Half-Assed Runner

Archive for September, 2011

Tonight was the fifth and final race in the 2011 Lifetime Trail Series.  Tonight’s run was in Elm Creek Park Reserve near Maple Grove.  Since the course was near my work, I left from there.  Even though I was less than 10 minutes away, I managed to just barely make it to the race on time.

I drove to the park and followed the large Lifetime signs with arrows on them.  This is a nice touch, especially in a spacious park like Elm Creek.  There were two large parking lots near the start of the race…both of which were full.  Runners had started parking off the side of the road and my late arrival was actually a bit of a blessing as I was able to get a spot directly across the road from the registration area.

I got into the registration line at 6:20, only 10 minutes before the start of the race.  I was pre-registered and soon I had my bib.  I was given the choice of a tshirt or a hat.  The hats were nice (and very popular), but I went with the dark shirt as I wanted it to match the light one I got at the last trail run.

I stashed the shirt and all non-essentials in my car and went for a quick pre-race jog.  The weather was a pretty chilly 54 and since sunset was set for about 7:10 it’s going to be quite a bit colder before I’m done running (the temps dipped to 48 degrees at the end of the run).  I wore shorts and a long sleeved tech shirt.  I was debating whether or not to throw on a light jacket.  I decided to skip the jacket, which turned out to be a good idea as I was drenched in sweat by the end of the run.

We lined up for the start of the race.  The race director advised us about some of the course details.  I had checked out the course on Monday so I knew that we would be mostly on cross country trails with a .75 mile portion on a paved trail.  The hills were much more mild than the beasts on the Carver run.  They were mostly rolling hills and not too steep.  Most of the trails contain a very narrow single track bike trail of packed dirt.  To take advantage of the single track, runners would need to run single file and run on a tightrope for a lot of the trail as the tracks were only about six inches wide over much of the trail.  Oh, and one more advantage compared to the Carver trail: no horse shit.

The race director advised that the trail had been measured at 5.2 miles.  The trail I mapped out on Monday was over 6 miles (including some of my wrong turns).  They had obviously trimmed the 5.75 mile loop from last year’s race.

The horn sounded and we were off.  As usual, I had positioned myself in the back 20% of the field.  The initial portion of the run was mostly downhill and I found myself unable to hit my pace, so I started passing runners.  I ended up passing more runners than usual and by the .5 mile mark Kinetic announced a pace of 9:04.  That’s fast for me on a paved course, it was much faster than I’m used to running on a trail (the trail usually adds 1.5 – 2 minutes to my average pace).  Still, my legs felt great, the weather was perfect, and I knew that there were no monster hills ahead of me, so I kept up the pace.  I was a little worried about burning out, but my goals for this race were simply to finish and to avoid the tons of walk breaks I used at Carver.

I had switched back to Kinetic for this race as I’ve been pretty unimpressed with Runmeter’s GPS accuracy lately.  Kinetic measured the miles short, it would announce a mile marker shortly before the mile marker would appear on the course.  This is exactly the opposite of Runmeter’s behavior.  On mile 5 though, the mile marker showed up before Kinetic announced it.  Kinetic measured the 5.2 mile course at 5.23 miles, so I’m still impressed by it’s GPS accuracy.

Mother Nature reached out and reminded us that this was indeed a trail race:  a runner ahead of me tripped and fell on the trail.  He was on his feet quickly and uninjured thankfully. 

At the 1.6 mile mark, I took my first walk break near the top of a hill.  I had been attacking the hills, but this sucker was the last of three successive hills and I needed a breather.  This also gave me the opportunity to fall behind a group that I had been pacing.  They were too fast for me on the flats, but I would end up passing them going up or down hills.  I didn’t want to keep "rubberbanding" with them.  I took a quick breather and started running again.

