Half-Assed Runner

Archive for June, 2012

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.