Half-Assed Runner

I signed up for the Cloquet Sawdust 5K to fulfill the Northern region requirement of the Explore Minnesota challenge.  There are only four options for Northern races and none of them worked well for me.  I ended up choosing this race as I had the day off (as well as the day prior) due to the 4th of July holiday.  It did mean that I had to scratch the Red, White, and Boom! half marathon off my list of races for this year.  It turns out that was a sort of blessing because that race got shortened to a five-mile race due to the high temperatures and humidity in Minneapolis.

Cloquet is about a 3 hour drive from my house.  I really didn’t want to get up around 4 am, drive 3 hours, run for half an hour, then turn around and drive back 3 hours…on a holiday.  I also did not want to drop a lot of money on a hotel room.  It turns out that Cloquet has a KOA, so I decided to camp overnight.  This meant I could break up the 6 hour round trip and only drop $30 on lodging.

About a week ago, my wife decided that she and the Monkey would like to go with me to camp and run.  We left Tuesday after she finished work.  The KOA was nice and the pool was a great escape from the 95 degree weather.  It was actually about 10 degrees cooler up north.  Aside from a crazy loud train that rolled through the area a couple of times during the night, camping was a success.

It was only about 10 minutes from the campground to the race.  We rolled in around 7:30 for the 8:00 start.  It was a pleasant 71 degrees at race time, but the humidity was 75% so it was going to be a sweaty mess.  Packet pickup was quick and easy and the volunteers pointed me to the timing desk to do the Explore Minnesota check in.  After getting the Monkey and myself pinned up and attaching our timing chips, I jogged back to drop off our race bags.  By the time I got back, the runners were lining up.

My son started with me and my wife started well towards the back of the pack.  There were about 300 runners.  I told the Monkey to take it easy due to the weather.  The Facebook page also mentioned that this race was hilly, so I told him not to burn out early.

An air horn sounded and we were off.  Shortly afterward we made a right turn and hit the first hill.  This course was the hilliest (non-trail) 5K I’ve run.  I should have expected as much when the t-shirts state “I survived the hills”.  There were three really big hills, but also a lot of smaller and longer ones throughout the course.

The course wound through residential areas before hitting a long, straight section that was an out and back.  The water stop was at the start of this section.  This was a great idea because was available on the way back as well.  So you got two water stops on this run.  The cups of water were full and cold.  Another mark of a well-managed race.

Endomondo has stopped announcing updates (I later found out that a setting must have been changed during an upgrade) so I was not sure of my pace.  I was fine with this as I had decided rather quickly that the challenging course and humidity made a PR unrealistic.  I ended up pacing off of a couple of runners (one until the first water stop, the other for the rest of the race).  I never pushed the pace because I didn’t want to burn out on one of the hills.  I did overestimate my progress as I thought I was around the 2.5 mile mark when I saw the 2 mile marker on the side of the road.

The race was not a true out and back.  Only the middle portion was an out and back.  I was mentally tracking the larger hills and figured that on the way back I would have two steep downhills and one steep hill when running the course in reverse.  That was dashed when we took a different route after the out and back.

Towards the end of the race we made a left turn and I could see the park and finish line to my right. I saw runners flying down a steep downhill to the finish area.  Unfortunately, that meant that we had big climb ahead.  Right around the 2.8 mile mark we hit the biggest hill of the course.  I ran the first third of this beast, then walked for about 20 seconds, then ran the rest of it.  I didn’t take full advantage of the downhill right away as I needed to catch my breath.  I was tapped at that point and just put my legs on auto pilot and leaned forward to get gravity do its magic.

I hadn’t planned to sprint the last bit as I was a sweaty, tired mess at this point, but I did pick up the pace and finished with a full sprint over the last 50 yards or so.  I was surprised to see 27:04 on the clock as I crossed the finish line as I though I was running a couple of minutes slower than that.  I was even more surprised to hear my wife’s name announced.  We must have switched timing chips.

I waited for the rest of my family to finish.  It’s funny how long a few minutes can seem after you finish a race.  My name was announced as my wife crossed the finish about five minutes after I had.  It felt like a much longer wait.  I had seen the Monkey at the out and back and he was walking.  I asked my wife when she passed him and she said it was shortly after the turn around point.  I figured he would be crossing in about five minutes.  I got a little worried and called him.  He was cresting the monster hill and cursing it.  I saw him and jogged him in to the finish line.

There was a pool (actually more of a man-made beach) in the park and we were allowed to use it.  Me and the Monkey grabbed some water, cookies, and bananas then hit the pool.  It was really nice to take a quick dip in the pool.  We stuck around for about 20 minutes and enjoyed the pool.  The weather was actually pretty nice.  It was still crazy humid, but the temperature was in around 75 degrees and there was a nice breeze.  It was much hotter and humid back in the Twin Cities.

After subtracting for chip start, the official results showed I had somehow scored a PR by 4 seconds – unfortunately it was under my wife’s name due to the timing chip mixup.  This was on a hilly course, in high humidity, with a 20 second walk break and two water stops, and without pushing my pace.  I should run (at least shorter races) without knowing my pace more often.

This was a great race.  It was well-managed.  The shirts were tech tees with kid’s sizes and women’s cuts.  You also received a mesh cinch bag.  There was plenty of water on the course and the pool was a great after-race perk.  All this for $20 ($25 race day).  Now if they could just do something about those damned hills. 

 

Runs: 21
Miles: 130.19
Races: 4 (41.79 miles)
Outdoors: 19 (121.08 miles)
Indoors: 0 (0.00 miles)
Treadmill: 2 (9.11 miles)
Longest: 18.70 miles

June started off pretty poorly with me bonking hard on the Minneapolis Half Marathon after taking six straight days off with no running.  This started another string of consecutive half marathon weekend.  I set a personal worst on the Lake Waconia Half, but felt okay about it as I was battling hills and heat.  I probably ran my best half marathon at Grandmas.  I didn’t set a PR, but I ran a smart race and finished strong.  The final race of June was a 4K fun run along the Minneapolis Pride Festival parade route.

I pounded out a record 21 runs this month as well as a new monthly mileage record of 130 miles.  I got back on the long distance run horse with a nearly 19 miler.  I was embarrassed by going six days sans running and the poor performance in the Minneapolis Half, so I may have overcompensated by running more often this month.  I tried to make my minimum run distance be over 5 miles, but with Run Club runs and a few runs with the family, this was not to be.  I will try to keep my short runs over 5 miles this month, but won’t make it a top priority.

I got new shoes…well, kinda.  I bought another pair of Saucony Triumph 9, except in a half size larger (to hopefully avoid blisters).  I needed new shoes (350+ miles on the old ones) but didn’t want to seek out a different shoe.  I got these off eBay for about $50 off (they are last year’s model, I guess).

July is a relatively light race month.  No half marathons.  I have a 5K on the 4th (this will be exactly one year from my first ever race).  I’ll try my hand (feet?) at trail running again with a 10K.  At the end of the month I have a 1/4 marathon on the calendar.  I may mix in another 5K to try to complete another race in the Explore Minnesota Challenge.

I am finally going to create a marathon training schedule and stick to it.  I want to get in some “shorter longer” runs of 8 to 12 miles to go along with my run/walk LSD runs.  I am definitely going to get some hills and speed work in this month.

I’ll share a secret with you: I don’t like Duluth.  That’s not exactly correct.  I don’t get a boner for Duluth like many Twin Cities natives do,  so compared to the rest of my friends my lack of enthusiasm for the port city makes it seem like I don’t like the city.  My dislike is not completely irrational. I lived in Duluth when I first moved to Minnesota from California.  So while Twin Cities residents extol the virtues of the cool summer weather and “quaintness” of Duluth, I remember hating the lake effect and freezing Lake Superior waters for robbing me of beach days in the summer.  The winters were beyond brutal. And what some take for “quaintness” I felt was more akin to backwardness.  I could not wait to move to the Twin Cities.  Duluth may be nice to visit, but I sure as hell did not like living there.