At this point I was alone.  I decided to kick my pace down a notch.  I was about 2 miles in and still running around 9:30.  I dropped down to a pace above 10 minutes and continued on.  Of course, this meant that I ended up getting passed by a dozen or more runners over the last 3 miles, but I was cool with that.  I would occasionally pace behind some of these runners and that kept my legs pumping.  5 miles is still a long run for me.  The weather and the (albeit passing) familiarity with the course meant that I was never super tired, but I did take a few strategic walk breaks, but kept them all to around 10 seconds.  I only took 2 of them on hills.

Around the 3 mile point we started the paved trail portion of the run.  This is where most of the runners passed me.  For whatever reason, it seemed like I actually slowed down on this part of the course.  My feet went slightly numb.  This has happened to me before and, as usual, it cleared up within a half mile.  We ran over a long wooden bridge and past the disc golf course.  Near the end of the trail we hit the only water stop.  I grabbed a cup of water and walked through the stop.  A number of the runners ahead of me did the same, so when I started running again I was in a small pack of runners.  I stuck with them for the rest of the race.

I made one attempt to race ahead of the pack.  Just before the 5 mile mark, I decided to increase my pace and see if I couldn’t get ahead of the dozen runners in the pack.  My idea seemed brilliant…until I hit one of the last hills.  I had to take an embarrassing walk break to catch my breath.  Nothing like racing past a group of people only to have them pass me as I walked with my head down, wheezing, at the top of a hill.

The sun had just set prior to the end of the race.  There were some pretty dark, tree covered patches on the last mile of the race.  There were a few bits (including the paved trail) that were lit.  I assume that these lights are there for the cross country skiers.  The dark spots were manageable, but I did keep a heightened eye out for anything that I might trip over.

There was one more hill right before the finish line.  I looked up and saw 53 minutes on the clock.  I stopped Kinetic and saw that I had run 5.23 miles in 53:18.  I was pretty happy with the 10:12 pace even though I had toyed with trying to trim that to under 10 minutes.  I had a shot at doing that, but my humiliating hill walk ended that pipe dream.  Oh well, I had a much better run than I did at Carver.

Lifetime has a ton of post-race food available.  I grabbed a slice of pizza, some water, and an energy bar.  As I was a sweaty beast and the temps were now in the 40’s, I finished my pizza and took off.

I really liked this course and really like the Lifetime Trail Series.  Next year I hope to hit all five of the runs and improve on my performances from this year.  I am definitely going to do a LOT more hill work.  I have two more trail races left this year (Autumn Woods Classic and Timberdash) but they are both 5Ks and will not be as challenging as the Lifetime courses.  I’m also getting better at long runs.  5 miles now feels to me like 5K felt mid-summer: challenging, but very "doable".

Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to “having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.

– Wikipedia

I signed up for this race quite a while ago.  I’m not sure what drew me to the race: the setting (Wirth Park), the fact that it was a trail race (at a time when I had not run any trail races), or maybe that it was taking place on a unique date (9/10/11).  When I signed up for it, I did not have any races scheduled around it.  Fast forward a couple of months, and this race turns out to be the 3rd race within 5 days.  I ran the Red Rooster 5 mile race on Monday, the Lifetime Trail Series Carver Park 5 mile trail run on Wednesday, and was now ending my busiest race week with this run, described as “A wooded and challenging 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course.”

Vendors

After getting my ass handed to me on the Carver Park trail run, the thought of tackling another trail run was far from enticing.  I seriously contemplated skipping this race, but it was a nice day and I had already paid to run, so I headed over to Wirth Park to pound this sucker out.

Theodore Wirth Park

The website and subsequent email notice warned about parking issues.  It turns out that the big parking lot near the race course is under construction.  It was strongly suggested that runners bike or walk to the park.  I live about 30 miles away, so this was not an option.  Consequently I got the park around 8:30 am, an hour and a half before the 5K began to (hopefully) get a parking spot.  It turned out that the event was allowing people to park on the grass close to the starting area, so parking was not a problem (as long as you didn’t mind a little “off road” action).

