More Zoom!

The Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon is held on the upper track of St Olaf College’s Tostrud Field House. It is a small event, limited to 30 runners this year. It may grow a little next year, because congestion on the track proved to be less of a problem than feared. I think they could handle 40 or maybe even 50. The race directors are in a great position to make this judgment, because they ran the marathon themselves. It is a benefit for the women’s track team, so the lap counting is done by members of that team. The conditions in the field house were perfect for marathon running and the spectators made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in numbers. They even sang happy birthday to me (my 66th) as I passed my 66th lap. This was a fun, friendly marathon. As far as I know, the only other marathon in Minnesota with a time limit greater than 6 hours is the very difficult Moose Mountain Marathon; Sweet Pea and Lovely Bride collected Minnesota medals on their way toward 50 states. YAY! Gender, age, and disability all work against those two, and a 6-hour marathon is next to impossible for either of them, though they train more hours than I do. I hope that the race organizers can continue to allow at least 8 hours.

We provided our own water and gels, leaving them on a table in one of the four corners. That was actually kind of nice; we each got exactly what we wanted to eat and drink. No cups, no litter, no problems.

Lovely Bride and Sweet Pea have now run nine marathons in eight states, all in less than two years. I’m so proud of them.

Gory running details:

There are no mile markers in a multi-lap marathon like this one. We three made up a new unit of measure, called the Tostrud Mile, consisting of six full laps. There are 25 Tostrud Miles in this marathon, so they resembled real miles and it was easy to count them on the stopwatch. I tried to run nine minutes per Tostrud Mile (total 3:45:00). Within each “mile,” a lap clicked off at 1:30, 3:00, etc., and I was never more than 30 seconds off pace within any one mile, so there was no risk of miscounting. Tostrud Mile splits: 8:57, 8:48, 8:57, 8:52, 8:56, 8:50, 9:11, 8:49, 9:12, 8:48, 9:27, 8:57, 8:50, 8:52, 9:02, 8:40, 8:59, 8:47, 9:04, 8:32, 9:04, 8:41, 9:30, 9:00, 9:26. Total 3:44:12. The odd/even pattern is because I took water after every even mile, and usually walked a little.

The photographer stayed for quite a while, for some reason shooting us each time we came around. Have you ever noticed that it gets harder and harder to smile as the miles go by? Harder even to grunt out “go runners” as you pass by your sweeties.

I finished unscathed. A blister on one foot, already healing. Some chafing where men tend to get chafed in a long run, already healed. Sore, stiff muscles, especially in the upper thighs, the kind of soreness that almost feels good, like progress was made. On one occasion I felt cramps shooting up both calves, very briefly, but they passed by and the vehicle kept going. I totally forgot to take my salt, which I meant to take at 8, 14, and 20. Should have taped it to my water cooler like I did the gels.

Tonight we three will go to the Meet of the Miles, an indoor one-mile race at the U of M Field House. It's the first race in the Minnesota Grand Prix series for 2007. Shoot for six minutes the day after a marathon? Uff-da. Not likely.