Half-Assed Runner

Archive for July, 2012

“Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes… well, he eats you” – The Stranger to The Dude

I had been looking forward to the Run For Blood Quarter Marathon for some time now.  Not only would I tick off another race for the Explore Minnesota Challenge, but I would get a medal and finally get to run Lake Calhoun…twice.

I got up early and drove to the lakes.  The one thing I hate about this area is finding parking.  The streets were already blocked off for the run when I arrived, so I spent some time circling looking for parking.  I finally nabbed a street spot near the Lake Harriet band shell.  It wasn’t the closet spot, but it was free.  I would have to jog about a mile to the get to the starting area, but the race did not start until 8:30 so I had plenty of time.

I got to the starting area just before 8 am and went to pick up my packet.  I gave my name and the volunteer started searching for me on her list.  I noticed that this was the 5K list, and said “I’m in the quarter marathon”.  She then shouted excitedly to another volunteer who quickly nabbed a shirt and my packet and thrust it towards me excitedly.  While she was explaining (quickly) how to fasten my timing chip, I noticed that there were only about a half-dozen remaining quarter marathon packets left on the table.  I guessed that there was a pre-race pickup on Friday and/or most people got here early.  It was odd that I was one of the last to grab a packet when I was here 30 minutes early.

At this point I heard some announcements over the PA and a long line of runners streamed past.  I wondered if these were the 5K runners.  I saw a bunch of pacers with balloons tied to sticks and thought it odd that they had pacers for a 5K race.  Then I heard, “There go the quarter marathoners.  5K runners should start lining up as the 5K race will start in about 5 minutes.”

What. The. FUCK?!?!?

I looked at my phone one more time as a sanity check.  Here’s the email I had saved in my calendar:

Thank you for registering as a participant in the 2012 American Red Cross Run for Blood! Your support will make us successful in providing programs and services to help you, your family and your neighbors prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.
…
The Red Cross Run for Blood is Saturday, July 28. Check-in begins at 7:00 a.m and the Walk and Run begins at 8:30 a.m. If you have any further questions or need assistance in any way, please contact us.

Good luck in your efforts!

They had started the race 30 minutes early?

As quickly as I could, I fastened my race bib and tied my timing chip to my shoe.  It was too hot to wear a shirt, let alone two, so I folded the shirt and stuffed it in my running shorts.  It barely fit.  So not only would I be starting the race late, but I would have to run it with a wobbly bulge in my shorts [I’m cringing as I write this].  I ran to the starting area, but I had to work my way through the gathering 5K runners to get to the starting line.  When I got there, the timing mat had been moved to the side of the road.  Oh well, I guess I would get my first DNS ever.

I took off at a brisk, but not sprinting, pace.  I was starting over 5 minutes after the starting gun.  My only goal was to somehow catch up to the back of the pack.  God bless the walkers, I was able to catch up to the last of them within the first .3 miles.  Soon after I saw the last of the runners and mixed in with them.  I actually ended up passing a pacer (I did not see the time on his sign) before long.  When Endomondo announced my mile split at 8:03, I knew I needed to slow down.  I think that’s the fastest mile I’ve ever run (since boot camp at least).  By this point I was in a thick grouping of runners and I paced off of them because I knew I would bonk long before the 6.5 mile finish if I continued at this pace.  My next mile was at a much more realistic 9:20 pace.

It was 75 degrees with 60% humidity and no wind.  Though cooler than much of the summer so far, I was sweating buckets almost immediately.  There was a water stop manned by some Boy Scouts around the 1.5 mile mark and another at the first pass of the finish line.  Since the race was two laps around Lake Calhoun, you ended up with 3 water stops during the quarter marathon.  On the second lap, I ended up drinking 4 cups of water at the 3rd water stop.  I walked briefly at the 2nd and 3rd stops.