My wife loves Duluth, so when I was looking at half marathons I put Grandma’s Half Marathon (officially it’s the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon) on the list because I knew she would be onboard to travel to Duluth with me.  The half marathon is so popular that it sells out every year and to you must enter a lottery in February.  I entered and was lucky enough to be among the 6,500 chosen to run this event.  This was by far most expensive half marathon ($86) I’ve entered so far.  After getting an entry, I started to look for lodging.  I knew that Grandma’s Marathon is the biggest event in Duluth, but I was unprepared for the hotel costs.  Even in February, it was hard to find rooms.  The few available rooms required that you book at least two days (many required three) in order to reserve a room.  This is on top of the jacked up room prices.  I could not justify the expense.  My mom lives in Bayfield, Wisconsin, so I decided that the 1.5 hour trip from there to Duluth would be better than dropping hundreds of dollars to stay in a hotel.

Me, the wife, and the Monkey all left Minneapolis around noon on Friday en route to Duluth.  I had to pick up my packet that day.  I had toyed with paying the $25 and having my packet mailed to me so I could avoid the expo, but it was on the way so we decided to attend.  We were warned that there was a 5K that night so we wanted to make it to the DECC (Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center) before 5 pm.  Of course, construction season in Minnesota meant that I-35 was beastly in spots, but we still managed to make it to the DECC before 5 pm.  We skipped the long ass parking line and parked on the other side of the lift bridge.  The walk was nice and we got to check out some of Canal Park on the way.

The expo was crowded, but I actually enjoyed it more than any other expo.  Most “expos” are just an excuse to move runners past a couple of vendor booths trying to sell you stuff.  I generally try to get in and out as quickly as possible.  There was some of that in Duluth – especially with the layout requiring you to walk past all of the vendors to get your packet in the back of the expo – but it felt more relaxed and (organically) festive than usual. We ended up actually buying some gear (visor for me and “shark” socks for my wife – I never found a race poster though) plus my son cleaned up on freebies (tons of food, a cowbell, and a t-shirt).  The cow bell was a bad idea as he nearly deafened me in the car with that damn thing.  I picked up a 2008 Des Moines Half Marathon finisher’s shirt (now you know what happens to the leftover shirts) just for asking about next year’s race (on my radar for 2013).  I saw (2004 10K Olympian) Carrie Tollefson walking on the floor.  I got a couple of pictures as she walked by (unfortunately only her back – she even walks quickly).  We managed to get out just before 5 pm and were at my mom’s by 6:30.

My mom made a metric ton of spaghetti, bread, and apple pie.  I carb-loaded to the point of discomfort.    I tried to get to sleep by 10 pm, but was unable to nod off until midnight.

The race day logistics were much different from any other race.  I woke up at 2:45 am and quickly showed and dressed.  I was on the way to Duluth by 3 am.  Since the race is a point-to-point and you can only reach the starting area via buses from Duluth that ran from 4:45 – 5:15 am, I had to make the 1.5 hour drive on only a couple of hours of sleep.  The drive was uneventful (other than one of the two bridges from WI to MN being shut down) and I reached the freeway exit for the DECC at 4:40 am.  It was there that I experienced the all-too-familiar “race day backup”.  I entertained trying to find a different route or trying to find one of the other locations with busing available, but I decided to wait it out for DECC parking.  I finally parked in a dirt lot at 5:20 am…5 minutes after the last half marathon bus was scheduled to leave for the starting area.

Normally I would be out of my mind with anxiety at this point.  I was pretty relaxed because a) I saw a bunch of people with half marathons bibs walking from the parking lot to the bus area so I figured that I would just be joining an angry mob if the buses had stopped running, and b) the race did not start until 6:45 am, so regardless of the parking situation at the starting area this kid was going to run this damn race.  I was surprised to have to pay for parking (only $5, but I still think this should have been included in the entry fee).  I made my final decision not to bring my hand-held water bottle on this run and then jogged to the bus area.

There were plenty of half marathoners waiting for buses at 5:30.  I spoke to a couple of repeat runners and they said that they basically run buses until a little after 6 am, but they post the 4:45 – 5:15 am time so that runners get to the buses well before the cut off.  There was an old skool train across from us filled with full marathoners.  What a cool way to make the trip to the starting line.

The bus rides took about 25 minutes to reach the starting area.  Once there, we walked another quarter-mile or so to get to the “corral”.  Along the way was the bag check and a row of porta-potties.  For whatever reason, the porta-potties here – and along the course – were rank as all hell.  The porta-stank was unbearable.  In the first of many nice touches, water was available to runners waiting for the start of the race.

The national anthem was sung shortly after 6 am and the elite men and women runners started well before the rest of us.  Even though I ended up standing in line for over a half hour, it went by quickly.  The only thing that pissed me off was runners trying to worm their way closer to the starting line.  I was in line by 6:15 am.  This meant that I was positioned about a hundred feet behind the 2:45 pacer.  I would have liked to have started near the 2:05 or 2:10 pacer, but there was a mass of running humanity wedged between me and those pacers so I did the reasonable thing and settled where I was.  Of course many other runners decided that they absolutely needed to move up…even though that was logistically next to impossible.  I had a flashback to my concert going days when with everyone crammed together like sardines and still people thought they could force their way to the stage.  NOTE: runners needn’t worry too much about positioning as the route encompasses a full street.  You’ll have about 40 feet of room to navigate around runners plus a good chunk of road shoulder (limited only by forest on one side and lake on the other).

The weather was a huge concern for this race.  I kept an eye on the forecast all week.  The temps were consistently being forecast in the low to mid 60s.  The humidity was a big concern though.  The humidity was forecast in the 90% range.  I figured that this was simply due to the high likelihood of showers.  I don’t mind running in the rain.  Hell, with the way I sweat, I was going to be drenched either way.  The day of the race, the skies were clear and there was a slight, cooling wind off the lake.  I was surprised to see the humidity was still very high (it was 59 degrees with 88% humidity at 6:10).  This did not seem right to me as it was cool and clear, but once I started running I believed the humidity reading.

We never even heard the starting announcement, we simply started to walk slowly towards the starting line.  As I hit the starting line, my phone locked up.  It has done this a couple of times lately when switching from camera to apps.  I tried to power cycle it, but it was unresponsive.  Fuck.  I would have to run this race sans music, GPS, pager, and emergency phone device.  About a minute later, it unceremoniously restored and I started Endomondo.  NOTE: while I cursed my phone getting jenky at the start, I am impressed with the battery on the RAZR Maxx.  I started the race with 40% battery and even with texting, one phone call, music, and GPS tracking…it only ate about of the battery over 2 hours.

My goals for this race were to finish without bonking/walking and to get back to my average time of around 2:05 after a couple of disappointing half marathons in the 2:15 range.  My energy level was good, but my knees have felt a bit “crunchy” since my 19 mile run on Wednesday.  Even with Friday off, I was feeling a bit out of sorts at the start of the race.  I purposely regulated my pace over the first few miles.  I’ve been going out way too fast in my last few races.  I wanted to make sure I had some juice at the end so I could finish strong, especially because my family would be seeing me during that time.

The course was closed and we had the entire road to ourselves.  There was plenty of room to maneuver.  I did end up passing a lot of people over the first 7 miles or so.  I have to say that the runners seemed to be very attentive during this race.  Walkers (I saw very few at the beginning of the race) stayed to the sides.  Runners seemed very aware of other runners.  Everyone seemed very happy and the run had a great vibe.