Parking

After parking I walked to the registration area.  We had been mailed postcards with a bar code on it that the volunteer would scan.  The scanners were not cooperating, but even so, registration was quick and painless.  I scored my swag bag (pretty cool stuff) and t shirt.  I walked back to my car, stowed my gear, and pinned on my bib.  Now I just had to kill 1.25 hours.  Luckily, walking around Wirth park on a beautiful morning is a great way to kill time.

Wirth Park

I eventually wandered to the starting area.  There was a lot of stuff going on.  There was a nice collection of vendors as well as a number of races already taking place.  There was a half marathon and “Nordic Walk” already in progress.  I was running the 5K, which would share a 10 am starting time with a 13.1K race.  Yes, I typed that correctly.  I’m not even sure what to call that race?  A half-marathon poorly converted to kilometers?

Start

As the start time approached, I took a 5 minute jog to get warmed up on the trails near the start of the race.  There were definitely going to be some hilly areas on this run.  I followed the runners with the red 5K bibs to the starting area.

Start

The starting area is the only real complaint I have with this race.  The race started on a paved trail about 6 feet wide.  Between the 13.1K and 5K, there were about 250 runners crammed onto the trail.  A lot of them (myself included) were standing outside of the paved trail.  Once the race began, the flow of runners had to squeeze together to get everyone on the trail and moving.  Needless to say, it was a slow start.  I positioned myself in my usual back 20% position and did not start actually running for a good 2 minutes after the race started.  This brief jogging period came to an abrupt end when the course turned left off of the paved trail and onto a dirt trail.  The trail went up a hilly area right away.  Everyone started walking again.  It was impossible to pass anyone.  Once the trail widened out a bit, I started passing as many people as possible.  I generally don’t try to run fast up hills, but in this case it was the easiest place to pass people, so I powered up the early hills just to pass runners and try to create some space.

Even this strategy was flawed.  Once we hit the single track trails, it became impossible to pass once again.  The trails were very narrow (as single tracks are wont to be) and passing would mean running though waist high foliage.  There was also a beautiful single track area that wound up a large hill.  Everyone was walking at this point.  Not because the hill was super steep, but because all of the runners were clumped together on the trail and the trail was right on the edge of the steep hillside.  Trying to pass would most likely result in a nice tumble down the hill.

This was definitely not a run to PR on.  While I was not happy to be crunched together single-file walking, I did welcome the involuntary walking breaks.  I did have a runner try to pass me at one point.  A younger runner (I would guess around 12) tried to pass me on my left.  The combination of no room to pass plus him being exactly tall enough that when he fell trying to do so that he ran into my elbow made for an ugly scene.  I helped him up, which meant stopping and subsequently stopping everyone behind us.  I felt bad for the kid, but could not understand how the hell he thought there was room to pass.

Other than the extreme congestion, there were plenty of cool parts of the run.  This was very much a trail race.  There were woods, streams, mud, roots, rocks, fields, and hills galore.  There was even a point where you ran through a muddy area and then had to duck through a hole cut out of a metal fence. I didn’t realize there was a choice of bypassing this (I saw the sign but did not understand it):

At one point on the course, the path diverged with two signs pointing to “ick” and “no ick”. “Ick” was through a sinking muddy sludge pool, and “no ick” involved ducking and running through the bramble and log debris to the right of the mud; the choice was yours.

Eventually we hit an open field area on the backside of a school campus.  At that point the runners could finally spread out and start passing other.  I kicked my pace up a notch here so that I could get ahead of as many runners as possible before hitting the trails again.

After this point, the trails were wide enough to accommodate the runners.  There were a bunch of small to medium hills, with a couple of larger hills.  I ran most of the hills, but did walk a couple of them.  I ran the biggest of the bunch, but actually ended up walking a bit of the downhill because I was so winded and the downhill portion was pretty winding and steep.

Second Half Hill

Runmeter must have been having GPS problems, because it nearly a half mile off of the actual distance.  It measured the 5K course at 2.78 miles.  This also meant that it was telling me that I was running 13+ minute miles.  I was running slow, but not that slow.

