it was for only the 3 seconds it took to cross the start line.

6:45 am....And we were off....

I believe this picture was taken about 2 or 3 miles into the race. As you see obviously from this picture there are kids that are passing me.

Yes. Kids.

I realize that this might make my skating ability look less than stellar. And this could very well possibly make you think less of my half-way-professional-amateur-skater-chick persona but I'm not worried or anything. I figure you people will get over it at some point.

Plus, I can' skate much faster than most children without passing out so you will just have to deal with it.

The first miles were ok to skate. N and C held back the first mile or so but soon took off a head like I knew they would. Everything about this race was different. I was alone and I have never, ever skated in rain before. I have never skated with wet clothes, skates and socks - especially wet socks!

It was awful really. Every time you pushed off you got more water in the bottom of your boot and the more your socks got drenched. Honestly, I didn't realize that the bottoms of the skates were so porous but then again I don't know much about a lot of things.

Life keeps ya on your toes, ya know?

At one point during the race, I didn't think I could finish. I watched of all the people passing me with ease - especially on those hills. I didn't dare look back to see if I was the last skater in the race. I refused to look back because if I had found out that I was the last of the skaters it would have killed every last bit of hope I had to finish and I knew it.

My legs ached, my feet were cold, my chest felt as if it would explode any minute, my throat was parched from my wheezing breath no matter how much water I drank from my pack and my mind was failing me at the worst time.

I wanted to quit.

I needed to quit.

Every aching part of my body demanded I quit. I thought of asking a dude on the side of the road blocking the street to drive me back in. I thought of maybe taking the skates off and walking back.

But I didn't.

I skated - feeling a little sorry for myself for a slight moment and questioning my sanity to even attempt this kind of thing and that is when I saw it.

Lemon Drop Hill.

The most talked about marathon hill in all of Minnesota. If you have ever ran Grandma's marathon or skated the Northshore you will know what I'm talking about. I was already at my breaking point of the race and I could see it coming for almost a full mile. It was the hardest thing and it totally played horrible mind games with me.

All I could do was look down and focus on every kind word all of my friends and family told me before I left. Every bit of training I have done for the past year came into play while I started to ascend this hill. No it wasn't as big as the hills in St. Paul but for some reason it was more scary and meant so much more than any other hill I have ever skated.

This was a marathon I have wanted to skate since I started skating five years ago. This is what I have been working towards. I told myself that if I made it up the hill, I could finish this race.

I struggled and struggled. I won't lie. I was nearly dead, I swear, when I reached the top. I could barley gasp for air my chest hurt so much but I did it.

I made it too the top.

I had never felt so alive in my entire life. I started laughing and the woman next to me laughed with me when I looked back for the first time and exclaimed...

"WE AREN'T THE LAST ONES!!!!"

I was nearly in tears when I saw the sea of people still struggling to get up the very hill I had just conquered. It was liberating and I knew I was home free at that moment. All of a sudden a second wind came over me and I was flying through the tunnels with ease. I knew it was just a matter of minutes until I was done.

I raced down the hill into the tunnel system on HWY 35 and seriously passed about 15-20 people. They saw me struggling and I think it sent a few people up in arms when they saw it was me who was passing them up.

There was another hill we all had to endure as we turned the corner for the finish and I want to say that this hill was even worse than the first but knowing that once I got up this hill it was all down hill to the finish about a mile away - the pain didn't matter anymore.

I glided down the hill and at only 300 meters left the couple in front of me reached for each others hand and kissed. It was moving and was so touching that they had raced together.

Although touching and super romantical, I got over it quick when I realized I had 300 meters left and I would soon be crossing that finish line myself.

Elation doesn't even begin to explain the feeling I had inside. All those years of dreaming that I could finish any type of marathon at the Northshore had just come true.


Finally.

I was finisher 261 of 315 and finisher 141 of the 182 females that did the half marathon. My time was thought to originally be 1:15 (which sent me into hysterics basically) but was later found out to officially be 1:24:06 (which is damn fracking good for 13.1 in the rain with limited oxygen if I do say so myself) which gave me a pace of a 6:26 minute mile.

N and C both finished with a time of 1:08 and I couldn't be more proud of them. Neither one of them trained (well, not like I did) for this at all and I think they did a great job!!

In fact, they liked this experience so much that both of them want to come back next year to do the FULL marathon. YES! The full and that means I'M DOING IT TOO!! Next year people, I will be doing the FULL marathon in Duluth and seriously, my training starts tomorrow. For real.
I'm not kidding.