Run For Blood Quarter Marathon

I never really got into a rhythm during this run.  The nervous energy from the start of the race quickly burnt off and the sun beating down on me sapped much of my remaining mojo.  The last 4 miles were at a very consistent 9:30 pace.  I ended up passing quite a few more runners and was even passed a few times (were these runners late starters as well).  I did enjoy the scenery for the most part.  This was the first time I had ever run around Lake Calhoun (I had walked it many times in college).  Lake Street was partially closed off (right lane) but the parking lots on the north side of the lake were still open.  Since I was in back of the pack where there tended to be gaps between runners, I did see some cars zip through to get out of the parking lot.  One lady tried to pull out before I crossed.  I ran in front of her and slammed my fist on her hood.  I was in no mood to play “let’s ignore the runner”.

The could was pretty flat.  There was a minor incline on the north side and a minor decline on the west side.  There were a number of interesting characters to take your mind off of running.  I saw two bagpipers, an Elvis impersonator, and a number of Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders.

At some point on the second lap, my left ankle hurt a bit.  Nothing major, but every step felt like running on an old bruise.  I had played football a few days earlier and attributed this to the amount of stop and start sprinting I did that day.

I crossed the finish line with a sprint.  A volunteer stood in the middle of the course about 20 feet past the finishing mats and held his right hand up in the air.  I figured that he was motioning me to stop because my timing chip would not show a starting time.  I came to a dead stop about two feet in front of him.  He looked confused and mouthed some words.  I say “mouthed” because I was still blasting music in my ear buds and did not hear him.  I yanked out my ear buds, and said “What?” in what I too late realized was a shout (I had not yet adjusted from the thundering volume of the music).  Now he looked more confused and taken aback.  He still had his hand up like he was telling me to stop.  Actually, he was congratulating me and was trying to high-five me.  I felt like a fool.  I laughed and apologized.  I told him my mind goes to mush after a run.  I quickly collected my medal and looked for some water.

I sat down and finished off a banana and a bottle of Muscle Milk (love that stuff).  When I got up again, the slight pain in my left ankle had intensified.  By the time I finished walking back to my car, I was hobbling pretty badly.  I could not put any weight on my left foot.  I had suffered my first real running injury.  I could barely walk for the next three days and did not run for another six.  My wife filled me with horror stories about tendonitis and such.  I knew it was my Achilles tendon that was hurting.  I still think it stemmed from playing football and was due to repeated planting and quick sprints and movement changes.  I run a ton more than I ever did, but it’s not fast and I don’t make sharp turns.  I don’t know what prompted the injury during the quarter marathon nor why it manifested itself three days after playing football, but it was just another loss in a day full of fail.

The only other photo I took at the race

I checked the race website for the starting time, and did not see it listed.  Of course, it was splashed all over the Facebook page and the race update emails I received.  I just never looked at them too closely and had used the initial email to schedule the race in my calendar.  Oh well, if I had been running as late as I usually do, I would have missed the start by nearly 25 minutes.  I did manage to check in at the Explore Minnesota booth after the race, so that was a minor victory.

I will definitely run this race again next year.  My time was a few seconds over one hour.  I really wanted to break an hour, but all things considered, I was happy with the time.  I did not end up with an official DNS, instead my time was simply recorded using gun start, so it shows up as about 6 minutes slower than my actual time.  The medal was very cool and the race shirt was very nice as well.  Next year I’ll triple check the start time and make sure to start on time. 

Run For Blood Quarter Marathon shirt and medal

Run For Blood Quarter Marathon shirt back

Run For Blood Quarter Marathon medal

Run For Blood Quarter Marathon course

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.

Speed limit = 7 7/8 mph???

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.

Sawdust 5K Start

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.

Hill Number One

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.

Death Hill

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.

Finish Line

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.

Explore MN Northern Pin

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.

Pool

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. 

Sawdust 5K Bag

Sawdust 5K Shirt Front

Sawdust 5K Shirt Back

Sawdust 5K Course