Grandma's Marathon 2021 - Why I'm Racing

Disclaimer: I received an entry to Grandma's Marathon 2021 to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro ambassador, and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

I was listening to the BibRave Podcast episode #217, "Navigating Uncertainty - With Dr. Justin Ross" and it was mentioned that we had to adapt once we realized the pandemic was no longer this "temporary" situation. If we wanted to continue to live and fulfill our lives we needed to adjust our lives to the situation and make the best of it. That was a bit of a wake-up for me. I don't know about you but I felt like I had let myself fall into a "this is temporary" attitude.

Back in March when school first went virtual, the expectations for students were kept pretty laid back. It's not that we (teachers) weren't working hard or not providing learning opportunities, we were just told to be flexible in things like attendance, due dates, etc. Grades moved from a traditional scale to a pass/no pass system. Six months later when school was starting up again we found ourselves in the same situation but realized we could not go the whole year with a pass/no pass system, even if schools were virtual. Some districts chose to mask up, some chose to go virtual and some went hybrid and the expectation was that students were being held accountable and learning. Not an ideal situation but an adjustment to the situation to keep students progressing.

I realized that I was doing the exact same thing with my training but this time I was on the opposite side. I didn't have anything (like a race) holding me accountable. I was in a pass/no pass system with my running just going about doing mileage, maybe throw in some workouts here and there and completely neglecting strength work. I was doing the minimal to just get by. I know that if I want to improve and keep running into my later years that I need to do a couple of proper training cycles each year, have variation in my training and do the strength work. I needed to get back to training even if I didn't have a race to run.

Enter - Grandma's Marathon opportunity.

I received the opportunity to run Grandma's and decided that was the sign I needed. But this time I needed to setup some guidelines for myself. Let me go back in time and explain. I actually intentionally took 2020 off from marathons. I needed the year to recover from the heartbreak of Milwaukee 2019. I put forth a very lofty goal, maybe a bit too ambitious, and definitely too ambitious for the challenging course. I was ready to make an attempt at sub 3:20. My mistake though was not in creating the goal or even going for it on a challenging course; my mistake was letting that time goal drive everything. I had equated my self-worth as a runner and the quality of the execution of my training to that time goal. When I didn't hit it I was very hard on myself and jumped to assume that I hadn't done the training properly or that I wasn't capable of running such a time and was stupid for thinking I could. The dumbest part about this is that I still had a PR on the course. I was so consumed that I didn't hit sub 3:20 that I couldn't even be happy about running my fastest marathon ever. So I took off my "athlete" hat and put on my "coaching" hat and asked myself, "what would you tell someone else in this position?" After rolling my eyes at myself and some soul searching I decided to take the year off from marathons and revisit them when I was ready.

The pandemic of 2020 just happened to coincide with my marathon break and I had some time to think about how I would shift my perspective for this next shot. I'm still going to go for a sub 3:20 but if I don't achieve that goal then it's okay. I know I'm capable of running that time but I also know there are a whole host of factors that need to come together on one day. I'm gambling with temperature, wind, precipitation, and hormones to list a few. If they don't come together on one day, then so be it. I still stand by that it is better to have tried and failed then to not try at all. I tell my students and athletes that, it's time that I also live up to it.

There's also the chance that the race could be cancelled and it would go virtual. If that's the case then I'm still all in. Grandma's has put in a complete contingency plan you can read about here and is limiting the race at half capacity with safety measures in place. You can read those here. As I stated above, I don't want to fall into a pass/no pass system with my running. If I ever want to continue to chip away at some of my times then I have to put in the work - regardless if the race is IRL or virtual.

I look forward to going back to Duluth and running Grandma's again. The city of Duluth and surrounding areas are so supportive and put on such an amazing event. I was there in 2017 (see below) for my second marathon ever, before I had really reached out and become part of the amazing running community. I eagerly look forward to a chance to meet some of my fellow BibRave Pro's who I still haven't had an opportunity to race with and to take in the experience. While I'm going to be respectful and safe during a pandemic, I'm not going to let it dictate whether I can or cannot set goals and work towards them. Instead of sitting back, I'm going to adjust and adapt. Who's in with me? You can use Code: BIBRAVE1021 for 10% off your race entry at this link!