(I'm the fracken crazy chick on the far left, younger sister N is in the middle and usual marathon runner friend C is on the right)

After the whole sweating our guts out gig we went back to the hotel, showered with extra hot water and got ready for our action packed day. I mean, seriously people, it was only 8:00am when I finished and we had the rest of the day to take in Duluth.

Our first stop was the point off of Canal Park where we found a sandy beach and played in the sand.

Literally.

I made sand castles while my two sisters (not kidding) threw and kicked sand at each other. I'm not sure how it all came about but I believe it was my younger sisters fault being most things are.

he he he

N, are you gonna sabotage my Christmas gift for this?

Eventually, they calmed down and ended up sleeping for a while on the beach while I watched the waves hit the shore. At this point my phone started ringing and making outbound calls. Of course I would be yapping on the phone at some point during this novel, right? I mean, it's not like I could sleep or even stop smiling with all the exciting activity of the day still fresh in my mind.
Not to mention that my time was mixed up with someone else's at first and I thought I had done a record time for myself. Turns out that I didn't do the 1:15 like I thought but I still increased my time by four minutes and that is nothing to sneeze at.

Aren't the waves beautiful despite the cloudy weather? I could have stayed there all day, in fact next year I plan to spend a lot of time doing that exact thing after the race. It was a good way to relax me after all the craziness.

It was at this point that I was relaxed and ready to snuggle up on a couch watching some super bad-ass Battle Star Galatica that my partners in crime wanted to go hiking.

Yes, I did say hiking.

I mean, wasn't skating 13.1 miles enough for the day? Lord. My sister and that friend of hers are some crazy folk I tell ya but it made for an absolutely beautiful nature walk for my other sister L and I.

We went to the land of the seven bridges and began our walk into some of the most beautiful terrain in Duluth.

Luckily, L had known about this area from her college days.

Here are N and C climbing up a steep embankment despite L and I's strong protests. I mean, they could have killed themselves or something.

Obviously, they laughed at us and called us chicken because they decided to go much higher.

Can you see the two specs of color up near that pine tree on the left? Well, that is them. You can imagine the horror I felt when N yells down to me, "Yea... so how do we get down do ya think?"

Geezzzz. Talk about my heart pounding.

They did make it down but not soon enough for my taste but I'm petrified of heights. Especially when it's heights that the ground could suddenly collapse from underneath due to some 500 year rock slide and the amount of moisture in the air.

I know I could need therapy for this I'm sure so no need to mention it ok?

It was once N and C came down from their little mountain excursion that they told us they were gonna go on a hour long hike and L and I needed to pick them up later.

We managed to keep ourselves busy walking up this quaint little road and stopping along the way to walk on rocks in the river nearby.

After an hour or so we started to worry about N and C being they had no climbing gear and they had a hankering to do some serious rock climbing. I mean, what if they would have fallen?

I checked my cell phone and got no signal. They were supposed to call when they were done and who knows if they were trying to call? What if they were hurt and needed us and couldn't get through????

Panic mode sets in and we get in the car and go up and down the curvy, hilly roads yelling their names. Finally, we hear something and the games begin.

It was hilarious being we were so worried they were so pissed play time was over. I mean, we were ready to go and they were just getting started apparently.

They were across the river and couldn't find a way to get back to the road without climbing a seriously steep wall of dirt, rocks and grass. Here you can see N making her way up with C close behind her following her foot steps.

The picture doesn't do this cliff justice people. I can't believe they got up it without the aid of helicopters, ropes and beautifully tan, sweaty muscled rescue men.

Ya know what I mean?

Eventually, we got out of the forest and back to civilization.

We saw a few boats come into Canal Park and watched the one of a kind bridge in the nation go up so the boats could pass through to the harbor.

This is the AMERICAN CENTURY and the dudes on the boat totally didn't wave at us.

Jerks.

We did however run into some scantily dressed college men that were high diving off of the old sinking building in the lake.

It was fun to watching them for a while but I got cold watching. I can't imagine swimming in that water.

Good lord.

We ended up walking up the board-walk to the rose garden and seriously, I thought I was gonna die.

I was exhausted and tired and tired and exhausted. I didn't think I could move my legs in front of the other anymore but it was worth the walk for sure.

I mean, it was just amazing how pretty everything was. I'm glad L wanted us to see it.

Here is a great picture of us three sisters at the garden.

The oldest L is on the left, me in the middle and the youngest, N is on the right of the screen. It's so rare to have pictures of us together. I'm glad it turned out!

This was the last shot I was able to take before my camera phone crapped out on me. Here are L and N pretending to be angelic cherubs in this garden dome.

Aren't they precious????

I had a wonderful time. I can't write enough about it. In fact, I haven't even touched on everything we ended up doing but this gives you some idea just how great a time it really was.

I can't wait until next year!!!