Half-Assed Runner

Archive for the ‘Half Marathon’ Category

Six days ago I struggled through my first marathon.  An intelligent runner would be enjoying a nice break from running and recovering.  I has not the smart.  Instead I was running my 11th half marathon.

The race begins and ends at Court Square Park, which is home to the nation’s only two-story outhouse.

Yup. 

I did not want to run today.  I woke up at 7 am to an overcast, chilly morning.  I was in no mood to run.  It was a one hour drive to Belle Plaine and I had to get there before the 9 am start in order to pickup my packet.  I dinked around until just before 8 am.  This meant I was going to need to haul ass to make it to the start on time.  Luckily, the drive is through farm country and I made it to the park in Belle Plaine and picked up my packet with enough time to jog back to my car and stow the t-shirt.

The sky was still overcast, but the promised rain never fell other than a slight on and off drizzle.  I decided to wear a long-sleeved black tech shirt and shorts.  I was pretty cold at the start.  This was a smaller event (about 180 half marathoners) but there were pacers, so I lined up with the 2:10 pacer at the start.  Soon enough the race started and my weary legs started to propel me forward.

I had no expectations other than to finish this race.  I still don’t have my legs back 100% from the marathon.  It felt pretty liberating to not worry about pace.  I was surprised when I finished the first mile (a circuitous jaunt through the town) in 9:06.  I felt like I was running much slower.  I started to wonder if maybe I had fast run in me.  I was right behind the 2:05 pacer…who was about 10 feet behind the 2:00 pacer.  That bewildered me.  I suppose that after 1 mile there is only about a 25 second difference between the two pacers, but they were much closer than that.  We left town and started on a downhill after the first mile.  This gave me a little bit of hope that I might be able to make a run at 2 hours.  The hills soon dashed that idea from my skull.I had peeped the elevation profile and there was a big hill around mile 7.  What I did not notice was that there were a number of other smaller hills on the course.  From mile 2 to mile 6, the course was basically one long 200 foot climb.  I dropped behind the 2:05 pacer (who was still within twenty feet of the 2:00 pacer) at mile 2 and settled into a slower pace.

The course ran on roads that were not fully closed off with a brief gravel stretch through a construction area.  There were only a few sections that ran right along the river, but there was enough variation to make it a very nice course.

I carried my big (24 ounce) bottle with me.  I had planned on just bringing the smaller (10 ounce) bottle, but could not find it in my gym bag.  I only had enough Gatorade to fill the bottle half way, so I was treated to the sloshing of the liquid.  This made me start listening to music very early on in this race.

After the water stop around four miles in, another runner pulled up on my right and we started chatting.  I never do this, but for the next few miles we ran together.  He was running this as his last long run before a marathon next week.  I was happy to chat away as it took my mind off the miles.  We reached the big hill around mile 7 – which turned out to be only the third steepest hill – and we powered over it.  I honestly would have walked that sucker if I had been alone.  On the downhill I inadvertently picked up the pace so were running 8:30/mile at the 8 mile water stop.  I walked through the water stop and he continued on ahead of me.  I dialed back my pace as I was starting to tire a bit.

I struggled a bit from miles 8 to 11.  I was thinking that after running a marathon last week, that a half marathon would feel like a 5K.  Not so much.  My pace was relaxed, but I was definitely losing steam.

At the 10.5 mile point, the course hits its lowest point, then starts uphill for the remainder of the race.  The water stop around this area was fun though.  I started seeing signs with questions like “What do you call a dog with no legs?” then a few hundred feet later another sign with the answer “It doesn’t matter.  He won’t come”.  There were a handful of these cheesy jokes and the signs kept me smiling and took me away from the hilly misery that was the end of this race.

I knew I was not in any position to PR on this course, but I was taking pride in the fact that I had not walked at all (other than through the water stops).  That ended 12.5 miles in.  At mile 12 there was a huge hill as we ran back into town.  I (slowly) ran the first half of it, but ended up taking two walk breaks on the second half.  After cresting the hill, I only had enough energy to make a half-hearted dash for the finish line.

