Half-Assed Runner

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

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