Half-Assed Runner

Packet Pickup/Expo

Bleh!

This was my first race with a packet pickup prior to the day of the race.  Packet pickup was in downtown Saint Paul between 11 am and 7 pm.  I knew that I would not be leaving work until at least 6 pm, so I decided to pop down during lunch to nab my packet.  The drive from Maple Grove to Saint Paul should have taken me about 30 minutes each way.  Unfortunately, I decided to use 394 to 94.  It’s been a long time since I’ve gone this route.  I know it backs up where 394 dumps into 94 (3 lanes into 1), but it was noon so I figured that traffic would be fairly light.  Well, it wasn’t.  And there was construction that closed off one lane about 3 miles past the Lowry tunnel.  I got to get my road rage on as I spent an hour and a half in traffic (plus my gas light went on as I planned to fill up on the way back).  Downtown Saint Paul is still the same steaming shit stew that I remember it being.  The only bright spot is that I skipped the “event parking” ($6) at the hotel hosting the packet pick up and only dropped $1.50 (plus a 2 block walk).

I know that this isn’t Team Ortho’s fault, but I was in a pretty bad mood by the time I hit the expo.  I had remembered to bring my bib number (there was a bib look up kiosk if you forgot).  The half marathon booths were clearly marked as such.  I queued up for the 10 mile area to get my bib…then was told that I was in the 5K line.  I then got in the correct line and got my bib.  I was pointed to another area where there were bags and where they were handing out the jackets.  The volunteer who gave me my bib was super nice.  The dude that stared at me like I was from Mars at the jacket handout was less than helpful. They had huge banners denoting the different sizes.  I finally just grabbed a large and put it in my bag.  I could have grabbed a couple if I wanted.  There were some cool shirts and stuff for sale.  I really wanted to grab one of the 5K shirts with a skeleton on it (they said that they would be for sale at the race) but I was already well on my way to missing my 2 pm meeting.  I headed for the exit.  At the exit, a volunteer scans your racing chip.  After that there was a long line to get a green wristband so you could have a free beer at the race.  I skipped that line and left.  All told, I was able to get in and out in about 15 minutes.

I called work and told them I was going to miss my meeting and took a different (longer distance, but less traffic) route back.  I was going to sign up for the Polar Dash (you can pick up your bib, chip, and fleece…and skip that race’s expo) at the expo, but was too short on time and patience to do so.  I was thinking that much of the merchandise as well as the future race registrations will be available the next day at the race as well.

Race Day

What a day.  At 6 am my iPhone honked at me.  After hitting snooze, my wife honked at me.  I showered and dressed.  I was cold as hell outside.  It was 26 degrees when I left the house at 7 am.  I had an hour drive ahead of me.  I would have left earlier, but I didn’t want to stand around outside waiting for the race to start.  I had decided that the running pants I own would not cut it.  They are too warm and I think that they restrict my stride a bit.  It was too cold to wear shorts though.  So I broke out my “compression leggings” that I recently bought.  My wife calls them tights.  She’s right. They’re not compression leggings, I just call them that to try to preserve the little that’s left of my manhood.  I would wear my tights….err “compression leggings” with shorts on top and a long sleeved tech shirt. Once I get moving, staying warm is not a problem.  Standing around waiting for the start in 20 degree weather is another thing entirely.

I did put jeans on over the tights (fuck it, they are what they are) to stay warm on the drive.  It’s a good thing that I did.  I stopped for coffee and Wintogreen Lifesavers at a gas station.  It was packed with bearded men in hunting gear.  It must be the start of some shoot at wildlife season in Minnesota.  I was very happy not to be flaunting my tights in this crowd.