My time was pretty crap, but I didn’t care.  I had a pretty good time, except for that last hill.  The course was challenging, yet it did live up to the “scenic” moniker.  It would have been more scenic had the weather been clearer.  The medal was crappy, but the race cost $40 and was part of the Explore Minnesota Challenge, so I had no complaints.  After the race you voted for the best water stop (I chose the one with the goofy signs) and then were given a ticket for a free beer.  There were plenty of treats afterwards as well.

Next week I run my 12th and final half marathon in Mankato.

Half marathon number 10 and state number 3 is in the books.  This week I spent some time in central Wisconsin with my family before running the Madison Mini Marathon.

I booked this run a few months ago and with it booked a night of camping at Devil’s Lake State Park.  My plan was to get in and out on the cheap.  After telling my wife about this, she decided to turn this into a mini-vacation and hit up Wisconsin Dells with the Monkey.  She signed off on camping and eventually decided to run the Madison Mini 5K with the Monkey while I ran the half.

We spent all of Thursday and half of Friday in Wisconsin Dells crushing a giant water park.  Then we drove a little over an hour south to pick up our packets in Madison.  The packet pick up was on campus.  The road construction made the drive slower than planned and finding parking was a pain.  Of course, after we parked and walked over to the packet pickup, we noticed parking about 100 yards from the building.

Packet pickup was quick and painless.  I love the race shirt.  Dark blue is my jam and the tech tee quality is very good.  My wife and son got white cotton shirts for the 5K.  We also each got “I ran this city” magnetic stickers, which my son plastered our car with.

We did not stay long in Madison as it was getting towards 4 pm on a Friday and we did not want to find out if Madison has a rush hour.  We got back to Devil’s Lake and after spending some time at the beach, I persuaded my family to join me in a “quick hike” to see Balanced Rock.  This “quick hike” turned into an hour and a half with the last 30 minutes being in the dark.  This was also not the usual graded/paved trail “hiking” I am used to.  There were a ton of climbs (with great views of the lake) as well as steep declines.  Getting to the actual rock was confusing due to the signage.  You have to climb down what is basically a field of slippery boulders to reach the actual rock.  When I first saw it, it looks like a mini version of the photos I had seen on the Internet.  My wife was going to push both the rock and myself over the ledge at this point.  As we got closer, we found it to be about 12 feet high.  The worst bit of the whole trek was climbing back out of the boulders.  I got my hill work in for sure.

At 4:30 am, we got up and stumbled to the car in darkness to begin the drive to Madison.  Other than a bad patch of fog, the drive was fine.  We arrived at the start area well in advance of the 7 am start.  Parking was again an issue as we do not know the area.  There was a long line of backed up cars even as early as we arrived.  We spotted some really close street parking and nabbed the spot.  The meter cost nearly $2 per hour and only took coins.  Plus there was a 3 hour limit.  We fed the beast and my wife agreed to top it off again after she finished running so it would not run out while I was on the course.

The 5K and the half marathon shared a starting time but had different starting areas (only a couple blocks apart).  I wished my family luck, then stood in line for a porta-pottie.  I generally don’t do this, but I didn’t want to run with a full bladder.  By the time I finally got to relieve myself, it was only a few minutes to start time.

The race is broken up into corals based on your estimated finish time.  I was in the back with coral G.  Getting to my coral was painless and I was soon lined up and had all my music and GPS tracking ready to go.  Directly in front of me, there was a runner donning a polar bear suit.  To run a half marathon in August in a full bear costume is dedication.  Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect.  It was 46 degrees at 7 am (the coolest start temperature for me since April).  The only downside was there was little wind and 96% humidity.  I’m not sure why it was so humid.  That probably accounted for the fog on the drive to Madison.

