Fargo 1/2 and Apple Du

My whirlwind calendar of events leading up to September 12th began on May 22nd with Fargo 1/2 marathon.

Fargo puts on a terrific running weekend, which includes a marathon, the half, 10k and 5k events.

For the past few years, my friends Nat, Marcia, Mary K and I have done the 1/2. This year, Gary joined us for the fun.

May's weather in Fargo can be a bit "iffy". We've run in the cold; we've run in the heat. The one real constant is the wind....yikes!

This year, we lined up outside the Fargodome on Saturday morning just as the sprinkles started to come. By the time the starting gun went off, the rain was pretty steady and "cool". Not cold, just cool.

Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time I got to mile 3 and the temps were mostly plesant for the rest of the race.

I ran well -- steady and feeling good. Actually RAN the first 7.9 miles of the race with out walking (except for one potty break), which I have never done before. (BIG accomplishment for me!).

The one big bummer was that, with all the rain, my socks had gotten pretty wet, so I developed a blister on one of my toes. At mile 9, just at the end of a water stop, I asked a friendly volunteer if the stop had any band-aids on hand.

"No", the friendly volunteer said, "but, I'll give you my sock. It's dry and clean".

"Sold!"

So he gave me his sock and I trotted on to the end.

It was not a PR for me, but I did take almost 17 minutes off of my 2009 time and almost 13 minutes off my 2008 time. I was very happy with my results.

All my friends had a good race -- Nat PR'ed, in fact. We shared a great lunch after the race and are already looking forward to Fargo 2011.

I noticed a slight tickle in my throat during the drive back to Minneapolis.

This tickle lurked for most of the rest of the week until late on Thursday, when BOOM. I had a stuffed nose and laryngitis. Bad laryngitis. No voice. At all. Just squeaks.

So I did the Apple Duathlon with no voice....

The Du was my first run/bike/run event. It turned out to be a very fun event. Nat and I both entered and we car pooled from Minneapolis to Sartell MN -- about 90 minutes away -- for the race.

I really didn't know what to expect with a Du. I found out that packing transition stuff is much easier: you don't have to worry about all that "swim" stuff.

Although the field was pretty small (only about 350 people), there were a number of multisport heros participating in it: Cathy Yndestad, Julie Hull, David Thompson, Kevin O'Connor, to name a few.

It was hot and sunny at the start of the race. My first 5k was pretty good. I ran it in just a hair over 30 minutes (9:53 pace). Another first for me.

The 33K bike route was beautiful -- a few challenging hills, but I really felt great for about the first 10-miles. Then came the turn home, which also happened to be straight in to the wind -- YUCK. My mph dropped fast and my frustration grew.

Final tally: Took me about 1:17 to cover the 20.5 miles, for a pace of 15.9 mph. Boo hoo on that...

I was tired and hacking when I rode back in to transition, so I decided to take my sweet a$$ time on the 2nd 5K. I flipped off my bike shoes; grabbed my running shoes and had a blistering T2 of 1:32.

Then came my sweet a$$ time. I sat on a curb just outside transition and put on my shoes; I got a drink of water; I took my time strolling up the big a$$ hill at the start of the 5K route. Then I started to feel guilty, so I started running.

I did a run/walk for the rest of the 5K, but at a very leisurely pace. Took me 40 minutes for the second 5k.

Now, of course, I feel bad about being so "lazy" on that second loop.

Truth be told, I wasn't feeling so great and I let my mind control my feet. Silly, I know.

Bottom line: the Du was fun and I'd "du" one again.

The rest of my Memorial Day weekend was very fun. A bike ride with some friends; a dip in to the lake to get ready for next week's triathlon and a great round of golf with Hubby and some of his golf friends.

I still don't have much of a voice -- but it is slowly coming back.

Only 16 weeks until Ironman. Amazing how fast time is flying!