There was one point where the 13.1K runners and the 5K runners split.  This was confusing and a number of the 13.1 runners went the wrong way.  The volunteers did manage to get them turned around, but they did not look happy about the wrong turn.

The water stop came pretty late in the run (around the 2.8 mile mark) and there were cups of water and “blue stuff”.  I grabbed a cup of the blue stuff.

The final bit of the run was on paved trails.  I was pretty wiped out and knew that my time was going to be well north of 30 minutes so I didn’t try to kick it down on the last stretch.  Plus with Runmeter so off on the distance, I really wasn’t sure how much further I had to run.  One dude tried to pass me at the end but my inner asshole was stronger than his and I sprinted to finish before him.

I had no idea what my finish time was.  When I crossed the finish line, I was too sweaty for my iPhone.  I wasn’t able to stop the timer on Runmeter.  There was a digital clock, but it was still showing the time for the half marathoners.  I know I ran the race slowly, but I was pretty sure that the 1.5 hours on the clock was not correct.

Finish Area - Clock was for 1/2 Mary

All in all, this was a tough, but pretty fun run.  I felt a lot better about my performance than I did at the Carver trail race.  I’m still a long ways from being a trail runner.  I did end up in the top 50% of runners even with my 33 minute run.  That’s pretty good for me, though I can’t help but think I could have done much better if I would have been able to pass other runners in the first half of the race.

There was plenty of after race food and drink.  In the swag bag we received a wooden nickel which you could redeem for a beer.  I grabbed a banana and drank a lot of water (it was in the mid 80s and very humid by the end of the run).

Swag

The only problem I had was when I was driving out of the makeshift parking lot.  Some late arriving car drove in while I was trying to get out.  I had no choice but to take a right and let him in.  I drove down the between the rows of cars, but they were parked all the way to the end, so I would have had to reverse all the way back to get back to the exit.  Instead I drove to the end of the rows and onto the street.  Unfortunately this meant dropping over a curb.  I cursed as I heard the bottom of my car scrape on the curb.  I drove home and found no damage.

I found the Finn Sisu trail race to be challenging, yet fun and beautiful.  The race was very well run and there were plenty of volunteers.  I would suggest starting the run on a street for the first .25 mile at least to allow runners to spread out and hit their pace before hitting the (very narrow) trails.  If you’re running this race I would suggest starting further up than normal and starting out faster than normal to get some space.

Wooden Nickel

T Shirt - Front

T Shirt - Back

Route

I checked out this trail series earlier in the year.  I really want to do trail runs because that’s the type of running I enjoy the most.  We are blessed in Minnesota with tons of different wilderness trails.  I love running through wooded areas and along some of our 10,000 lakes.  I rarely get bored while on wilderness runs.  When I checked out the LifeTime Trail Series I balked for a couple of reasons: I’m not a member of LifeTime fitness, the distances seemed pretty long to me, and the results for last year’s races showed very small attendance.  I’m still a crappy runner and I really didn’t want to be an anchor for the experienced trail runners.  

I was checking out Active.com for local runs and saw a Thursday night run in Maple Grove.  I work in that area and an evening run after work appeals to me much more than waking up early on weekend and driving into the Cities for a race.  I checked the race website and found that it was the last of the 5 Lifetime Trail runs.  

I almost passed on the run again.  After the debacle at the Granite City 5K (my worst run and the closest thing to a trail run I’ve done for a race) I pretty much decided that I’m not a trail runner.  The previous race results (they’ve already run 3 of the 5 races) were posted to the site, so on a whim, I checked out the results.

First of all, the distances aren’t nearly as long as I remembered them being (I swear they were all 5 to 9 miles long) as they are all around 5 miles, with one race at 5K.  Probably more importantly, they had around 200 runners for each event.  I remembered (my memory is probably faulty) the fields being 30 or less for last year’s races.  Finally, there were a number of runners with paces that I am confident that I can match.  I might still be an anchor, but at least I’d be part of a gang of anchors.