I sipped about half of my cup of coffee on the way in.  I wanted the caffeine, but I didn’t want to have to pee during the race. Although yesterday was a hellish drive, I figured I could count on traffic being much lighter early on a Saturday morning.  For the most part, I was right. There was a slight slowdown when the lanes merged to only two. I was making good time.  I would be reaching the Science Museum parking lot just before 8 am.  That would give me plenty of time to stay in my car with the heat on before jogging to the starting area. Unfortunately, about a billion other people had the same plan.  The exit was backed up for a mile.  Over the course of 25 minutes, I was able to move about 1.2 miles.  It was 8:20 and I was still driving.  I had no idea if the lot had any available spots or not.  I made a decision to make a left and park at the gigantic Sears store on the other side of the freeway.  I was happy to see I wasn’t the only runner to make this choice as I spotted others (many in costume) parking there and making a mad dash for the start line.  I got out, dropped my jeans, and put on my shorts over my tights.  I grabbed my phone, headphones, some lifesavers and a Gu, my car key, and my wallet.  Normally I just grab some cash and leave my wallet in my car.  I wasn’t going to do that in this area.  This meant I had to run with that sucker in my right pocket during the race.  It was annoying, but wasn’t horrible.

After my quick change, I started jogging the half mile to the starting line near the Cathedral of Saint Paul. While waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street, I haphazardly pinned on my bib and tried to get a weather check on my iPhone.  AT&T’s craptacular 3G network was pretty much useless, but I did it did manage to spit enough bits to my phone to tell me it was still in the mid-20s.  Wonderful.

As I approached the Cathedral, I saw the mass of running humanity assembled there and heard “30 seconds to the start of the race”.  With so many runners, the race was broken up into starting waves.  I tried to get in the middle of the 9 and 10 minute per mile groups, but even if I could have accomplished this, the waves had already started, so the flags marking the paces weren’t accurate anyways.  I fired up Runmeter and Spotify.  I took a some shots of the starting area.  I wish I could have taken some pictures during the run as it was an absolutely gorgeous route, but the couple I tried were too shaky, so I decided to pass on the photos.

I have to say that the wave starts were done extremely well.  Also, the walkers must have lined up in the waves behind me, because I saw very few walkers during the first few miles.  I stepped over the starting line 10.5 minutes after the race had started.  Since this was a chip-timed event, this had no bearing on my final time. I did spent a bit of time bobbing and weaving at the start, but the spacing between waves and the lack of walkers meant everyone was able to start running right away.  I left my headphones off and just took in the course and the race.

The course was beautiful.  The fall colors were in full effect.  Combine that with scenery ranging from mansions to the Mississippi, plus all of the crazy and amazing costumes, and there was never a dull moment on this run.  I didn’t put my headphones on until I hit the 4.5 mile mark (the longest I’ve ever run sans music).

I started out at a slower than normal pace.  This would be my longest race to date and I wanted to ease into it.  I found it very easy to keep a nice, steady pace due to the number of runners around me.  I’m glad I started in the wave that I did, as the pace was perfect.

My plan was to run the first 3 miles without stopping.  The first water stop would be at mile 3 and I would walk though it and then continue to Galloway this bad boy with a 4:1 run/walk ratio, adjusting the run part down as I tired.  Yeah, I know, this is a modified Galloway and not taking walk breaks “early and often” would result in me being more tired near the end.

The first two miles blew by.  I was shocked when I saw the two mile marker.  Yay for sensory overload.  I had no idea what my pace was as I hadn’t donned my headphones yet.  I didn’t even bother to look at Runmeter because I was at a comfortable pace and this was a long race.

The 3 mile mark came up along with the first water stop.  I was feeling way too good to start run/walking and one look at the crowds at the water tables convinced me to skip this one.  I was doing fine in the hydration department.  I knew that the next water stop was in 2 miles and I would get my drink on at that point.  Probably the only issue I had with the course was with the Port-A-Potties at the water stops.

They were popular and the lines extended onto the course.  So not only did you have to bob and weave around runners entering and exiting the water tables, but you also had to deal with the sudden wall of runners extending 3/4 of the way across the road as they waited to use the bathrooms.  I would suggest turning the port-a-potties around so that the door faces away from the course to encourage lines that don’t extend on to the course.

I had decided at this point that I would keep running until I hit the 5 mile mark.  That would match my longest continuous run ever.  I was still feeling good and there was no shortage of things and people to look at.  Just before the 4.5 mile mark, I finally put in my ear buds and turned on my music.  Shortly afterwards Runmeter announced that my average pace was around 10:12/mile.  It would stay within a few seconds of that average for the entire race.  I wasn’t moving quickly, but I was sure steady.

