Amy Lu's View

Merriam-Webster offers 41 synonyms for “loony.” My favorite of those are: asinine, kooky, wacky, unwise and zany.

I’m interested in the meaning of “loony” because Chad and I recently did the Twin Cities in Motion “Ultra Loony Challenge.” This involved running a 10K and a 5K on Saturday, October 6, and then running the marathon (26.2) miles the next day, Sunday, October 7.

Why did we do this? I wish I could say we had an inspiring and coherent reason that involved wanting to undertake a new physical and spiritual challenge. Or at least an entertatining reason such as we signed up for it after too much wine and/or boubon. Or maybe we lost a bet.

But I think we did it for the vest. And, spoiler alert, it’s a damn fine vest. We both successfully completed the challenge and received “Ultra Loony” vests and it’s so awesome that I think I’ve worn it every day since the marathon (this from the woman whose husband once told her, “Not every outfit needs to be a catsuit.”)

Not only did we earn The-Vest-of-Most-Awesomeness, we both won our age/sex group for the Ultra Loony Challenge (our time for all three races added together). Okay, this is not an actual official award, but we can see from the official results that Chad was the top finisher for males 45-49 and I was the top finisher for females of that age group (you can verify our claims here: https://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/7061/2018_TC_10K-TC_Ultra_Loony). Yes, philosophers of the ages may debate if a tree that falls alone in the forest makes a sound, but middle-aged runners that win an award that doesn’t actually exist will definitely make a sound. Thank you, Facebook!

We may have also signed up for the Ultra Loony because of our schedule and our habit of doing a challenger series. For several years we’ve done series that have included doing shorter races throughout the year, but this time we couldn’t because we were going to be on vacation for the Valentine’s Day 5K.

Honestly, we signed up so long ago that I really don’t know what we were thinking. I guess we were just being “wacky” and “zany.”

Our lives were so busy leading up to the Marathon, that I kept forgetting we were doing the 10K and 5K on Saturday, too. When I did remember, it would be “Oh sh#t, we’re doing that.” And I would think, “How asinine was I to sign myself up for this?”

All three races added up to running a little over 35 miles (35.52057) in two days. I wasn’t so worried about the distance as much as the logistics of getting to races (that is, getting up early, before 5:30) on two consecutive days. Honestly, if races started around 9:00 a.m. and left a block from my house, I would run way more of them. But dragging my ass out of bed two days in a row wasn’t too awful, especially since we spent most of Saturday afternoon napping/dozing while listening to MPR. And, so we don’t sound too lame/sensible, most of post-marathon Sunday drinking.  

I was also worried about the half hour or so I would have to wait between the 10K and 5K and freezing my ass off. And turns out, that did suck and was the worst part of the challenge series.

We tried very hard to be smart and to run Saturday’s races relatively slowly so as not to wear ourselves out or injure ourselves before the marathon. And this controlled approach was HARD, in the midst of race excitement/competiveness and a cold day and wanting to finish and get the hell home (to our waiting naps and MPR). I think we did a pretty good job, although we were both worried because we were a little sore after Saturday’s races. This was probably, at least in part, just due to being overly concerned about and sensitive to how our legs were feeling.

I was also worried about carbo-loading. SO MUCH SCIENCE! I really had no idea, and still don’t, if the Saturday races would/did delete our carb stores to the extent that it had a negative effect on our marathon endeavors. We just tried to eat as much low-fat carbs as we could, when we weren’t napping, on Saturday.

So the big question is: “Did running the 10K and 5K the day before the Marathon affect our Marathon performance?” Since we’ve never done the Ultra Loony Challenge before, that’s hard to answer. We both did well with the marathon so I’m going to say: not too much.

Ah, the Twin Cities Marathon 2018. Chad totally kicked ass and got an overall Marathon Personal Record (PR) finishing in 3 hours, 34 minutes, and 3 seconds.

I was really happy with my time (4:03:55), too. It wasn’t a PR, but I did shave over 12 minutes off my first Twin Cities Marathon, so I can claim it as a TC Marathon PR. I’ve only done three marathons total, and the Grandma’s Marathon in June was my PR with a time of 4:02:48. But I think (and Chad agrees) that Grandma’s is an easier course.

Aside from the context of the Ultra Loony Series, what was the experience of running TC Marathon 2018 like? In most ways I was less nervous going into it because I had two marathons under my belt. I knew I could finish, and was even pretty confident I could finish faster than my first marathon. There was a bit of self-induced pressure to finish faster than Grandma’s but I tried not to get too wrapped up in that. And I just didn’t really have time to be that nervous before the Marathon.

I tried harder to enjoy the experience and appreciate the little things, especially the beautiful fall colors of the trees. And most importantly, the amazing spectators. I knew from the first year they were impressive, but once again, I was moved, inspired and entertained by all the folks who came out to cheer us on. Yes, most of them were there specifically to cheer on friends and family that were NOT me, but they still cheered for random strangers like me. Some even yelled my name (it was printed on my bib, and it’s short and easy to read. Thanks Mom, who had no idea she was giving me a name that was good for races! After two kids with relatively long names she just wanted something that would be easy to teach me to spell). The spectators kept me engaged (boredom is my great mind-killer during long distance running) and motivated.

And then, just past Mile 20 (the dreaded “Wall”, although Mile 22 is my true wall) I was cheered on by members of my Facebook TC First-Time Marathoners Class of 2017. I can’t even…my heart is full of so much gratitude and fondness for these people. I know there are many problems with Facebook but this group is so amazing. Starting at Mile 18 I kept thinking about how I had to kick it up a notch to look lively for them. They may have slightly slowed me down by causing me to shed a few tears of appreciation after I passed them, but that’s a price I was willing to pay.

I finished the marathon feeling better (or at least less nauseous) than I did after Grandma’s but perhaps a little more tired than I did after my first TC Marathon. Stategy-wise, I may have failed a bit on dehyration and fueling since I didn’t consume nearly as much as on my two other marathons. But it was cooler and hey, I didn’t feel sick/dehydrated (not until after the celebrations, that is).

And the weather! So thankful that it was dry and cool, especially given all the weather craziness (dare I saw “looniness”?) leading up to (including Chad having heat exhaustion during a training run just three weeks prior to the marathon) and since the marathon (hello, nonstop rain).

It was so nice to be dry and cozy after the race, which leads me to the best possible thing of all marathons: the Tent of Bliss and Joy (okay, not the official name) for people (asinine, kooky, wacky, unwise and zany people) who finished a challenge series. The Challenger Series Finishers tent was HEATED! and had food! One of the women serving food said she could see my smile of disbelieving joy when I entered the tent. And, this tent was a new feature this year offered to all series challengers (not just Ultra Stupid, I mean, Loony, ones) so we may get to experience it in the future even if we aren’t quite as asinine (yes, I do just really, really like this word).

So, to quote the ever-wise “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Where do we go from here?” Once again I’m trying hard to be very sensible until I am truly, fully recovered from the marathon/Ultra Loony Challenge and have not only healed all my muscles, but have flushed all the endorphins, alcohol, carbs, emotions, etc., from my body, heart and soul before making any decisions or commitments.

I’ll just continue to cozy up in my Ultra Loony Challenge vest. And just ask me…there is NO statute of limitations for seeing my medals.