The Thursday night schedule was too good to pass up.  Plus now that I’ve finished a 5 mile race, that distance – while still challenging – doesn’t frighten me the way it used to.

It turns out that you don’t need to be a LifeTime Fitness member to participate in the runs.  The pricing is $20 for non-members and $15 for members.  The site is a bit confusing as to whether that price is for all five races (amazing bargain) or just for each race.  It’s for each race (includes a shirt).

I signed up for the 08 September run.  The other cool part of the series is that each is in a different park.  This week’s run is in Carver Park – which is a beautiful park in a gorgeous area.  The site has maps available detailing the course for each run, so you can scout them out in advance, which is what I did for this first run.

If I have a good time on this first run, then I’ll sign up for the next one at the end of September (in Maple Grove – another gorgeous park).  The only downside is that the NFL season starts this Thursday, so I won’t be hitting the bar after the run (not going to punish everyone with my sweaty mess) but I should be able to watch the Saints crush the hated Packers after the run. 

I ran five miles.  Let me restate that: I JUST RAN FIVE MOTHER-JAMMIN MILES.  

I started out the day doing what I do most mornings: running late and pissing off my wife.  The race was in a nearby city (if you want to stretch the definition of city) and started at 8:30.  We had preregistered and it’s a small event, so I was not in a hurry to get out the door to get there early.  Unfortunately, I had no idea where the run was starting other than “at the ballpark”.  We rolled into the registration area to pick up our bibs and shirts just in time to hear “runners…five minutes”.  I ran the shirts back to our car while my wife went to the bathroom (not before shooting me the stink eye for being late).  I jogged back to the car.  By the time I got there, I was wheezing.  WTF?  Here I am getting ready to run five miles (which is still a long ways for me) and I’m winded after jogging a few hundred yards?  I jogged about halfway back to the starting area, walking the rest so as not to be breathing heavy.

We lined at the very back of the field.  There looked to be about 150 – 200 runners.  Just before the start about a third of those runners filtered out as they were running the 1 mile fun run, which would start after the 5 mile run began.  This run was part of Red Rooster Days and there was a runner dressed up as a big, red rooster.

The race director made an announcement over a bull horn.  I could only understand about 10% of his words.  I did hear “big hill near the finish” and a number of the runners groaned.  Shortly after, a gun fired and we were…standing still.  Someone had fired a gun, but it was not the race director.  I thought it was a well played joke and something that would probably not happen in Minneapolis.  Soon after, a horn sounded and we were off.

Since I was in the very back of the pack and I was starting slower than normal (plus the run started on wide streets), I didn’t have to do a lot of zig-zagging and passing over the first half mile.  I pretty quickly fell into a pace and ended up in a pocket of runners with whom I would stay for most of the race.

My goals for this race were to finish and to try to break 55 minutes.  I have only run 5 miles or more a half dozen times in my life.  This distance to me is what I imagine a half marathon is to most runners: a challenging, but “doable” distance.  I was buoyed with some confidence because I’ve been doing long runs over the last few weeks.  My most recent long run was 8 miles and my fallback long run (every other week) is 4 to 4.5 miles.  So I’ve had some practice with longer runs and 5 miles doesn’t seem like some unobtainable distance anymore.  Of course, I’m using the Galloway run/walk/run method on these long runs, so my times are far from blazing.  I intended to use the same method on this run (I run .5 miles then walk briefly) but I was hoping to not start the walk breaks until at least 1.5 miles into the run.

The weather was beautiful.  It was in the mid fifties.  Much cooler than any race I’ve run so far.  The sun was out, but for whatever reason we were enjoying an October morning in early September.

