2024 Race Recap Grambassador: Jamie

Grandmas marathon weekend has come and gone, and I hope you had as much fun as I did this year. For me, weeks leading up to the race are filled with excitement as nerves are ramping up. This year there was a concern about storms at the start of the race. Although it looked a little iffy, we ended up lucking out with decent weather for much of the race. Afterwards I learned that the day turned out quite a few PR’s.

This year I was registered to run the Gary Bjorklund half marathon. Although, I trained fairly well for the event, my only goal was to enjoy the race. I found that for myself it is not only good to have racing goals, but a specific goal to enjoy the experience. In a past Instagram post I spoke about my struggles with addiction. No matter how challenging a race may be, its always better than when I was struggling in my darkest moments. Hooray! I have made it to the start of the race.

I started my day with a shake out run on a beautiful Friday morning with my best doggie friend, Moon and my fiancee Dennis. I live about an hour north of Duluth and the weather has been pretty mild up here, making some pretty nice running conditions. That afternoon we headed out to Duluth to join in on the festivities on what has become a year tradition for us. We headed to the expo to pick up our bibs and then have the spaghetti dinner. This was my first year eating at the dinner and let me say it was delicious! I may have even had seconds of the pasta and the ice cream. We walked a little more around the expo catching up with some of our friends and taking in the excitement! I just want to add that I walked around the Marathon merchandise and felt like I could have went broke on all the fun merch there!

Later in the afternoon I then met up with some friends and then headed for the group picture with the Grambassadors at the finish line. It is a big party meeting up with this group. We have had a year to chat on social media and believe me there is a lot to talk about! After the photo, I had to head back home. I had an early morning and needed to leave my house by 3:30 am! That alone will tell you how much I love this weekend!

The next morning I caught one of the shuttles at the mall just before 5 am. My plan was to meet a couple friends at the start and head out from there. As you can imagine, there is always an intense amount of energy at the start. Well, after going to the bathroom and taking my time, I realized that the race started 15 minutes ago. Without having a chance to even think about my performance in the race, I was off and I was feeling good. Music was keeping my pace throughout the entire race. As planned, I alternated water and Powerade at every water stop. This always works out well for me to stay hydrated. About 3/4 through any race I always have the same thought. ‘Why on earth am I doing this?’, ‘Everything hurts.’ ‘Nothing is feeling good.’ And then, like magic, I start to feel my confidence level rising. ‘You can do this’, ‘you have done harder things in your life,’ ‘you are strong and resilient’. I may still be feeling everything in this race, but I am moving forward and doing great. The hardest and most fulfilling moment comes when you see that finish line down the street. Everything in my body is saying you have got this, keep pushing. And then, its over. Race completed. Tears welling up in my eyes. Legs beat. I keep walking and enjoy all that the finish line has to offer.

After the race, I visited with a few of my friends and just enjoyed the rest of that moment. How lucky am I to be here in this moment of my life with the ability to push that hard. I maybe have questioned why I was doing this race in that challenging moment, but I quickly change to, ‘I cannot wait to run again next year!’