William A. Irvin 5K (Grandma’s Marathon 5K) Filling up Quick

June 15th Race Expected to Fill Quickly

(Duluth, Minn.) Registration for the 18th annual William A. Irvin 5K opened at 12:01 a.m. (CDT) on Thursday, March 17. There’s currently a buzz that even though they added 200 spots over last year’s total spots (from 1700 to 1900), the race is going to fill no longer than sometime this week.

The field limit for the 2011 race is 1,700 — an increase of 200 from last year when the capacity was reached in less than a week. To register, runners should visit https://secure.marathonguide.com/register/grandmasmarathon/5k.cfm. The entry fee is $30.

The 3.1-mile run begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 15, near the permanently docked William A. Irvin ore boat on Duluth’s waterfront and is the first of three major running events during Grandma's Marathon weekend. Registration remains open for the 36th annual Grandma’s Marathon set for Saturday, June 16, while the entry process for the 22nd annual Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon is closed.

Did you get picked for the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon at Grandma’s for June 16th? Did you get picked for the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon at Gr

I have received notices that even before anyone has received an email this week congratulating them on being selected in the lottery for the GB Half Marathon, that some entrants have received an email from the credit card company letting them know about their payment being processed. If you can’t remember the email you used during registration, you can check with your credit card company for a charge from “MarathonGuide.com / Web Marketing Associates” for $80.40. If you have been charged, then you’re in.

All runners chosen (and even those not chosen) will receive an email this week (February 27th) letting them know if they are in or out. Good Luck to everyone that entered.

Training for a Half Marathon and a Marathon….at the same time.

Received a question that I'm sure a lot of runners get to sometime in their running careers. If I'm training for a Half Marathon and an excellent opportunity comes up to run a marathon within a couple of months after the Half Marathon race, what should I so to change my training to do both?

Maybe this question seems timely because that happened to me in the last two weeks. After finding out that I [and my family in Team Beaver] did not get chosen in Garry Bjorklund's Half Marathon [Grandma's Half Marathon] lottery, I decided to run the Full Marathon. Okay, that's a heck of a change I know, but Duluth, Minnesota does put on a great show and Grandma's Marathon is on Top 25 Marathons on a number of lists.

Since I was already training for Get-In-Gear's Half Marathon on April 30^th, I figured it was a good base anyway. Those of you following my Half Marathon program for it, know that we are putting in a number of ten mile plus runs leading up to the actual Half Marathon race.

FIRST, a disclaimer: From doing past Half Marathon and full Marathon training, here's my hard warning. These are two different race efforts with two different training plans. I would not encourage any of you that are training for your first half Marathon to attempt this for your first marathon. All others read on.

I'm a believer that you pick a race distance and train for it. So just because I'm running Grandma's, I'm not going to change my weekly [Mon-Fri] runs. What I change is the long runs. For example, my longest run before I signed up for Grandma's was two hours. So for the long run I had planned two weeks later, I add 20 minutes, the next one two weeks later another 20 minutes, and so on. That way I don't screw up my speed for the Half Marathon in April while building a base for the marathon in June. It just so happens that April 30^th I was scheduled for a 17-18 miler. So I will do the Half Marathon hard and recover with a very, very slow jog/walk. If it ends up being just 15-16 instead of the 17, I'm not worried about it. The Half Marathon fast is equal to a 15-16 miler slow or easy.

Hope this helps you plan appropriately. If you need any help in creating your own running plan in this area, you all know you can contact me at marathonmadman@gmail.com for additional questions.

Grandma's Half Marathon Lottery Opened Today

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Registration for June’s Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon began this morning. The race entry process is conducted through a lottery in which 5,700 participants will be randomly selected.

Beginning Feb. 14 and continuing through Feb. 25, registration will be available at GrandmasMarathon.com for all half-marathon hopefuls. Lottery participants can submit their registration any time during the 12-day online registration period. Participants will be randomly selected and their acceptance into the race will be confirmed via e-mail during the week of Feb. 28. Runners not selected will receive an e-mail notifying them that their entry was not among those chosen.

The entry fee for the 2011 race is $75, plus a processing charge. Only those 5,700 runners selected through the lottery will have their credit cards charged.

The 21st annual Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon is Saturday, June 18, at 6:30 a.m., and is run on the second half of the Grandma’s Marathon course.

Getting over a Bad Race

Alright, I am currently licking my wounds from running Grandma's Marathon at about an hour more than what the Prediction Charts had me at. I've had a great past six months of training and for what? Run a 5:10 when I should've had a 4:10.

Have you ever these thoughts? You train for an extended period for the planned race and fall well short of it?

I can give you my thoughts on why I failed. But before I get there, let me tell you how I succeeded.

I succeeded in the fact that I ran for the past six months while many of my colleagues didn't. I succeeded in losing 18 pounds in the past 24 weeks. I achieved a 2:00 Half Marathon that I haven't accomplished in three years. I accomplished a sub 25:00 5K that I hadn't accomplished in 3 years. I ran a personal best 53 total miles in an 8 day stretch, something I've never done in almost 30 years of running.

But I still came up short in the Marathon.

The Marathon is not your typical race. You can be in what you believe you best condition is, and a 5 degree temperature change can put all that training at risk. I'm not making excuses, but the Marathon has been for me, and many others, a crap shoot at best.

The point I'm making is that running and/or training for a race has its own internal 'Ying-Yang' balance. Yes, I had all of those positives during my training along with a bad Marathon. But all of those positives could have, I not saying for sure, but could have, led to my bad Marathon. 53 miles 3 weeks before the Marathon could've been a bad choice. Races the two weekends before the Marathon could've set me up for being tired on race day. But the key message that it taught me is that a one day race doesn't mean the past six months were all a waste. Sure, I was disappointed, but when I stepped back and thought about the successes so far this season, I wouldn't have traded a 4:10 Marathon for all of the mini-successes that I experienced.

In coming blogs, I will share some thoughts that I have, and things I've learned on what I believe makes a successful Marathon run. I've tried enough programs to know what works and what doesn't. I hope you will learn from all of my past mistakes. And also, for the successes.