The first mile was a bit tricky.  My body slowly woke up.  I’m a caffeine addict and had planned to grab some gogo juice in a can on the way to the run.  My tardiness crushed that plan.  I managed to down a large glass of coffee with ice cubes.  Even though I crave caffeine, I’ve stopped drinking coffee.  I’m not sure why, I just don’t enjoy it much anymore (except in the winter).  I could feel the coffee sloshing around in my stomach as I ran.  Wonderful.  While I wasn’t exactly struggling, I was not feeling as well as I normally do at the start of a run.  I kept thinking, “this is not your day”.

The run spilled onto a paved path and even if I had wanted to pass my pacers, I would have had trouble as they were taking up the entire path.  A few runners eventually did pass them but they maintained their running wall.  At the 1 mile mark there was a race volunteer shouting out split times.  All I heard was “minutes” and then “4, 5, 6, 7…” as I ran past.  I had begun the race without listening to my iPhone (I was trying out new headphones (earbuds) and they were a pain to put in while running) for the first bit of the race and had not heard my pace from Runmeter (it announces it every .5 miles) so I had no idea how fast I was running.  It felt like I was running a 10 minute or slower pace.  Soon after, Runmeter announced that I was running at a 9:28 pace.  That was faster than I thought and made me feel pretty good.  I wanted to “bank” time early in the race so I could counteract my slow pace and walking on the back-end of the run.

We made a left off the path and onto a rural highway.  Around this time (1.25 – 1.5 miles in) I was still feeling a little shaky, but running much better.  I had hit a sweet pace and was mentally digging in for the remainder of the run.  I decided then that I would walk at the first water station at the 2 mile mark and start my run/walk/run strategy at that point.  The runners had all spread out at this point.  I was still pacing behind a group of five runners.  We started on a slight downhill and something happened to me that has never happened before in a race: I felt great.  I was out running on a beautiful day with cornfields and forests around me and I was feeling strong and running at an enjoyable pace.  I wasn’t stressed out at all and I was confident of reaching my goals.  I decided to scrap the run/walk/run plan and run as far as I could without stopping. 

As I approached the water stop at the 2 mile mark, I decided to run through it.  I wasn’t thirsty at all and I knew that there was another water stop at the 4 mile mark.  The pack became a little jumbled and I actually passed a few people that were walking though the stop.  I lost one of my pacers, but she sprinted back to regain her spot (she was running with a friend).  I was still feeling good and since I usually break down and walk at the 2 mile point, I decided my next goal was to try to run until at least the 3.1 mile point.  This would be the equivalent of running a 5K with no stops – something I’ve only done once before.

Just before the 3 mile mark, we hit the first of the big hills.  It was a long, brute of a country hill.  I knew that I would need to conquer it if I wanted to reach my 5K goal, so I powered through it.  I passed a runner on the way up the hill.  This would be the last runner I would pass until the end of the race.  At the top of the hill there was a family cheering on the runners.  There were actually quite a few locals doing the same along the course.  Pretty cool support for a small race.

I was going to make my 5K goal.  At that point, I decided that my next goal would be to run until at least the 3.5 mile mark.  The longest I’ve ever run without stopping is about 3.25 miles.  I was still feeling pretty good (that hill did take a bite out of my butt) and wanted to use this good mojo to set a personal record.  The course was flat for a short while after the big hill then it took a sharp downhill dive.  I was thanking the running gods for the downhill but soon started cursing them when I saw that this downhill was just before a hill that made the last one look like a speed bump in comparison.  