Mile 5 rolled up and I was still feeling good.  I grabbed a water and kept chugging along.  The course was almost entirely downhill from start to finish.  Not steep, but a steady course down to the river basin.  It was a sunny day, but still cold enough that I could “see my breath” for the entire course.  I was so glad that I didn’t wear a windbreaker.  I was pretty much at a perfect body temperature.  I was sweating, but nowhere near the torrents of sweat I generate on a summer run.

After passing the 5 mile marker, I congratulated myself on breaking my PR for a continuous run.  I set my next goal at 7.5 miles without stopping.  I grabbed some water at the 6.5 mile water stop and still did not feel like walking.  I was still running at 10:12/mile.

At the 7.5 mile water stop, I did technically stop running to grab some blue stuff.  I have no idea what it was composed of, but it gave me a bit of a sugar boost.  It was pretty popular as the volunteers were struggling to fill cups to keep up with the thirsty runners.

I started to lose steam at this point.  Miles 7, 8, and 9 were all run around 10:30/mile.  I could feel my energy draining and my stride getting shorter.  I just wanted to keep running, because I felt like one walk break would lead to many more and I had a shot at going the entire 10 miles without stopping.  There was one baby hill where a number of the runners suddenly became walkers.  I powered through it and enjoyed the subsequent downhill.  Around mile 8 I felt a slight twinge in my left leg.  It wasn’t bad, just a slight pain near the side of my knee.  Thankfully it never got worse, but my running form did suffer as I started to favor my right leg.

At some point towards the end of the race there was an “energy” stop where they were handing our Tropical Hammer gels.  I grabbed one and pocketed it.  I had a GU wintergreen gel and I ate about half of it around mile 8.  Other than that, my race “fuel” consisted of a single Wintogreen lifesaver.  I guess that the pizza from the night before was more than enough energy to keep me running.

We hit mile 9 and I knew that I was going complete this race sans stops.  We passed through an inflatable rainbow colored tunnel and shortly after the 10 milers split off to the right while the half marathoners continued to the left.  At the 9.5 mile mark I could see the finish banner in the distance.  I picked up the pace and my last mile ended up being my fastest at 9:26/mile.  I crossed the timing mats and got my medal.  I hit the water and blue fluid stations and grabbed a banana.  The temperature had rocketed up to a torrid 39 degrees.  I was afraid of getting chills, but I stayed comfortable as long as I stayed in the sun.  A race volunteer handed me a brown paper bag from a huge box labeled “10 Mile Food”.  I took it and walked slowly towards the line for the buses to the half marathon finish area (and 3.1 miles closer to my car).

I was hobbling a bit at this point and if I stood still, then my legs started to hurt much like they did after my 12.5 mile run last week.  I massaged them and stretched them as much as I could.  After about a 20 minute wait I got on a bus to the half marathon finish line.  As I sat in a bench seat in a big yellow bus with a brown paper bag in my lap, I felt like I was 12 years old again.  I was a bit worried that my legs might “seize up” while sitting in the bus, but I was fine.  We got to see the remainder of the half marathon course from the comfort of the bus.  While the 10 mile was mostly flat and downhill, there was a pretty substantial hill around the 11 mile point of the half marathon.

After arriving at the half marathon finish, I pretty much just started my walk back to my car (about a mile away).  I did check for any merchandise (since I had my wallet with me) but didn’t see any.  There didn’t see to be much different in the way of food from the 10 mile finish.  I did see some runners with bottles of Muscle Milk (which I would have loved at that point) but didn’t see where they got them from.  I had no interest in getting a free beer and would rather be raped by badgers than listen to Tim Mahoney, so I started my trek back to my car.  The walk did me good as it stretched out my legs a bit.

I hate bicyclists.  I hate them because I’ve run into too many asshole cyclists.  My friend is a cyclist and assures me that for every asshole there are hundreds of decent cyclists.  I did get to witness my first asshole runners on the way back to my car.  A group of four women either decided that the big red hand means ‘go’ or that they were still on the vehicle restricted race course.  They walked out in front of a car.  The driver slammed on his brakes and the four troglodytes continued on at their slow shuffle.  If I were driving, I would have hit clipped them.  Oh well.  Four assholes out of 8,000 runners is still an acceptable ratio.