The race support was simply incredible.  There were water stops at miles 2, 4, and 6.  After mile 6, the water stops occurred at each mile marker (with the possible exception of mile 13).  This was the deciding factor in my decision not to run with my own water.  Actually, calling these “water stops” is like comparing a 7/11 to a huge grocery store.  Each stop had multiple tables – on BOTH sides of the course – with water, ice, cold sponges, and Power Aid.  The cups of water were full (personally, my mark of a great race) and the race volunteers were the best I’ve ever seen.  And that’s just the official stops.  Along the course, spectators offered everything from water to bacon to frozen grapes.  It would be impossible to dehydrate or starve along this course.

The spectators started in the first mile and got thicker and louder as we approached the finish line.  I honestly can’t convey in words how awesome the crowd support was for this race.  During the run I saw: a group of about 20 belly dancers, a dancing Obama and Romney (well, generic white dude who I assumed was the Mittster), a bizarre line of what had to be hundreds of troll dolls lining the street curb, people offering beer bong hits, BACON! (like it even needs to be said: AWE-FUCKING-SOME!!!), a walking Tiki doll, and all kinds of other fun weirdness.  A local grocery store offered strawberries and orange slices.  Best. Orange. Slice. Ever.

Another cool feature of the race was that they had timing mats at 5K, 10K, 10 mile, 11.9 (weird), and (obviously) the finish line.  You could have text messages or emails sent to recipients to at each timing mat.  It was fun to cross a timing mat and then shortly after get a text message with my time and distance.  This would have been great for my wife to keep track of my progress, but she left her phone at my mom’s house.  This resulted in me fielding my first phone call during a race.  My son called and I answered.  My wife was calling.  She just wanted to leave a message that she left her phone and to call my son’s number after I finished.

This race flew by.  I surprisingly kept a very steady pace.  Looking at my splits for the first ten miles, they were all within a few seconds of 9:47/mile.  I seriously ran 5 of those miles at exactly 9:47 and only one (9:58 at mile 4) that was not within 2 seconds of 9:47.  I stopped at every water stop (except mile 12).  I got a my first runner’s high for months around mile 9.  I fueled on Lifesavers and Gu Chomps plus a packet of Wintergreen Gu around mile 10. NOTE: don’t eat Gu without something to wash it down.  Nothing makes the already unpleasant experience worse than sticky fingers and a Gu filled throat (fighting hard NOT to make a sexual reference).

Around mile 10 I felt great.  My legs were pain-free.  I had plenty of energy.  I knew I could pick up the pace.  I was told that the course was mostly flat with only one big hill: Lemon Drop Hill.  I kept looking for that hill.  When I finally hit it, I almost laughed.  It wasn’t a big, scary hill at all.  Especially after my last two half marathons.  I powered up the hill, and then was treated to a downhill for the remainder of the course.  The elevation profile shows that there was 223 feet of gain over the entire course.  I suppose that there were some rolling hills, but they were so mild that I didn’t even notice them.

As I stated, the humidity was very high.  It was masked by the clear skies, slight wind, and cooling lake effect.  I sweat like a pig.  I know that this is the body’s cooling method.  Until today, I thought it a pretty poor implementation.  The breeze on my sweaty body kept me cool for the entire run.  My tank top was soaked by mile 5.  Around mile 7 I felt like I had sat in a puddle of water.  Why the hell did my butt feel wet?  The answer was easy: my butt WAS wet.  The tank top had passed its ability to hold water and wicked it to my shorts.  Slowly, my shorts turned from light to dark blue as the sweat line crept ever downward.  Though not entirely uncomfortable, until the effect was complete, this did make it look like I had pissed myself.

The course was all on paved roads with some brick roads for a brief stretch in the city of Duluth.  You could run along a grassy or dirt shoulder for portions of the race.  I did see a lot of runners (men and women) dart into the woods along the first part of the course to “take care of business”.  The views were nice, but having been up and down this area quite a bit, they weren’t nearly as amazing as they are further up north.  At one point (about mile 3) we could see the Duluth Lift Bridge in the distance and a runner commented, “We’re almost done.  I can see the finish.”  This made me giggle as well as put into visual context how far 13.1 miles really is.

After Lemon Drop Hill I picked up the pace.  This was easy as I had plenty of gas left in the tank and the remainder of the race was almost entirely downhill.  The crowds were thick and loud at this point.  I had a blast running those last few miles.  My last two miles were 9:08 and 8:48.  I felt great and if I could have accurately figured out where the finish line was I would have sped up even more.

I crossed the finish line just north of 2:07.  While slower than the 2:05 I was shooting for, I had a great race.  I expect a 2:05 because I ran that speed on two tough hilly courses and a PR of 2:02 on a flat one.  The problem is that I was completely gassed by mile 11 on all three of those races.  Today I felt awesome at that point.  I knew I was not going to PR, so I will happily take an enjoyable 2:07 finish over getting my ass kicked for something 3 minutes short of my PR.

I collected my medal (thick enough to brain a small wildebeest at 40 yards) and grabbed a bottle of water.  I called my wife and agreed to meet her at the bottom of the lift bridge.  They saw me around mile 12 and she ran into the course to get my attention, but I had my headphones on and did not hear or see her.  I skipped the free drink and after party.  I was completely drenched with sweat.  So much so that even my socks were drenched.  I didn’t even want to think about how that happened.  My feet sweat, but not to that extent.  I knew I would be dealing with a few blisters and that the toenail on my right foot that barely survived my 19 mile long run was now beyond saving.  I grabbed my finisher’s shirt (lime green – not my jam) and met my family.

My legs felt fine for the rest of the day.  I could not eat right away (I never can after a long race) so we headed back to my mom’s house.  I ate some more pie and then on the long drive back to the cities, I indulged and fucked up a bunch of Taco Bell tacos.  That’s one of the benefits of burning 2100 calories early in the morning   Between the early rising, running, and travel, I was asleep by 10 pm that night.

So do I still hate Duluth?  Nope.  I would never live there again, but they do throw a hell of a race.  I will definitely enter the lottery for the half marathon again next year.  If I don’t make the cut, I may even consider doing the full marathon.  If you’re a Minnesota (or even Midwest) runner, I would definitely make an effort to run Grandma’s.

Runs: 14
Miles: 88.61
Races: 6 (48.63 miles)
Outdoors: 13 (85.20 miles)
Indoors: 0 (0.00 miles)
Treadmill: 1 (3.41 miles)
Longest: 14.27 miles

May was the month of racing.  Six races is, by far, the most I’ve raced in a single month.  I continued the stretch of 4 half marathons in 4 weeks that I started in late April with 3 consecutive weekends of half marathons (Lake Minnetonka, Maple Grove, Fargo).  Interspersed in those three weeks were three 5K races (two run for fun with my son).  I ended up with a half marathon PR in Fargo that I’m pretty sure will stand up for the rest of the year.

After the Fargo Half, I was happy to finally have a couple of weeks ahead of me with no races.  I had planned to do two long runs of 17 and 20 miles during that time and maybe some speedwork.  I did none of those things.  The first week off I managed some decent mileage, but nothing long.  Even those runs were put off until the last possible moment.  The next week was a big bowl of fail sauce.  I was swamped at work and home.  I still had plenty of opportunities to run, but got lazy and passed on all of them.  I didn’t run or go to the gym for 6 days.  I finally had to break my running drought due to the Minneapolis Half, and that ended with a personal worst half marathon time.  Lesson learned: get your training runs in – no excuses.

June will bring four races.  I have another run of three consecutive weekends of half marathons (Minneapolis, Lake Waconia, and Grandmas).  After that stretch, I will have completed seven of my planned twelve half marathons for the year.  I will not run another half marathon until August.

My goals for June are to get more quality training runs in.  I need to get back on track for my regular long, slow distance runs if I’m going to get into marathon shape.  I have decided that my minimum running distance will now be 5 miles and I’m going to work in a mid-range distance of 8 – 10 miles once a week as well.  Of course, I will make the promise to do dedicated hill and speed work…but I don’t seem to ever follow through on those promises.