Normally I lean slightly forward on downhills and let gravity do its magic.  I actually kept the brakes on for this downhill because I didn’t want to fly past my pacers only to have them pass me on the monster hill.  My goal was to get as far up this hill as possible without walking.  I remembered the race director stating that there was a big hill at the end of the course so I figured since this hill (we were around the 3.5 mark at this point) was not mentioned, that the next hill would be even bigger.  I had reached my 3.5 mile goal and was resigned to the fact that I would be walking a portion of this hill.  Just before the incline started we reached the second water stop.  I was going to walk through this one, but they were handing out small bottles of water.  I was able to complete the aquatic baton exchange with the race volunteer and kept running (at a slower pace) through the water stop.  I wasn’t very thirsty and I was only at the 75% level of complete sweat drenching, but I figured that I would drink a bit of the water and then save the rest for my inevitable hill walking stage.  The water was really cold.  I managed to down about a 1/4 of the small bottle.  Then I did something I don’t normally do: I tossed it to the side of the road.  I’m the chump that normally crushes his paper cup and stores it in my pocket rather than throwing it into the grass.  I couldn’t do that with a plastic bottle so my water bottle joined its other abandoned buddies on the side of the road.

On to the monster hill.  With the downhill portion and the water stop, our small group had bunched up again.  There were the two women running together, followed by a woman in red, and then me.  We started up the hill.  In my head I heard “slight forward bend, head up, keep your pace but shorten your stride”.  I have to hand it to the two women in front of me, they powered through this hill without losing their stride or pace.  I kept chugging and actually swung to the left to pass the lady in red (yes, that stupid song jumped into my head) in what would have been the slowest passing move in history.  I was not able to pass her, so we paced each other side by side for the last 1/4 of Mt. Everest.  By the time we hit the top of the hill we were both chugging along a speed at which a tortoise would have screamed at us for being too slow.  I fell in behind her again and for the first time in the race, I felt tired.  

The race continued on another path.  At this point, it was just me and the lady in red.  The two friends had crushed the hill and were quite a ways ahead of us at this point.  I could not see anyone behind me.  I continued at a slow pace and eventually felt a bit of energy return.  The splits were written on the pavement along with words of encouragement.  “4 miles. Way to go! Almost there!”  I had run further than ever before with no stops and I had conquered two big hills to get here.  I knew that there was a monster hill waiting for me before the end of the race, but if I could keep my legs moving I might have a shot at running the entire 5 miles.

Shortly after the 4 mile marker, Runmeter chimed in with my pace.  I was at a 9:58 pace.  Those hills (that last one was about .5 miles long) had eaten into my pace.  I decided that my new goal was to finish the run in under 50 minutes – damn the upcoming hill.

I paced behind the lady in red until about the 4.5 mile point.  We were near the start of the race.  In fact we were pretty much perpendicular with the ballpark.  The rest of the route just ran back to the starting area in a loop through nearby neighborhoods.  This meant no monster hill was possible.  The hill at the 3.5 mile mark must have been the beast described by the race director.  Holy crap!  I only had to run another half mile over flat pavement to complete this race.  I had vowed that I would not blow by the lady in red near the finish line since I had been using her as a pacer, but nothing was stopping me from passing her with this much real estate left to the finish line.  I passed her and quickened my pace slightly.  I had no idea what my time was at this point, but I wanted to beat 50 minutes for the race.

I was completely alone at this point.  I followed the race markers through a few turns in a residential area.  Finally I made a right and could see the finish line.  I picked up my pace some more and surprised myself by sprinting full out for the last 100 yards.  I glanced at the clock and saw 48:30 as I finished.  I had done it.  I had run five miles without stopping and I had done it in less than 50 minutes.

I grabbed a water and waited for my wife to finish.  She is a slow runner, but she has no problem running long distances.  She hasn’t been running much this summer and I figured that she would finish in the 55 – 60 minute range.  She surprised me by finishing about 5 minutes after me.  She told me that she walked twice – which is not normal for her – once at the first water stop and once on the monster hill.  She also told me that during the first half mile or so she noticed a car behind her.  She was getting pissed off that some stupid driver was driving on the race route until she realized that this was the “sweeper car”.  She was the very last person in the race.   She didn’t end up in that position, but it was the first time she had started so far back in the pack and at such a slow pace.

I had a very good time on this run.  I set a couple of personal records.  I know that I am capable of running 5 miles without stopping, so in future 5K runs I can use this knowledge to win the mental battle and keep my legs moving when my mind wants to stop.