The course was varied and beautiful.  As stated earlier, the weather was outstanding.  There were mile markers at each mile with a clock (set to gun start time obviously).  There were a ton of water stops (it seemed like almost every mile had a water stop on the back half of the race) which offered Gatorade and water.  The cups were filled completely (my mark of a great water stop) and the volunteers were plentiful and exuberant.  Outstanding race support.  The Madison Mini was staffed to support a mid-August half marathon – even though we ran in April temperatures.

The course started on the UW campus and followed city streets past Camp Randall stadium (where the Gophers go to die) and then past the Wisconsin State Capital building.  From there we ran along a lake (Lake Wingra) then into a gorgeous, tree-covered area.  I loved this part of the course (of course I forgot to take any photos).  We were on a street still, but there were tall trees lining each side of that blocked out the early morning sun (looking at a map, this area is Arboretum Drive).  We then dipped back into the city, running through residential areas before finally running on a trail along the shoreline of Lake Mendota.  The trail ended shortly before the finish line, which was back on campus.

The course was somewhat hilly.  I remember only a couple of moderately difficult hills and there were plenty of flat areas.  There were some steep downhills as well.  GPS shows an elevation gain of 209.97 feet, which would mean it was as hilly as the Lake Waconia Half Marathon, but I don’t remember it being that hilly.

So it was a beautiful course with amazing weather and outstanding race support – that means I ran great, right?  Nope.  I wanted to finish this race around 2:07 and I was on track to do that for the first half of the race.  The wheels came off after that.  My hamstrings started barking on the back half.  I suppose it was from all of the climbing in Devil’s Lake as well as at the water park in Wisconsin Dells over the last two days.  The thing was, it was just slight tinges of pain on uphills – nothing drastic.  Around mile 9 my calf muscles joined in.  Again, nothing major, just a kind of electric shock feel that only lasted about .5 miles.  I think I used this as an excuse to start bombing the race.  I’m still running out of energy after the 10 mile mark.  I really need to build up my stamina.

I averaged around 9:30/mile over the first 7 miles.  I averaged over 10/mile over the last 6.  Mile 13 was an embarrassing 11/mile.  I started walking the hills (all small from what I remember) to “save my hamstrings”.  The last mile was a buffet of fail.  In addition to walking the hills, I would run for a minute or so and then walk.  This meant that I was kept playing leapfrog with the same runners over the last mile.  There were signs that said “1/2 mile to go” and “1/4 mile to go”, but I could not even draw inspiration from them.  I did manage to suck it up for the last .1 miles and not walk across the finish line.

I was tired, disappointed, and completely drenched.  A local car dealership handed out small hand towels.  This was a god send as I could mop some of my sweaty mess.  The final indignity occurred as my calf muscles locked up while scaling a whole 3 stairs.  All I can do when that happens is grimace while trying not to scream obscenities at the top of my lungs and try to stretch them out.

I am now officially worried about my upcoming marathon.  If I’m crashing this hard at half the distance, what hell awaits me at 26.2?

The finish area – the 14th Mile Party – was great.  Plenty of goodies.  I grabbed a banana, water, and chocolate milk (for the Monkey) then tracked down my family.  They had enjoyed the 5K run and even had cool medals to show for their efforts.  The Mini medal was shaped like beer stein and had an integrated bottle opener.  I hated it when I saw it online prior to the race, but it has grown on me.  It is heavy and looks like pewter, plus it has the outline of the state of Wisconsin as well as the Capital building on it, so it will serve well as my Wisconsin half marathon keepsake.

We drove back to Devil’s Lake Park and spent a few hours relaxing on the beach before driving the 5 hours back to Minneapolis.

I would definitely recommend the Madison Mini Marathon for anyone wanting to run a Wisconsin half marathon.  The course is varied and beautiful, the race support is top-notch, and Madison is a beautiful, relaxed city.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

Purple lips, goosebumps, and 13.1 miles.

