Half-Assed Runner

Today was my first repeat race ever.  Last year I surprised myself by running 5 miles without stopping; something I never thought I would be able to do.  Since then I’ve run much further distances, but I still look back at that race as a huge accomplishment.

Dassel

The race takes place in a nearby city during an annual Labor Day festival.  My wife and I were running again this year.  Race day packet pickup was painless and quick.  For the second year in a row I managed to miss out on getting some caffeine in my system.  The smell of hundreds of chickens cooking (there’s a huge chicken dinner later in the day) and the scent of mini donuts reminded me that I had not eaten either.

Chicken roast

I knew the course well from running it last year plus running it a couple of times in the last few weeks as part of my 9 mile run.  The course starts on city streets then follows a paved trail before turning on to country roads.  Just before the 3 mile mark there is a huge hill followed by an equally huge descent.  Then comes the soul crushing ascent of Monster Hill.  Once you crest that sucker, there is no corresponding downhill.  You join another paved trail then finish up on city streets again.

My goal this year was to improve my speed.  I was very happy last year to finish under 10 minutes per mile.  This year I wanted to see if I could crack the 9 minute per mile barrier.  I had run a hilly 4 miler with 8:59/mile so I was hoping to get close to that on this race.

Lots of cornfields

The weather was a sunny and pleasant 68 degrees, but the humidity was high (82%) so I was prepared for a sweaty run.

The field was about the same size a last year, between 150 – 200 runners.  I started out faster than normal.  I wanted to make sure I was well positioned when I hit the trail portion as it’s hard to pass people there if there are any groups of side-by-side runners.  I knew I could use the two block downhill section early on to blast past some runners.  Knowing the course really helped me to runner a faster race.

I hit the trail and felt well positioned.  I was pacing off of a group of runners about 20 feet ahead of me.  There was a volunteer at the 1 mile mark with a stopwatch reading off the times.  I heard her say “twenty” as I passed.  9:20?  That seemed a bit slow.  Then Endomondo announced that I had clocked an 8:24 for mile 1.  I was happy with that time, but decided to dial it back a bit as I did not want to run out of energy, especially with the hills still coming up.

Hills ahead

I ran without music for most of the race.  I’ve started doing this more in races.  It lets me find a good rhythm and I can use music later on to give myself a boost.

There was a water stop around the 2 mile mark.  I probably could have skipped it, but did grab a cup.  Soon enough we were approaching the hills.  I took a couple of photos and a runner came up on my right.  He had run the race for the first time last year as well and we laughed about the crazy hills coming up.  I was going to pace off him, but he slowly kept pulling ahead of me.  He was the only person to pass me after the first water stop.

The first hill is actually more of a beast.  It climbs 120 feet, but does it over 1.2 miles.  Monster Hill “only” climbs 90 feet, but does so in .12 miles.  I powered through the first hill and felt fine.  I used the steep downhill to rest a bit.  There was a water stop at the bottom of the hill.  They were once again handing out ice-cold mini water bottles at this stop.  I planned to take one and carry it for the rest of the race.  Unfortunately, in an effort to help runners, they had removed the caps.  I drank as much as I could and poured the rest down my back to cool me off.

Monster Hill

I started my music and began ascending Monster Hill.  Last year I crested this beast without stopping, but I was barely moving when I got to the stop.  I made it up 90% of the hill before I walked the last bit.  I still had plenty of legs, but my heart was pounding.  I decided to eat a 16 second walk and try to make it up on the flat last mile.  I was doubtful I would break the 9 minute mark as my last two miles were 9:33 and 9:43.

I got on the trail and decided to pick up the pace.  At this point there was a guy about 20 yards ahead of me and I quickly picked him off.  I saw a group of 3 women in the distance and concentrated on closing the distance.  I end up passing them with about a quarter of a mile to go.  I passed another woman soon after.  There was another guy ahead of me, but he was too far ahead to catch before the finish.  But then he took a walk break and I was able to pass him on my final sprint.  I looked up to see the clock just pass 44 minutes.  I figured that the clock was off by a minute or so as there was no way that I could have broken 9 minutes per mile by that much time.  I looked at my splits and my last split was a 7:35.  WTF?  That’s by far my fastest mile ever.  I didn’t start my sprint early enough to account for this fast of a finish.  I normally would suspect the GPS being off, but the mile announcements were really close to the mile markers on the course including the mile 4 marker.  Maybe the course was a bit short, but both my wife’s GPS and mine agreed that it was 5 miles.

Red Rooster Finish

I grabbed a bottle of water and waited for my wife to finish.  One of the women I passed near the end was approaching the finish line and she looked like she was in a bad way.  I had noticed when I passed her that she looked wobbly.  Now she looked like she was leaning back as far a possible.  She had slowed to a hobble and at one point looked like she was going to fall over.  Another runner was by her side and waiting to catch her if she fell.  She made it over the finish line without toppling.  It looked like she was having an issue with her lower back.

I cheered my wife to the finish.  She had a good race as well.  She improved on last year’s time and did not walk at all.  We left soon afterward to get started on BBQ and beer.

Red Rooster shirt

Red Rooster course