 

We left our exurban chateau for the nearly 4 hour drive to Fargo right before 1 pm.  I was a bit stressed out on the way as the website stated that you needed to pick up your 5K packet prior to 5 pm.  If Google was telling the truth, then we would be arriving at the Fargodome with only about 10 minutes to spare…and that was not accounting for street closures, parking, crowds, dinosaurs, and earthquakes.  As it turned out, we made it to Fargo around 4:15 so we were able to check in to our hotel room then head over to the Fargodome.

Getting to the Fargodome was painless as well. The only obstacles were the design of the city streets (lots of one-way streets) and not any closures.  Traffic was mild, especially considering that they were expecting up to 10,000 5K runners that night.  Parking was plentiful and the Fargodome was roomy enough so that I felt less crowded than I have at many smaller expos.

Once inside, I expected a long wait for our packets.  The 5K packet pickup was on the main level (basically the concourse around the stadium) and the rest of the races held their packet pickup down on the stadium floor along with the expo.  I would pick up the 5K packets while my wife went down to the floor to pick up her 10K packet and – if necessary – my half marathon packet.

Packet pickup was quick and easy.  I grabbed my son’s packet and mine.  He received his in a bag and I was told that since I was registered for two races, my bag would be included with my half marathon packet.  I was in and out in about 10 minutes.  I went downstairs and had my half marathon packet in about 10 minutes as well.

We had a ton of time to kill at that point (a little after 5 pm) so we walked around the expo.  There were a ton of vendors pitching everything from other races to expensive fruit juice.  I grabbed a couple of packs of GU Chomps and was going to buy a poster but decided not to (I’ll explain why in another post).  During the expo they announced a number of times that there were no water stops on the 5K course so they recommended bringing your own water.  This was a good suggestion as it was ninety-freaking-five degrees outside.  I had brought my handheld bottle for this purpose, but had left it in the hotel room so we bought some bottled water at the expo.

We walked around the finish line area (the races end inside the Fargodome).  The race bibs have a large area for you to write in your name so we stopped at a table and my son wrote his name (not without appending “the Great” to it – egoist!)  Finally we decided to kill the remaining 30 minutes by sitting in stands.

We left the stadium around 6:15 so that we would minimize standing around in the 95 degree heat.  This meant that we ended up in the back of the huge pack.  There were two 5K starting areas: one for walkers and one for runners.  This was a great design.  The walkers lined up a block away and would not start until all of the runners had crossed the starting line.  Still, we were so far back in the pack that there was a sign denoting “Estimated Finish Time: 50 Minutes.”

The weather was a huge concern.  It honestly did not feel that bad.  Even though it was 95 degrees, there was a strong wind and the humidity was very low (19%) so it felt much cooler.  I was running this race as my son’s pacer/waterboy so I wasn’t going to be running very fast.

After both the Canadian and US anthem were sung and “Eye of the Tiger” blasted over the speakers, we were off.  I had told my son to run his race and I would follow behind him.  I also told him to start out slow and when he needed a walk break to get all the way over to the right before walking.  He surprised me by actually starting out slow as he usually bolts out at top speed.

The course itself was run completely on residential streets.  There were a ton of people cheering on the runners.  A number of residents had turned on their sprinklers so that runners could run through them to cool down.  My son hit as many of those as he could.  Near the end of the course there was a large misting station as well as an open fire hydrant.

I was not carrying my phone with me as I would not be listening to music and did not want to tie up both hands with a phone and a bottle of water.  This meant no pictures, which was fine.  It also meant no distance/pace information.  This would have been nice as my son kept asking “how much further?”.

The course was completely flat and had a fair number of turns.  I missed the first mile marker and my son told me when we passed the halfway mark.  It seemed to come up pretty fast.  It buoyed his spirits.  I told him “only about 15 minutes left”.  So it came as a bit of a shock when – about 10 minutes later – we saw the 2 mile marker.  “Umm, only about 11 minutes left” I said to my slightly deflated son.  Later we figured out that the “halfway point” he saw was the word “half” written in big letters on the street.  The next day I would decipher this as being part of the half marathon course and not the midpoint of the 5K.

Needless to say, the course was packed.  We were constantly picking holes to pass people.  Sometimes my son would pass someone on the right and I would pass on the left, then I would have to find him again.  It’s easy to lose sight of a smaller human in the mass of runners but we ended up staying together the whole race.

The walkers did make an appearance.  I’m talking about the folks walking the whole route.  The ones who were supposed to line up in a different area.  The ones who would have to have willfully ignored the dozens of announcements over the PA system for the entire half hour before the race.  The ones who somehow decided to not only line up with the runners but to also line up near the front of the pack.  The ones who also figured that walking four-abreast was a fine plan.  I am happy to report that at least two of those walkers received elbow blows.

Other than the jackass walkers, the crowd was nice.  Few runners – especially as far back in the pack as we were – were running very fast.  Most were smiling and taking in the scene.  We spotted a running Elvis as well as a Stormtrooper in full gear (he had to be boiling) and were high-fiving as many kids as possible along the route.  My son loved running through the sprinklers.

After hitting the 2 mile mark, I told my son that if he can hang tight he could complete this run with no walk breaks.  This became our new goal.  He would ask “how much further” and I would guesstimate times based on a 10 minute per mile pace.

Soon enough we could see the Fargodome on our right and the crowds were getting much thicker.  “We just have to run to that building and we’re done.”  He was saving his kick for the end.  Unfortunately he never got to use it.  The race ended near where it began, not in the Fargodome.  This was a bit of a surprise.

I was proud of my son as he completed the 5K with no walk breaks.  The vast majority of the 5K’ers must have walked as the average finishing time was around 45 minutes.  This meant that my PW 5K time was still in the top 25% and – more importantly – let my son brag that he ran faster than 6,000 other runners.

We collected our medals, grabbed some water, met up with my wife and were on our way back to the hotel in about 15 minutes.  I was impressed with how well this race was organized, especially with the brutal weather conditions.

Welcome to Maple Grove – hope you like hills.

For the third weekend in a row, I laced up my shoes and ran a half marathon.  This week’s event was the Maple Grove Half Marathon.  I had not planned on running this race as it does not offer a medal and if I’m going to pound out 13 miles I want a shiny chunk of medal to signify the event.  A few months ago they announced on Facebook that because it was the fifth annual event, they would be issuing finisher medals.  I was in.

This race had a fairly early start.  It’s not far from where I work, so I made the early morning commute pretty much on auto-pilot and arrived at the Maple Grove High School Stadium at 7:10 so I had 20 minutes to dink around before the start of the race.  Packet pickup was really easy as it was held in the Maple Grove REI store and I was able to shoot up there right after work on Friday and nab my packet.  We were told that the shirts would be issued after the race so the packet was bib, timing chip, and some promotional goodies.  I pinned on my bib and secured my timing chip to my shoe then entered the stadium.

It was a glorious day.  The sky was clear and the temperature was in the low 50’s.  There was a mild wind out of the west and the humidity level was low.  Perfect running weather.  After the freezing rain of the Get In Gear and the tropical humidity of the Lake Minnetonka Half, I was very grateful to the weather gods for the perfect day.

The race starts on the track that circles the football field.  By the time I entered the stadium the national anthem (a guitarist channeling his inner Hendrix) was playing.  I lined up just behind the 2:10 pacer.  I wanted to start this race slowly and then try to break 2:05 by picking up the pace over the last few miles.  I wanted to avoid the lack of energy I had on the last miles of the Lake Minnetonka Half.

As I lined up, I heard someone say my name and saw that the manager of the Running Room store that my marathon training class meets was running this race.  She lined up next to me and we chatted a bit.  She was going to try to run 10 minute miles the entire race.  I ran with her for the first couple of miles then slowly moved up.

