Half-Assed Runner

Archive for May, 2012

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.

Uber-Taper = Not a good idea

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.

Packet Pickup

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.

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.”

5K Medals

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.

Fargodome

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.

Me and the Monkey.

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.

5K Medal

5K shirt and medal

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.

Faux Staring Line

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.

Real Starting Line

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.

Fuzzy Early Miles

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.

Rolling Hills

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.

Epic Fro

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.

Lake views were plentiful

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.

Trail around mile 12

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).

Finish Chute

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.

Finish Area

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.

Medal Front

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.

Medal Back

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.

Shirt Front

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.

Shirt Back

Course Map