Fargo Marathon

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Fargo has been on the list for five years. I really liked the way the marathon played on the town's name (Go far in Fargo) and the comments on Marathonguide.com were also very positive. This year, we finally got up north to run Fargo and it was worth it. Everything about the race was organized and everyone was super friendly. The whole town knew that the marathon was coming and wished us luck when they found out we were there for the race. Everything was held in the FargoDome - the expo, pasta dinner, prerace, post race and awards. Because of the floods earlier in the year, the course was changed to a two loop affair. I had no issues with that - it's nice running two loops sometimes. You know what the last half is going to be like.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen at the race. I really didn't think that I had done enough training to run a decent marathon. I've only done a few long runs - focusing mostly on the bike for my triathlons. My goal was between 3:00 to 3:05, but more importantly to run a smart race. I started a little back off the line so I wouldn't be tempted to start too fast. My first mile was 6:50 and it just felt so comfortable. I decided to stay right around that pace until mile 10, then see how I felt. With the course as flat as it was, running even splits was easy. For the first lap, there were also plenty of spectator and other runners to share the work with the wind. At the halfway, I found out that I was in second postition, but there were two women right behind me. I tried to increase the pace a little, but the lack of training started to affect me. My calves and hamstrings were starting to get stiff. Miles 21 and 22 were over 7:00 and one of the women behind me bridged the gap. I tried to run with her for a mile, but I could not stay with her. Holding on to third was enough for me. I finished in 2:59:18.

I'm sore today - paying for running faster then I'd trained. But it was worth it. I'm really happy we did Fargo for our ND marathon. I'd recommend this race to anyone. www.fargomarathon.com

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