We ran a half of a lap around the track then exited the stadium.  I loved this course.  It’s by far my favorite course so far.  The course was a mixture of paved trails and residential streets.  The trails circled lakes and the views were awesome.  There were about five small bridges and even a couple of underpasses and a tunnel.  The course started and finished on the track.  Great course…except for the hills. 

This race is known for being hilly.  I’ve run parts of the lake path before and knew there were a lot of smaller hills with a couple of steep buggers thrown in for good measure.  The path didn’t scare me much as I train on very similar paths.  There were about three major hills on the course, but there were a TON of smaller, shorter hills.  It was a rare stretch of running where you weren’t either climbing or descending a hill.

I had left the 2:10 pacer behind shortly after exiting the stadium.  The pacers were spaced pretty tightly at the start of the race (about 750 runners as opposed to the 2,500 and 9,000 runner fields at the start of my last two half marathons) and once we exited the stadium the pacers increased or decreased their pace to hit their split targets.  Against my better judgement, I did not fall back to match the 2:10 pace.

I caught up the 2:05 pacer around mile 3.  I decided that my strategy would be to stick with this pacer and then close strong to break 2:05.  I stuck with this group for a few miles, but by mile 5 I had pulled ahead.  This was okay as I was feeling good and figured that the pacer would catch up to me at the water stops.

Right around mile 3 there was a guy with a large dog tied to a traffic sign.  My eyes followed the long leash to a really ugly dog who looked to be chewing on some shrubs.  The man said something like “C’mon Jimmy, stop eating and cheer on the runners.”  It was only then that I noticed that the “ugly dog” was actually a large pig.

While not every spectator had a large farm animal in tow, the crowd support was awesome.  There were a lot of residents watching and cheering from their homes and many large groups of cheering spectators at the water stops and all along the route.

I ran without headphones for the first 8 miles of the race.  This is the furthest I’ve ever gone without music.  I was drinking in the day and the event.  I was oblivious to my pace and often forgot exactly how many miles I had already run.

After the water stop around mile 8 I pulled out my ear buds.  They were in a tangled clump, so my walking through the water stop was extended as I unknotted them.  This lead to my slowest mile of the race (10:28 yikes!).  Otherwise all of my splits were pretty close to 9:30, with a 9:13 (2nd mile, I gotta stop running mile 2 that fast), 9:18, and 9:56 as the outliers.  Endomondo was measuring the miles slightly short compared to the miles markers again (not as badly as the Minnetonka Half) so those splits were probably a few seconds shorter than the “official” splits.

The reason I mention the splits was because there was a timing mat and clock at the 10K point.  I crossed the mat with 58 something on the clock.  I figured I could take close to a minute off of that value as it took a little while for me to cross the start line, I was shocked to see myself at under one hour halfway through the race.  This meant I was on course for a sub 2 hour half marathon.  Of course, I was wrong.  While I was not aware of my split times as I had not put in my earbuds yet, this still did not cover up the fact that 10K (6.2 miles) is NOT the halfway mark of a half marathon (13.1 miles).  It’s still .7 miles short, which means adding about 6 – 7 more minutes at my pace.  Oh well, doing math while running is not my forte.

I chugged along from mile 8 – 10.  The hills started to wear on me by mile 11.  I was losing energy once again.  I was fueling with Lifesavers and Gu Chomps (watermelon – pretty good).  I hit all of the water stops (except the last one).  The water stops featured *gasp* full-sized cups of water.  Hydration was never a problem.

I overheard that there was a big hill before the end of the race.  I kept looking for it after mile 9.  Starting around the 10.5 mile mark we kept climbing and climbing slowly, then – as we exited the park trail – we had a hill that rose until we turned right, then rose again.  I made it all the way until the last 20 feet or so, then took my first walk break (other than the unplanned walk to untangle my earbuds).  I looked up and saw the Maple Grove water tower and remembered that the hill was called “Water Tower Hill”.  I walked for about 20 seconds to catch my breath and continued running.  By itself, this wasn’t a killer hill, but coming after a ton of other hills it was a beast.

I knew that I was slipping, but after hitting the next water stop I decided to just suck it up for the last 2 miles.  Nothing hurt, but I was battling tired legs and the desire to walk for the rest of the race.  I skipped the last water stop, but ended up walking briefly about a minute later.  I broke down and walked once more before the end of the race.  I kept the walk breaks to about 10 seconds.  I was getting Goldy’s Run flashback.

Finally I could see the stadium up ahead.  I would have liked to sprint at this point, but I had nothing left.  Still, I was ahead of the 2:05 pacer, so I was guaranteed a PR as long as I didn’t collapse.  There were tons of people cheering on the runners as you entered the stadium.  The soft track felt great on my feet.  I did not want to pass the guy ahead of me but I ended up picking up the pace a bit then sprinting the final 50 feet or so to the finish line.

I was surprised to see 2:06 on the clock.  Accounting for the minute or so before I crossed the starting line, I guess that I barely cracked 2:05.  I was a bit disappointed to see that Endomondo showed 2:06.  It turns out I only took about 30 seconds to cross the starting line.  This still confused me as I was sure that I was never passed by the 2:05 pacer.  Maybe she passed me while I was focusing on my stupid earbuds, but I swear I would have seen her and her sign on the big downhill portion right after that even if she did pass me.  Oh well, it wasn’t a PR, but I’ll take it as this was a pretty tough course.

A volunteer clipped off my timing chip and I collected my medal.  I grabbed some water and wandered around a bit and snapped some pictures.  Coming into the stadium I swear I heard my name announced as the winner of a door prize.  The announcer mentioned to check the door prize list after the race.  I looked all over for that list, but never found it.  I grabbed an orange slice and some Muscle Milk then set off to get my shirt.  The volunteer asked for the bottom part of my bib, but I had torn it off while putting on the bib before the race because I didn’t think it was needed since this was a chip timed event.  No problems, she scribbled an ‘X’ on my bib and I collected my shirt.  The shirt is very nice.  It’s a good-looking Brooks shirt.

I think that this is my favorite half marathon so far.  Even though it was hilly and I was a bit disappointed with my time, the course was beautiful.  The weather was perfect and I had a great time.  I can’t wait until the Fargo Half Marathon next week because that course is supposed to be flat as a pancake.  I’m going to shoot for a 2:03 there.

Half marathon number two is in the books.  I ran a surprisingly fast (as always, fast is a relative term) race on a course known for its hills.  There were plenty of hills, but there were only about four that were substantial.  Most of the others were pretty short and not very steep.  The humidity on the other hand was very formidable.

Packet pickup was on Saturday in Eden Prairie at the Optum Health facilities.  I had to drive in to the data center in Chaska so I was in the area anyways.  I was in and out in about 15 minutes.  It wasn’t too crowded and the process went smoothly.  The race shirt is pretty good-looking.  Note: I had copied the packet pickup info into my calendar when I first signed up and it mentioned packet pickup at the race from 6:30 am to 7:45 am.  Checking the site yesterday it stated that there was no race day pickup.  Always a good idea to check the site prior to packet pickup in case anything has changed.

Weather was my big worry for this race.  It had been cold, wet, and gloomy Saturday morning.  We got more rain in the afternoon and were due for some substantial thunderstorms…which arrived around midnight.  All night I heard rain and thunder and my room lit up with each lightning strike.  When I got up around 6 am it looked like the worst was over.  On my drive east to Wayzata there was no additional rain fall.  The ground was soaked and it was cloudy, but it was 53 degrees with no rain at the start of the race.  I dismissed the 94% humidity as I figured since rain = 100% humidity, this percentage would drop sharply.  I was wrong.  By the end of the race it was 59 degrees with 88% humidity…and I felt it.