Today I completed the first of my (over?) ambitious goal of running 12 half marathons in 2012.  The Get In Gear Half Marathon marked my first half marathon as well as the beginning of 4 half marathons in 4 weeks.

Packet pickup was held on Friday in the same park that would serve as the start and finish for the race.  I had initially planned on picking up my packet on race day.  I re-read the website as the race approached and it looked like the “limited race day pickup” would be only for out-of-town runners.  I decided not to gamble on whether or not I was an “out-of-towner” and planned to pick up my packet on the night before the race.  When I mapped the address I saw that it was within a few miles of where my wife works so I enlisted her to pick up my packet for me.  She told me it was a bit of a clusterfuck, but was in and out within 15 minutes.

I had been worried about the weather for this race.  There was a forecast that included a possibility of snow the morning of the race.  When I went to bed it was still 50 degrees, so I doubted that the white stuff was on the way.  When I woke up, it was cold, overcast, and windy.  No snow and very little rain.  As I drove into the Cities there was very sparse drizzle.

I arrived over an hour before the start of the race.  Parking was a breeze (well-marked and police were directing drivers into the lot).  I gathered up my Gu Chomps, “sweat handkerchief”, jawbreakers, and phone.  It had started to sprinkle a bit by then, so I decided at the last second to wear a windbreaker.  I was wearing a short-sleeved tech shirt and shorts.  I knew that once I was chugging along this would be sufficient to keep me warm but I would probably need the jacket while waiting for the start.

It was a good thing that I brought the jacket as it was nasty outside.  I made my way to the bus pickup area and joined a long line of shivering runners.  They were running four school busses between the parking lot and the starting area (about a 20 minute roundtrip).  The rain had picked up a bit, but was still pretty much a sparse drizzle.  Combined with the 42 degree weather and the stiff wind, I was pretty quickly chilled.

It took about 30 minutes to get on a bus.  By the time I exited it, the start of the race was about 15 minutes away.  I looked for a bathroom, but only found the wall of porta-potties.  One look at the lines and I knew I would never make the race start if I jumped in line.

I snapped a few pictures and made my way to the starting line.  This is a huge race.  It’s the largest 10K race in Minnesota (15th largest in the USA).  There were 7,000 10K runners and about 1,200 half marathoners.  They all  started together.  I eventually found a place at the end of the line.  I couldn’t see the start line I was so far back.

The race began and it took nearly five minutes for me to cross the starting line.  This was fine with me as I was in no hurry.  My goals for this race were to finish and possibly break the 10 minute per mile mark.

The course was crowded, but I’m used to this by now.  It was run on roads so there was plenty of room to run around the slower runners.  The course seemed to be a slight downhill slope for most of the first two miles.  For whatever reason, my brain started to protest almost immediately.  The combination of the foul weather and the realization that a mile in only meant that I was 1/13 of the way to completion.  Around the two-mile mark my brain finally shut the fuck up and let my legs do the work.

The rain had picked up a bit, but my jacket does not breathe at all so I kept unzipping it a bit more as I progressed.  I knew that eventually I would need to take it off and tie it around my waist.

I hit the first water station around the three-mile mark.  I had not yet started my music and was surprised to hear someone speak my name.  It was a runner from my marathon running group.  She was running the 10K.  For the next 3 miles we ran together and chatted.  I was happy to do this as it took my mind off of the race.  She even offered to take my jacket when the half marathoners and 10K runners split.  I happily took her up on the offer.

The races split near an overpass.  The 10K runners turned and finished their last quarter-mile or so, while the half marathoner ran straight ahead.  After that split the field thinned considerably.

At this point I turned on my music and settled into a groove.  The rain had picked up again, but I was riding a mini runner’s high and felt good.  Prior to the split, I had remarked that the course was remarkably non-hilly especially for running along the Mississippi river.  Of course the first hill appeared right after the split.  It was a long, but minor hill as all of the hills would be on this course.