I got back to my car.  I suppose that I could balance some of the stress and time suck involved in my two treks to Saint Paul with the fact that I probably saved myself about $25 in parking costs over the last two days.  Next year I will definitely get a hotel room and stay in Saint Paul instead of fighting traffic.

The only problem I had was once I got back home.  I felt no pain up until that point.  I guess being stuck in a car for an hour messed up my legs (especially that left knee area).  It took me about 10 minutes of grimacing pain to hobble into my house.  After a hot shower, I was fine.  My legs felt “well used” but I no pain.

All in all, this was a great race.  The race volunteers were great.  The course was fucking awesome.  I will definitely run this race again next year…probably the half marathon.

Next up: a local “Turkey Trot” 5K with the family.  Then begins the long, cold Minnesota winter.  I will probably get really well aquainted with the treadmill (yuck).  Team Ortho has a Polar Dash on New Year’s Day.  I will most likely run that, but at the 5K distance as there’s no way I’m running a half marathon in that weather and after a night of debauchery.

Monster Dash 10 Mile Map

Today I traveled to Saint Bonifacius to pound out my long run on the Dakota Rail Trail.  My last long run was only 10 days ago and it was an 11 miler which did a number on my knees.  I was not looking forward to extending that suffering for another 1.5 miles.

I’ve been following a "modified" version of the Galloway run/walk/run program for my long runs.  I’ve been trying to run .5 miles, then walk…plus I’ve only been starting the run/walk/run bit after the first mile or two.  So, I’ve broken two of the rules of the Galloway method in that I have not been taking my walk breaks "early and often" and I’ve not been sticking to a specific run/walk ratio (I don’t time my walk breaks, so the early ones are very short and they get longer further into the run).  I decided to follow the plan more closely on this run.  Runmeter updated to version 6 recently and now you can create intervals (I’ll write a post on how to do this later), so I created a 3:1 run/walk ratio and hit the trail.

I headed southwest on the trail rather than my usual route of northeast.  I’m glad I did.  The change of scenery was nice and the path ends up running along the shore of Lake Waconia, so there are some very nice views.  The weather was nice (50 degrees and sunny with a steady NNW wind), but just chilly enough that I ran in running pants rather than shorts.

Taking the walk breaks early was difficult.  I generally run about 2 miles before even considering mixing in walk breaks.  Running for 3 minutes, then walking for 1 minute was tough.  The run time seemed too brief and the walk time too long.  The further I ran, the less this felt uncomfortable.

Runmeter surprised me in that it tracks your statistics for each interval.  That is awesome.  So I can look back on my run and see that I ran the first 3 minutes at a 10:13/mile pace, then walked for 1 minute at a 13:26/mile pace.  Each run and walk interval is individually tracked (separate from my splits(set to 1 mile).  Unfortunately, I didn’t strictly follow my intervals.  Early on I ran through one of the walk breaks because it came right when I was about 10 feet behind some Boy Scouts.  I didn’t want to run up behind them, stop, then breath heavy for a minute before running by them.  If I had known at the time that Runmeter was keeping such detailed stats, I might have opted for creeping them out.  Instead, my intervals looked like this:

Run – Average 9:47 /mile 
Walk – Average 8:29 /mile 
 

I will try to be more strict on my intervals on my next long run as I am a nerd and I love analyzing data.

I wasn’t drinking nearly as much water as my last long run (due to the -25 degree temperature difference) so I went out just over 3 miles before turning around.  I felt good after returning to my car at the 6 mile point and refilling my water bottle.  I then headed northwest for just under 3 miles.  I ran off the trail onto the Gale Woods park trail.  It intersects with the Dakota Rail Trail and meanders uphill for a 1/4 mile or so.  At the end of that short paved section there is a water fountain.  Unfortunately it is closed for the season.  At least I found a potential water refilling point for next summer.

Right around the 7 mile mark my left calf started to twinge a bit.  Nothing too horrible, but enough to be a nuisance.  The pain was at its worst coming out of the walk breaks.  It cleared to a manageable level after a few seconds of running.  Much, much easier to deal with than my knee pains on my last long run.