I was worried about the parking situation.  The website advised that construction in the area had eaten up a lot of parking and that there would be 300 spots at the nearby Junior High.  I got a late start once again, but made it to the lot by 7:15.  At that time the lot was only about 1/3 full.  I killed time until 7:30 then wandered over to the bus.  I did not have to wait in line to board the bus and it left while only about 3/4 full.  It made a couple of other stops to pick up runners in other lots and dropped us off about a quarter-mile from the starting line.  Judging by the number of people walking to the starting area, most of them must have parked close to the start and skipped the bus.

By 7:45 I was in the starting area about 50 feet behind the 2:10 pacer.  The race started in waves and I was in the third of four waves.  We would move up each time a wave started (about every 2 minutes).  Around 8:06 our wave started…well not really.  We actually were moved up and around the corner to the real starting line.  Then shortly afterwards we started for real.  At 8:08 am I crossed the starting line.

My goal was to stick with the 2:10 pacer (9:55/mile pace) and hopefully break away from her near the end of the race.  Once again, my A/B/C goals were: finish, don’t walk, and break 10 minutes/mile.

I ended up breaking ahead of the pacer around the .75 mile mark.  I had looked at the elevation profile for the race as I had heard it was hilly and didn’t want any surprises.  From that profile, the biggest hill was a 40 foot uphill from the start of the race until about the 1 mile mark.  I wanted to put a little distance between myself and the pacer in case I started to slow down on the uphill.  I ran the first mile in 9:39 so this was not an issue.

What goes up, must (well, SHOULD) come down, so that must be what accounted for my second mile.  I ended up with a 9:08 split.  This was way too fast for an early mile on a half marathon course.  Miles 3 – 9 were all run within 8 seconds either side of 9:30/mile.  This was a bit fast for me.  I really wanted to be closer to 9:50 until mile 10 and then speed up at that point if I had it in me.

I wore a long-sleeved tech shirt and some really thin shorts.  By the second mile my shirt was already damp.  This would continue through the entire race.  I sweated out a small ocean.  I was never uncomfortably hot (the temp ranged from 52 to 59 over the course of the race), but the near tropical humidity was a bear.  I had taken some magnesium tablets before the race and had Sport Beans with me to replenish some salt/minerals.  I also had a Gu with me, but did not end up using it.

The course was nice.  There were tons of lake views as well as mansions and gardens along the path.  This was a point to point course that started in Wayzata and ended in Excelsior (near the launching area for the infamous Vikings cruise of a few years ago).  A lot of the run was spent in the left shoulder of various roads.  This was not a closed course.  The wave start really helped the spacing so it never got too crowded.  Also, I did not notice any walkers and (after the first mile) no three abreast or more runners.

I hit all of the water stops and alternated between water and sports drink.  I think I will stick to just water in the future.  I’m fine with just popping a few Sport Beans if I need flavor/calories.  Despite the crazy humidity, I did not get super thirsty like I did during Goldy’s Run.

There was only one point where I panicked a bit.  Around mile 8 I started looking for a water stop.  I saw one with just a single table and a group of three kids frantically trying to fill cups.  I figured that this was just a group of super nice spectators and not an official water stop (all of the other stops had many more volunteers and multiple tables) so I skipped it.  Shortly after passing it I started to worry that it was an official water stop.  The last stop had been around the 5 mile mark, and I thought that the next one would be around mile 12 so I was in danger of going 7 miles between rehydrating.  Around the 8.5 mile mark I saw an official stop and grabbed some water.  Disaster averted.

I had been pretty much averaging 9:30 miles since mile 3 (Endomondo doesn’t announce an overall average pace, only split times and a less than helpful pace in miles per hour).  I kept telling myself to dial it back a bit as I didn’t want to go belly up and walk the last few miles a la Goldy’s Run.  I had one of those moments where I forgot if I the next mile marker would be 8 or 9.  I got the best present a few minutes later when Endomondo announced that I had just finished mile 10.  I was now just over 5.5 minutes ahead of my 2:10 pace goal by that point thanks to a 9:15 split on mile 10.

In my last half marathon it was at this point that I started to slowly pick up the pace and run the last 5K strong.  This time I started to fade at this point.  I had been pacing off of two younger guys and I forced myself to slow down and let them go.  Nothing was hurting, but I felt my energy fading.  This turned the remaining hills into a mental battle to keep from walking.

I did end up walking once during mile 11.  As I said, the course was not closed.  This meant that traffic was backed up all along the course.  They may have as well shut down the roads as waiting for a gap in the 2,500 runners was an exercise in futility.  Soon after I faded back a bit to slow down I approached a cross walk.  There was a traffic cop facing a long line of backed up cars.  He motioned the first car forward through the cross walk and I had to come to a halt.  Fair enough I guess.  BUT after the first car went through he motioned the second one through as well.  At this point there was a large group of runners right behind me and that would have meant that they would have to stop as well.  I looked at the cop and said “Fuck no” and ran through the cross walk before the car could get rolling.  I’m not sure why he thought even letting the first car through was a good idea, but I wasn’t waiting for another car.  He didn’t say anything or shoot me so I guess that he knew it was a bad idea as well.  Of course stopping threw me off my mojo and soon after I had another hill to climb.  I took my first and only walk break out of a combination of anger at being stopped, the need to open my Sport Beans package to fish out some beans, and sheer exhaustion.  I walked for about 30 seconds.  That combined with the last water stop occurring just before the 11 mile mark led to my slowest mile of the day (9:59).

Mile 12 was not much faster and I was fading pretty fast.  Endomondo was measuring the miles a bit short and by this point it was announcing splits about a minute before I saw the course markers.  I was still ahead of schedule, but I was constantly waging a mental war to avoid walking.  I did end up high (well, low) fiving three little girls and gave a thumbs up to woman playing an accordion.  The spectators and volunteers were all pretty awesome.

Midway through mile 12 I was presented with a surprise: a dirt trail.  Ugh.  I was really sucking at this point and even though the path was flat and pretty, I was bemoaning the pavement change and wanting to use it as an excuse to start walking.  There were plenty of people walking at this point.  A lot of them would end up getting passed by me, then start running and pass me, then walk and get passed again.  I settled behind two women and paced off of them.  I did not see the mile 12 marker and was unsure exactly how far ahead of the official distance my GPS was reading.

We eventually exited the path and entered more residential streets.  At this point the crowds were growing and I could sense that the end was near.  Endomondo was showing 12.85 miles, so I estimated that I was closer to 12.6 miles.  I wanted to start picking up the pace, but there were some smaller hills and I really did not have much energy left.  I saw a man walking the opposite way with a medal around his neck and he held up three fingers and told me “only three more minutes”.  Soon after I picked up the pace a bit.  There were a few runners already sprinting.  After the third one shot past me I joined suit.  The finish line had a “mini-tron” and there were race photographers along with a ton of cheering spectators and finishers.  I ended up crossing in just over 2:05.  A new half marathon PR and nearly 5 minutes faster than what I had hoped for on this course.

I was completely drenched.  I picked up my finisher’s medal (huge and heavy!) and then waiting in line…for what I did not know.  I was looking for water at this point and did not understand why no one was moving.  I waited about two minutes then jumped over one of the barriers.  This was the only thing that was poorly planned/executed in the whole race: the finishing corral emptied into a large covered area where runners could grab a plate and choose from a bunch of post race snacks.  This was stupid because it ended up backing up all the finishers.  I personally could give a fuck about post race snacks, but I definitely needed some water at that point.  If they had been handing out bottles of water right after the finish, then waiting in the chow line would not have been so bad.  Hell, they had a huge park at their disposal, even moving the chow hall somewhere else would have been a better option.