I was now trudging along and unfortunately splashing though puddles of water.  I was soaked but my body temperature was still warm enough that I felt fine.  My goal was to not walk at all on this run and the fact that if I walked I would most likely start freezing kept my legs chugging along.

The course went straight out until a turnaround at the 9 mile mark.  I started seeing the elite runners coming back the other way just before the 8 mile marker.  This was the only part of the race that I did not like.  It was a slight uphill and I kept anticipating the turnaround long before it came.  Eventually the nine mile mark appeared and I turned around.  I felt better at this point as I knew I was in the final stretch and I was still feeling fine.

Endomondo was measuring the miles shorter than the mile markers.  I chalked this up to the cloudy raining day and the havoc it can wreak on GPS.  It is interesting that a number of the race recaps showed GPS readings near what mine read for the course: 13.35.  That’s probably more due to the weather than the course being long.

I was just below 10 minute miles for the first two miles.  I had taken out my earbuds as I ran with my running club buddy so I missed the times for miles 3 though 5, but the time elapsed divided by distance run was almost exactly 10 minutes per mile, so I was on point.  Starting with mile 6, I surprised myself by getting a bit faster (9:40, 9:45, 9:38, 9:57, 9:52, 9:50, and a “blistering” 9:14 for mile 13).  I was going to meet my secondary goal of logging sub 10 minute miles.  Well…almost.  I did barely accomplish this goal as Endomondo was logging the miles shorter than the mile markers, so my splits were actually slower than what Endomondo was announcing.

I was never really in any danger of taking a walk break.  I actually got stronger over the last three miles.  I passed a bunch of runners during that time (and was only passed by about 3 runners).  Even the sight of a number of people walking those last few miles did not convince my legs to take a break.  My fastest mile of the whole race was mile 13.

We returned to the point that the 10K and half marathon split and it was now our turn to run over the Mississippi and finish the race.  Surprisingly there was still a pretty good-sized crowd near the end of the race despite the weather and the fact that the 10K runners were all done by that point.  I high-fived a little girl and then started my sprint.  I crossed one set of mats and saw another set about 50 yards ahead so I continued my sprint to cross them.  I looked up and saw a clock reading 1:50.  What!?!  No chance.  I knew I was finishing just under 2:10 and the clock should be reading about 2:15 due to my last start.  I think I figured out what happened: there was 5K race that started after the 10K/half marathon and that was most likely the clock for that race.

Anyhoo…I happily collected my medal and grabbed a banana and some water.  I tried some chocolate milk, then remembered how much I hate chocolate milk.  I was feeling remarkably good.  My legs were not hurting, but I could feel them tightening a bit after I stopped running.  The biggest problem was that I was now getting very cold.  I was completely drenched and it was still 40 degrees and windy.

The wait for the return bus was thankfully short.  I did feel a bit of pain as I climbed the three steps onto the bus.  My legs have a tendency to burn a bit after long runs and I was hoping that they would not start doing this as I sat in the cramped school bus seat.  I was still shivering like crazy.

We got back to the parking lot and of course I forgot where I parked.  I wandered the gigantic parking lot looking for my car while shivering like crazy and nursing now painful legs.  I eventually found my car.  I had to crank the heat and try to warm up a little before driving and I could not stop shaking.  A quick glance in the rear view mirror showed that my lips were a light shade of purple.  I had goosebumps the size of small pebbles (okay, a slight exaggeration) running up and down my arms.  It took a good 45 minutes before I finally felt warm.

My legs were fine about 20 minutes after the run and I spent the rest of the miserable day cleaning the garage then drinking too much wine at a friend’s party.

I guess that the Get In Gear has been cold and rainy each of the last three years.  I would recommend the run for the course and the thrill of running with nearly 10,000 other runners (if you find that thrilling), but hopefully the run of bad weather ends.