The 2023 Fargo Half Marathon, Marathon and 10k were on Saturday May 20th. The weather was almost perfect and the crowd support was awesome! With this quick weekend trip, Adrienne and I both checked off North Dakota in our attempt at running in all 50 states!

2023 Fargo Half Marathon Recap

The Expo

Fargo is about 3 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities. Since the race was on Saturday, we drove up Friday afternoon to hit up the expo with my mom. It was in the Fargodome with the usual giveaways (chapstick, sunscreen, towel, water bottles, etc.). There were no lines and lots of volunteers.

After getting our packets and setting out our outfits for the next day, we grabbed an early dinner and headed to bed. Light was still coming through the hotel window when we went to bed! 😛

The Race

We lined up in the Fargodome for the start. This was kinda weird, but kinda nice. You only ran inside the dome for <0.1 miles and it was a great place for spectators to sit and watch. It was a gorgeous day, but if it was cold or raining it would be great. My mom has done this race before, but I think she still had some fomo when we were lining up to start. 😉

The half started 15 minutes before the full because of how the routes are designed. We both felt excited and did the first mile WAY too hot. Like <10-minute-mile hot. We slowed down to closer to a 10:30 for miles 2-4 and then Adrienne started to feel lots of pain. 🙁

Knowing this was a fun race, we started doing a 10:1 interval and then stopped for mimosas! After some very carbonated burps, it was clear that a 10:1 was going to be a challenge for Adrienne. So we stayed together through mile 6.

There was amble amount of water/Powerade stops along the course, but I still brought my water bottle. It’s a pain to carry but I ended up drinking almost all of it and refilling it once. There was one gu stop and at least two medic tents. The course was 99% flat with the only “hills” at the start/end. The majority of the route was through neighborhoods and Fargo showed up! So many people sitting in their front yards with signs, music, mimosas, dogs and kids cheering. I loved that.

I continued on and felt pretty good until around 10 1/2 miles. I swear the temp jumped 10 degrees at that point. So I took in the scenes and walked when I felt like it. There were lots of photographers out on the course but I managed to miss most of them.

I ended up running the last few miles with a couple of girls running their first half. We commiserated and talked about what we were going to eat after. It was a little rude that when you approach the Fargodome you still have to do a quarter lap around it before entering and finishing. 😛

I still had a tiny bit of energy and finished the last 0.1 with a 9:20 pace, but I was toast and my right foot felt like it was crammed (thus the immediate change into recovery slides). Even with the walking and mimosa pitstop, my average pace was 4 seconds faster than the Rhode Island Half a few weeks ago! Another nice thing about finishing in the Fargodome was the huge screen on the finish line. I was able to watch as Adrienne ran in (they even called out her name!) and then quickly got to the sidelines to snap some photos.

Post Race + Swag

The finish line was pretty well organized and the chocolate milk hit the spot! They also had water, chips, salted nut rolls, donuts, and a Truly drink that neither of us liked. There was a bag check too, but my mom held our stuff while we ran. The line to pickup your bag was really long, like at the Charleston Half – why is bag pick-up so hard for races to get right?

I love that the tagline for the race is uff da! The sweatshirt and bag reflect this, but for some reason the medal isn’t branded the same. Either way, very happy with the swag! I wore the sweatshirt later that day and the following day flying home.

Full or Half Marathon in Every State

North Dakota was state #20! Sounds like a lot, but I’m not even halfway there. Not to mention, many of the next races will require more travel and planning.

One thought on “2023 Fargo Half Marathon”

  1. Pingback: Half Marathon in All 50 States - everything emelia

Comments are closed.