After the 9 mile mark, I started fading.  My pace was much slower and I started feeling my calf hurt a little more.  By 10.5 I was seriously dragging ass.  Even with the 3:1 ratio I was running out of juice.  I made it back to my car after the second loop and refilled my water.  I had logged about 11.75 miles at that point.  It took a LOT of effort to get jogging again after that stop.  I got about halfway up the bridge and started walking.  I ran down the other side, then suffered through another .5 miles or so.  I hit 12.5 miles.  At that point I decided to try to log another .6 miles so I could say that I knew what it was like to run a half marathon.  I couldn’t do it.  I was simply out of energy and could not maintain running for 1 minute, let alone 3.  I called it a day.

My legs were tired, but not sore (with the exception of my left calf being tight).  I started driving home and then the pain hit me.  A dull ache set in on both legs from top to bottom.  I tried to massage my legs, stretch my legs, withhold my screams, and drive at the same time.  Twenty minutes later, I was much better.  I took a bath once I got home and was completely fine.

My last race this year is a 10 mile run at the end of October.  I may try to get in a 14 mile run between that race and the first snowfall.  I have no idea how I’m going to train during the winter as I hate cold temps and snow.  I’ll probably be relegated to treadmill training. 

It’s been quite awhile since I last ran a road 5K race.  My last one was at the end of August.  Since that time I’ve run a 5 miler and multiple trail runs.  I was looking forward to this race as it is my last scheduled road 5K of the year and I wanted to see if I could lower my PR of 28:34.  My goal was to beat my PR with an eye towards breaking the 28 minute mark.

I’ve been doing quite a number of long training runs lately.  I did try to get in some “speed work” (in quotes because nothing I do is very speedy) on Thursday, but my pace and stamina were both crap.  I managed one mile at 8:50 on a flat, paved surface.  The rest of the run was riddled with stops.  I don’t know if the long runs were still affecting me, but I could not maintain a pace and was running out of energy.  This did not bode well for my chances at the 5K.

I registered for this race quite a while ago because it was close to home and it was a low-key, inaugural 5K run.  I had put this race on my calendar as starting at 10 am.  Hutchinson is about a 30 minute drive from my house.  As usual, I got a late start and ended up at the campus at 9:45.  There was still a short line at the registration table, so I wasn’t too worried about missing the run.  I picked up my packet and shirt.  I went back to my car to drop off the bag and affix my timing chip and bib.  Then I followed a group of runners inside the college to stay warm.  It was 42 degrees and windy.  Fall has definitely arrived.

I got my iPhone ready.  Tunes were loaded up and Runmeter started.  Although the race was to start in a few minutes, none of the runners seemed to be in a hurry to exit the warm confines of the building to get to the starting area.  At 9:58, I started to panic.  There was a 1K run as well.  I assumed that was a kid’s run, but what if these runners were here for the 1K and the 5K was just about to start?  I still did not know where the race would begin and it looked like my plan of just following some runners to the starting line may not have been the best option.  I walked back outside and asked one of the volunteers where the race was starting.  She pointed to the other side of the building.  I thanked her and jogged over to the starting area.  By this time it was just a few seconds before 10 am.

When I got to the starting area, the kid’s race was beginning.  Either events were running late or I had put the wrong starting time on my calendar.  Of course it was the latter.  The 5K would start at 10:30 am.  I was going to go back inside (did I mention that I was dressed in shorts and a tech shirt?) but thought it might be better to “acclimate” to the weather by waiting outside.  This was my first cold weather run and I thought that freezing my ass off would make me run better because I my body would welcome the warmth generated by my exertion.  Well…it turns out that you’re better off keeping your muscles warm.  So much for pulling running tips out of my ass.

More and more runners started to trickle towards the starting area as 10:30 approached.  There were a ton of women runners and the few male runners were all pretty young.  For a hot second, I thought I might be the only one in my age group.  That did not turn out to be the case.

The race director mentioned that about 130 runners had registered.  The race would be a loop and was chip timed.  We would not be running over the mats to start the race, so it would be a gun start.  We were directed to line up to the left of the finishing chute for the start of the race.  I had no idea which direction we would be running.  A guy asked me that very question and I told him I just planned to follow the pack once the gun sounded.  It actually worked out well as the runners were very spread out and only a few runners deep when the gun fired. [Actually, the race director said “go” and the gun fired shortly afterwards].  We ended up running across a field before hitting a residential street.  As confusing as this seemed, it actually worked out very well as the spacing allowed runners to quickly hit their pace and minimized the weaving and passing that usually takes up most of the first half mile.