I managed to snag two cups of water by reaching over the barrier and taking them from a table at the end of this clusterfuck.  I guzzled them down and headed for the return buses.  After a short walk, I jumped on a bus and was on my way in no time.  The bus ride back to Wayzata took about 15 minutes and was pleasant except for the fact that I left a puddle of sweat in the seat when I stood up.

All in all this was a great race.  The race was hilly, but only about four of the hills were anything to write home about.  The race support was great and the course was pretty.  The shirts and medals were first-rate.  I will definitely do this race again, but hopefully under less humid conditions.

 

Runs: 16
Miles: 115.19
Races: 4 (32.24 miles)
Outdoors: 15 (112.08 miles)
Indoors: 0 (0.00 miles)
Treadmill: 1 (3.11 miles)
Longest: 20.56 miles

Another month of personal records: most miles in a month (115.19), most miles in a week (38.21), longest run (20.56), longest run with no walk breaks (13.1), and PRs in 1/2 Marathon, 10 mile, 5K, and 6 mile (automatic PR as it’s the only race I’ve run at this distance).  Along with these high points were some lows: crashing 14 miles into my 20 miler and a disappointing 10 mile race.  I finished the month by enduring a very cold and wet half marathon then – two days later – absolutely slaying a hilly 10K route.  A great way to end a great month.

I’ve been doing my long runs every other week utilizing a 3:1 run/walk ratio.  This month brought my two longest runs of my life: 17 miles and 20 miles.  The 17 miler went great.  Two weeks later I mismanaged my 20 miler so badly that I ended up walking most of the last 6 miles.  This month I will be starting the long run ladder again (15, 17, then 20 miles) but with a different run/walk ratio (probably a 4:1, but I might try to stretch it to a 4.5:1).  I will be running a half marathon 3 of the 4 weekends this month.  I’m guessing that means that I will have another 100+ mile month in May.

Right now I’m feeling pretty good about my running.  I’m improving in all areas.  I’ve become faster on my shorter runs (5K) and – withstanding the 10 mile fail – I’m improving my stamina on longer runs.  I’ve had no injuries, other than extreme calf cramps brought on by dehydration on my 20 miler.  My feet have adapted to my shoes by becoming calloused (is that a verb?) along the part of my foot that was getting blistered.  I’m planning on buying new shoes this month.

I’m 1/12 of the way through my “12 Half Marathons in 2012” goal.  By the end of May I will be 1/3 of the way through, including my first out-of-state half marathon (Fargo, ND).

The marathon training class is going well.  I’ve been late to the last few lectures as I am very busy at work, but have made all of the training runs.

I celebrated my 1 year “runiversary” in April.  I ran outside (I don’t count the treadmill runs that began 3 months before) for the first time on 12 April 2011.  I barely managed 1/4 mile before needing a walk break and ended up completing 2.19 (albeit hilly) miles in a blistering 29:41 (13:33 minute miles).

I am still intimidated at the prospect of running a full marathon in October.  As I completed my half marathon, I thought to myself  “I can’t imagine running this far only to have it be the turnaround point”.

Purple lips, goosebumps, and 13.1 miles.

Today I completed the first of my (over?) ambitious goal of running 12 half marathons in 2012.  The Get In Gear Half Marathon marked my first half marathon as well as the beginning of 4 half marathons in 4 weeks.

Packet pickup was held on Friday in the same park that would serve as the start and finish for the race.  I had initially planned on picking up my packet on race day.  I re-read the website as the race approached and it looked like the “limited race day pickup” would be only for out-of-town runners.  I decided not to gamble on whether or not I was an “out-of-towner” and planned to pick up my packet on the night before the race.  When I mapped the address I saw that it was within a few miles of where my wife works so I enlisted her to pick up my packet for me.  She told me it was a bit of a clusterfuck, but was in and out within 15 minutes.

I had been worried about the weather for this race.  There was a forecast that included a possibility of snow the morning of the race.  When I went to bed it was still 50 degrees, so I doubted that the white stuff was on the way.  When I woke up, it was cold, overcast, and windy.  No snow and very little rain.  As I drove into the Cities there was very sparse drizzle.

I arrived over an hour before the start of the race.  Parking was a breeze (well-marked and police were directing drivers into the lot).  I gathered up my Gu Chomps, “sweat handkerchief”, jawbreakers, and phone.  It had started to sprinkle a bit by then, so I decided at the last second to wear a windbreaker.  I was wearing a short-sleeved tech shirt and shorts.  I knew that once I was chugging along this would be sufficient to keep me warm but I would probably need the jacket while waiting for the start.

It was a good thing that I brought the jacket as it was nasty outside.  I made my way to the bus pickup area and joined a long line of shivering runners.  They were running four school busses between the parking lot and the starting area (about a 20 minute roundtrip).  The rain had picked up a bit, but was still pretty much a sparse drizzle.  Combined with the 42 degree weather and the stiff wind, I was pretty quickly chilled.

It took about 30 minutes to get on a bus.  By the time I exited it, the start of the race was about 15 minutes away.  I looked for a bathroom, but only found the wall of porta-potties.  One look at the lines and I knew I would never make the race start if I jumped in line.

I snapped a few pictures and made my way to the starting line.  This is a huge race.  It’s the largest 10K race in Minnesota (15th largest in the USA).  There were 7,000 10K runners and about 1,200 half marathoners.  They all  started together.  I eventually found a place at the end of the line.  I couldn’t see the start line I was so far back.

The race began and it took nearly five minutes for me to cross the starting line.  This was fine with me as I was in no hurry.  My goals for this race were to finish and possibly break the 10 minute per mile mark.

The course was crowded, but I’m used to this by now.  It was run on roads so there was plenty of room to run around the slower runners.  The course seemed to be a slight downhill slope for most of the first two miles.  For whatever reason, my brain started to protest almost immediately.  The combination of the foul weather and the realization that a mile in only meant that I was 1/13 of the way to completion.  Around the two-mile mark my brain finally shut the fuck up and let my legs do the work.

The rain had picked up a bit, but my jacket does not breathe at all so I kept unzipping it a bit more as I progressed.  I knew that eventually I would need to take it off and tie it around my waist.

I hit the first water station around the three-mile mark.  I had not yet started my music and was surprised to hear someone speak my name.  It was a runner from my marathon running group.  She was running the 10K.  For the next 3 miles we ran together and chatted.  I was happy to do this as it took my mind off of the race.  She even offered to take my jacket when the half marathoners and 10K runners split.  I happily took her up on the offer.

The races split near an overpass.  The 10K runners turned and finished their last quarter-mile or so, while the half marathoner ran straight ahead.  After that split the field thinned considerably.

At this point I turned on my music and settled into a groove.  The rain had picked up again, but I was riding a mini runner’s high and felt good.  Prior to the split, I had remarked that the course was remarkably non-hilly especially for running along the Mississippi river.  Of course the first hill appeared right after the split.  It was a long, but minor hill as all of the hills would be on this course.

I was now trudging along and unfortunately splashing though puddles of water.  I was soaked but my body temperature was still warm enough that I felt fine.  My goal was to not walk at all on this run and the fact that if I walked I would most likely start freezing kept my legs chugging along.

The course went straight out until a turnaround at the 9 mile mark.  I started seeing the elite runners coming back the other way just before the 8 mile marker.  This was the only part of the race that I did not like.  It was a slight uphill and I kept anticipating the turnaround long before it came.  Eventually the nine mile mark appeared and I turned around.  I felt better at this point as I knew I was in the final stretch and I was still feeling fine.

Endomondo was measuring the miles shorter than the mile markers.  I chalked this up to the cloudy raining day and the havoc it can wreak on GPS.  It is interesting that a number of the race recaps showed GPS readings near what mine read for the course: 13.35.  That’s probably more due to the weather than the course being long.

