Grandma’s 28? Now that is a young Grandma!

No, I do not mean a human Grandma, but the marathon in Duluth, MN. For some reason, thousands of people meet annually on the third Saturday in June for a 26.2-mile trek from Two Harbors to Duluth. This is the place where I have put my body at the start line for 27 years and managed to finish. I am beginning to think each time, the body was different…  

There have been a great variety of personal outcomes and race conditions over the years.  There were brutally hot races, a brutally cold race, and even one where the wind took down the finish line entertainment tents just hours after I finished.  My PR (personal record) and PW (personal worst) on this course are over three hours apart.  Yes I have averaged 8 miles per hour but also as slow as 4 miles per hour.  The race is different experience at each pace.

This is actually the 36^th Annual Grandma’s marathon, but my 28^th.  I know three people in their 60s have run them all. (I am not out of the 40s yet!)  I was not even a teenager for the first annual Grandma’s…  With 27 under the belt, I do not understand what makes me think I need 28!  Some think I need an intervention, some think I am overly competitive, and others wonder why I started in the first place.  Over the years, I have met other “streakers”…  In 2009 I ran with a women who was on her 23^rd.  I have a friend who is going for his 29^th consecutive finish.  In 1985, my goal was 25 consecutive finishes, but like those words from Forrest Gump, “for no particular reason I just kept going” or “I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going”.

This year will be a little tougher.  My right knee is painful, and I'm not sure why.  The pain is all around.  It needs to be more consistent.  Often feels better the longer I use it.  It may be a good sign?    Feels like a hamstring strain but also feels like it did when I had the meniscus issue.   I may have that checked after the marathon, as I did not want a medical finding to say I could not run this year.

Although, I have been waking in the morning with my vision being an issue again.  It gets so bad that I cannot read or watch TV when I lie down.  So I went to the Doctor late last month, had another check-up which led to another CatScan... we found out the infection I have been fighting since 2009 continues to impact my head.  For years now, seems like every 4 months, I am on a Prednisone and antibiotic regimen…  Seems like two or three weeks on and then 13 weeks off and back on again!  He wanted to put me on Levaquin again, that helped for about 5 months in 2010, but I could not risk taking that and running the marathon.  So Amox-Clav in the meantime…  If that fails (like it has in the past) then I will get back on that dreadful Levaquin.  I did refuse more prednisone as every time I am on it, it is 15 pounds added to the body!

I am sure the infection will make the marathon a little harder, but hey, 27 years in a row is more than 99.999 percent of all humans could do? That is still 700,000, so I may not be correct. Also, if the body fails, I will only have a reason to do it next year if I want to run it! The last time I looked forward to this race was in 2003.

Looking back over 28 years, things I recall from 1985 -- as it was my first Grandma’s and I set a goal of 25 consecutive years…

• I could not find a place to stay, so I stayed at the Best Western in Hinkley.
• Michael Jordan (Basketball) was a rookie in the NBA!!!!
• New Coke/Old Coke fiasco
• We celebrated the Dow Jones breaking 1,500!
• VH1 started
• Wade Wilson replaced Tommy Kramer as Viking quarterback.
• Dukes of Hazard was canceled. (Yes, I watched it…)
• Back to the Future (Movie) was released!
• We Are the World was recorded
• Billy Joel married Christy Brinkley
• But Moonlighting started (I always liked Cybill Shepherd)
• This is also MacGyver's first year. (I loved that show as well)
• I purchased my first computer – A Macintosh 512K – I PAID $2,100 OUCH!
• The world has 4.8 billion people

Between 1985 and now

• World population grew by 2.4 Billion people!  That is right...  BILLION.
• I lived in 4 states (North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinois)
• Six US Presidents (Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, William Clinton, George Walker Bush, Barack Obama)
• Four so-called stock market crashes…
• Ten Jobs (From a cook, waiter, manufacturing, sports official, retail sales to my current job as a City Planner)
• Lived in 14 different homes
• Went through 12 cars – Including my ex-wife and Son’s cars (Chevy Malibu, Ford Mustang, Honda 600 Sedan, Chevy Station Wagon, Dodge Daytona, Mitsubishi Expo, Ford Fiesta, Kia Sephia, Mazda Millennia, VW Passast, Smart Fortwo (twice))
• Went through 6 girlfriends, one wife
• Son was born, raised… now 23 years old
• Couple of marathons just over 3 hours
• A couple of 6-plus-hour marathon finishes, many in between

What a ride this has been!  

It is time to saddle up the old bones and head North.  Hope I can still enjoy the ride or at least do not fall off the horse.  I will once again (as I have done since 1999) sleep in the car, run it and come home.  Unlike 28 years ago, I feel it much more before, during and after…  

Carry on…