I have to say that I do not like exercising in cold weather.  Some people swear by it and it’s supposed to help you run faster, but my lungs just don’t like cold air.  It always reminds me of smoking a menthol cigarette.

I quickly found a pace and settled into a groove.  I didn’t have to do much passing and was happy with the pace of the surrounding runners.  I was having a bit of trouble with my breathing.  I chalked that up to the cold air.  I had no idea what my pace was, but I quickly decided to just run a comfortable race and not worry about my time.  Runmeter announced that I was at about a 9 minute pace at the half mile mark and then at 8:50 once I hit the mile mark.  I was happy with that pace.  I knew that I needed to run less than 9:11/mile to PR and that seemed doable at that point.  I mentally noted that I had 21 seconds “in the bank”.  Then the wind hit me.

We turned a corner and headed right into a fairly strong (and cold) wind.  The course was probably the flattest course I’ve run, but that wind acted like a small hill.  We would make quite a few turns along the course, so it wasn’t a constant problem thankfully.

We ran primarilly though residential streets.  After the 1 mile mark we were all running single-file and there was a nice spacing between runners.  There were no mile markers on the course, so I had to trust Runmeter’s GPS.

The water stop seemed to come pretty early in the run.  It was well before the halfway mark (according to Runmeter).  I passed on the water.  I was planning on walking through the water stop, but it just seemed too early to do that.

We turned into the wind once again, but I was so surprised to see cows that it took my mind off of that angry gale.  The cows were amused by the runners and were trotting along the fence line watching us.  I’ve stated that I run like a cow.  That’s untrue.  Cows are faster than me.  I vowed to eat a giant hamburger when the race was over.

I finally took a quick walk break 1.62 miles in.  My pace had slipped to 9:01.  I was mad at myself for stopping.  My legs were fine and I was breathing normally (although the cold air was still piercing my lungs).  I consoled myself by noting that I had planned to walk the water stop, so this was actually a planned stop.  I could not use this excuse when I stopped again .7 miles later.

My pace had slipped to 9:14/mile and I was disgusted with myself.  I’m at a point where I should not be stopping during 5Ks.  There were no hills on this course, it’s a paved course (with the exception of the first and last 100 yards), and I wasn’t running at a blazing pace.  My stops were very short (probably 10 – 20 seconds) and I wasn’t losing ground to the runners ahead of me [whatever I lost during the walk, I pretty quickly regained when I started running again], but I was still disgusted for stopping.  I stopped for a third time at the 2.61 mile mark.  My pace had slipped to 9:19/mile and I wrote off a PR as I didn’t have much hope of making up 20 – 30 seconds over the last half mile to break my PR.

I was further disgusted at my last stop because shortly afterwards I could see the finish area off to my left.  It was still too far away to start sprinting, but it was close enough that my last stop was completely unnecessary.

As I made the final turn onto the grass, I resisted the urge to sprint the rest of the way.  I didn’t want to pass anyone this close to the finish as I was not going to PR and didn’t want to look like a goofball just picking off runners at the end of the run.  I did pick up my pace a bit and closed on the runner ahead of me.  I slowed up a bit so I would not pass her over the last 20 yards or so.  Then I saw the clock.  It read 27 something.  Holy crap.  I was not only sure to PR, but I had a chance at breaking 28 minutes.  I started sprinting.  I passed the woman ahead of me and saw the clock show 27:57…27:58…27:59…  I hit the mats and hit the stop button on Runmeter.  It didn’t stop.  It did it again and it stopped at 28:06.  Nuts.  I still had some hope though.  I had started Runmeter a bit before the gun fired and a couple of seconds had been lost trying to stop Runmeter.  There was still a slim chance that I broke 28 minutes with my official time.

I grabbed a banana and a glass of water.  I snapped a couple of photos of the finish area, dropped off my timing chip, then left.  I had actually planned to stick around for the drawings, but I was now sweaty and that made the cold wind feel even colder.