I was just below 10 minute miles for the first two miles.  I had taken out my earbuds as I ran with my running club buddy so I missed the times for miles 3 though 5, but the time elapsed divided by distance run was almost exactly 10 minutes per mile, so I was on point.  Starting with mile 6, I surprised myself by getting a bit faster (9:40, 9:45, 9:38, 9:57, 9:52, 9:50, and a “blistering” 9:14 for mile 13).  I was going to meet my secondary goal of logging sub 10 minute miles.  Well…almost.  I did barely accomplish this goal as Endomondo was logging the miles shorter than the mile markers, so my splits were actually slower than what Endomondo was announcing.

I was never really in any danger of taking a walk break.  I actually got stronger over the last three miles.  I passed a bunch of runners during that time (and was only passed by about 3 runners).  Even the sight of a number of people walking those last few miles did not convince my legs to take a break.  My fastest mile of the whole race was mile 13.

We returned to the point that the 10K and half marathon split and it was now our turn to run over the Mississippi and finish the race.  Surprisingly there was still a pretty good-sized crowd near the end of the race despite the weather and the fact that the 10K runners were all done by that point.  I high-fived a little girl and then started my sprint.  I crossed one set of mats and saw another set about 50 yards ahead so I continued my sprint to cross them.  I looked up and saw a clock reading 1:50.  What!?!  No chance.  I knew I was finishing just under 2:10 and the clock should be reading about 2:15 due to my last start.  I think I figured out what happened: there was 5K race that started after the 10K/half marathon and that was most likely the clock for that race.

Anyhoo…I happily collected my medal and grabbed a banana and some water.  I tried some chocolate milk, then remembered how much I hate chocolate milk.  I was feeling remarkably good.  My legs were not hurting, but I could feel them tightening a bit after I stopped running.  The biggest problem was that I was now getting very cold.  I was completely drenched and it was still 40 degrees and windy.

The wait for the return bus was thankfully short.  I did feel a bit of pain as I climbed the three steps onto the bus.  My legs have a tendency to burn a bit after long runs and I was hoping that they would not start doing this as I sat in the cramped school bus seat.  I was still shivering like crazy.

We got back to the parking lot and of course I forgot where I parked.  I wandered the gigantic parking lot looking for my car while shivering like crazy and nursing now painful legs.  I eventually found my car.  I had to crank the heat and try to warm up a little before driving and I could not stop shaking.  A quick glance in the rear view mirror showed that my lips were a light shade of purple.  I had goosebumps the size of small pebbles (okay, a slight exaggeration) running up and down my arms.  It took a good 45 minutes before I finally felt warm.

My legs were fine about 20 minutes after the run and I spent the rest of the miserable day cleaning the garage then drinking too much wine at a friend’s party.

I guess that the Get In Gear has been cold and rainy each of the last three years.  I would recommend the run for the course and the thrill of running with nearly 10,000 other runners (if you find that thrilling), but hopefully the run of bad weather ends.

Today I ran the Minneapolis Recycle Run 5k around Lake Harriet.  This is the third time I’ve run this same course (Reindeer Run and 100% Irish).  It’s a pretty course and is relatively flat, but it gets crowded.  That, coupled with the fact that I ran a hilly 6 mile race yesterday, set my expectations to: slow and easy.

I was only doing this run to check off my first race on the Explore Minnesota Challenge series.  I signed up for this series back in December.  You have to complete 8 races (from a list of about 25) in 2012.  You have to complete at least one race in four areas of Minnesota (Northern, Southern, Central, and Metro).  This race counted as a Metro race.  For each area you complete a race in, you get a pin.  Complete all 8 races with at least 1 in each area and you get a medal.  You also get some other swag (hat, magazines, MDRA membership) when you sign up.

Anyhoo…I got a late start (quelle surprise) and parked .7 miles away at about 8:40.  I got my “warm up run” in by jogging from my car to the registration area.  I lucked out again as no one was in the line for my particular chunk of the alphabet.  I nabbed my bib and timing chip along with the green cotton race shirt and aluminum water bottle.  I wore shorts with big pockets so I was able to stuff the folded shirt into one of the pockets.  I would have to carry the water bottle.

I then went to the Explore Minnesota Challenge table and checked in (you have to do this before each race to get credit).  They checked my name and gave me my Metro pin.  At that point I had just enough time to pin on my bib and timing chip before I had to head to the starting area.

The last two races here have been pretty crowded.  This one ended up having around 500 runners.  That’s about a 1/3 the size of the other two races I’ve run there.  I chose a spot I figured would be in the middle of the pack, but it ended up being in the back 10%.  Soon after getting my music queued and Endomondo app ready, an air horn sounded and we were off.

I spent the first 1/2 mile doing the normal zig-zagging bit to get around walkers (few and far between) and slower runners (it’s hard to believe that there are runners slower than me).  This didn’t bother me as much as usual as I was running this one just for fun and only wanted to complete it without walking and under 30 minutes.  When I looked at my pace around .3 miles in, I was at 10:30/mile.  No chance of a PR today.

The weather was chilly: 42 degrees and overcast with a slight wind.  Once I got warmed up, it felt great.  The course circles Lake Harriet, so there were plenty of lake views along with expensive houses and gardens to look at.

I’m still getting used to Endomondo.  One thing that I don’t like is that you only get voice updates every mile (or kilometer if you choose) and you cannot change it.  I’m used to my .5 mile updates from Runmeter.  I was very surprised to hear that I was at a 9:02 pace at the one mile mark, especially with the slow start.  I am very impressed with Endomondo (or the RAZR MAXX) GPS.  I got my mile updates within a few feet of the mile marker signs each time (as I did on the 6 mile race yesterday).

At the one mile mark I started my music.  I was feeling surprisingly good.  I was concerned that my legs would be dead today, but I felt pretty good.  The pack was not crowded at this point and I started pacing off of other runners (passing a few of them along the way).  The course has two minor hills, so my hill climbing muscles got a well deserved day off.

There was no water stop on this race.  I felt fine, but probably should have filled the aluminum bottle with water since I was stuck carrying it. 

At the 2 mile mark I was surprised again to hear that my total time was 17 something.  My pace for the second mile (I wish Endomondo would give average for the entire run rather than just split times) was under 9 minutes.  This put me in a position to get a PR.  I was surprised and pretty doubtful that this would happen, but I vowed to keep my current pace.

As I’ve said, I’ve run this course 3 times now.  I’ve never walked a step on it.  Today, I never felt the desire to walk at all.  I also did not feel like I was pushing myself very hard.

Much sooner than I expected, I could see the band shell across the lake.  It looked very close.  I checked Endomondo and it said I was running an 8 minute pace and I was 2.7 miles in.  I knew it was too early to start sprinting, but I made sure to keep my current pace and started to find runners to pace and/or pass.

I hit the 3 mile marker and heard 26 something in my ear.  I could PR this bitch.  The final portion is a slight hill followed by a downhill to the finish.  I chugged up the hill and once I could see the finish line I picked up my pace.  I saw TC Bear (Minnesota Twins mascot) about 50 yards from the finish line.  By that point I was sprinting.  TC gave me a “paw’s up” and I nodded knowingly back at him.  You damn right, TC.  I’m  about to crush this PR.  I crossed the finish line with 27 something on the clock.  I showed my time as 27:18.  The chip time was actually a few seconds faster than that.  I had PR’d.  Hell, I had PR’d and run negative splits.  I almost felt like a real runner. 

A volunteer snipped off my timing chip and I snapped a few pics of the finish area.  I left shortly afterward as I had to get showered and on my way.

All in all, a nice run around a pretty area.  The weather was a bit gloomy, but probably aided my time as much as the flat course.  As soon as I saw my time I started to think that I could have shaved at least 30 seconds off that first mile.  Looks like my new 5K goal is to break 27 minutes. 

Next week is the first of three consecutive weekends of half marathons.