By the time I got home and took a shower, the official results were already posted (I love chip timed events).  I had finished with a time of 28:02 (9:03/mile).  THREE FREAKING SECONDS!!!  I could have easily made that time up over the final stretch or by skipping one of my stupid walk breaks.  Oh well.  I shaved 32 seconds off my PR.

This will be the last 5K I run this year. [I may do a local Thanksgiving Day 5K].  I am still slow and a noob, so my PRs should continue to fall.  I’ve shaved (nearly) five minutes off of my 5K time over the course of 3.5 months.  I know that I can run faster in the future.  I have to work on my stamina.  I think my training for longer runs will help with that.  I also need to do some regular speed work.  Although I’m never going to scare the front runners, I should be proud of my personal achievements.  This run also pushed me over 300 miles run this year (April – October, outdoors only).  That probably equals or exceeds the number of miles I’ve run in my entire life before this year.

I’m planning on running mostly half marathons next year, so I’ll probably only run a handful of 5Ks.  I am going to set my 5K goal for next year to run faster than 26 minutes.  That means an average pace of 8:22/mile.  If I can average 9:03/mile with three walk breaks (grrrr!!!!) then I think that I have a good shot at reaching this goal.

Next up is the Monster Dash 10 mile run at the end of the month.  This will be my first 10 mile race as well as my longest race yet.  My only goal is to finish.

I had signed up for this race months ago.  It was held at Lake Maria State Park and was another trail race.  Lake Maria State Park is about 20 minutes north of my house and is a very quiet and pretty park.  It gets exceptionally pretty in the fall when the leaves change color.  This race falls on the same day as the Twin Cities Marathon and my wife runs/volunteers at that event every year.  This year though, she decided to forego the TC Marathon and so she and the Monkey joined me for this run.

On the way to the park, we saw a huge bird flying over us.  My wife told me it was a Snow Goose.  When I looked it up later, I found that is it was actually a Trumpeter Swan:

The Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, is the largest native North American bird, if measured in terms of weight and length, and is (on average) the largest living waterfowl species on earth.

Trumpeter Swan

The day of the race was beautiful and clear, but very cold.  It was 44 degrees at 9 am.  Of course, I was running in shorts, so I was freezing.  Since the event was being held in a state park, there was an entry fee ($5).  I had driven up a couple of days earlier and scored a yearly pass ($25 for entrance to all Minnesota State Parks for 12 months).  Timberdash was offering the yearly passes for $20 on the day of the event.  I’m glad that I nabbed a pass prior to the day of the run as I did not want to wait in traffic to purchase a pass.  We were warned that parking would be limited, and even though we arrived about an hour before the 5K, the parking lots near the race area were already full.  The race volunteers guided us to parking on the side of the road and we actually ended up pretty close to the starting area.

This was a very well run event.  There were a few vendor kiosks set up, but also free coffee and some other small snacks.  There was also a campfire which turned out to be a great decision due to the cold temperature.  Check in was fast and friendly.  The only problem that we encountered was that they were out of safety pins.  Having run so many races this year, I had more than enough in my car for our bibs.

The Monkey was running the Kids’ 1K Fun Run.  They broke the kids up into age groups and the youngest children did laps in a small field.  There were kids as young as 3 years old running and they were a blast to watch.  The older kids ran a 1K portion of the same course that the 5K runners would follow.  My son was in that group.  He came in 3rd place in the race, only a few feet behind the 2nd place finisher.

Another nice thing about the race is that they watched/entertained the kids while the 5K was run.  While my wife and I were running, my son was drinking hot coco and sitting around the campfire.  He won a Minnesota Golden Gophers ball cap in the kids’ raffle.  There were also bananas and other snacks (including early season Halloween candy) available as well.  This made waiting for mom and dad to finish running very easy, even for my son.

I had jogged around the course a couple of days prior when I bought the park pass.  I ended up seeing most, but not all of the course…and not in order.  That’s due to my poor directional skills.  I did warn my wife that there was a huge hill at the end of the race.

The race director asked that “serious runners” line up first.  I don’t consider myself a serious runner, so I waited.  It sounded to me that they were going to have a wave start.  That’s a good idea, but could have been a problem since the trails were not very wide (about 6 to 8 feet) and the first 3/4 mile was also the final 3/4 mile of the race.  I guess that as long as the slowest runners/walkers were through that 3/4 portion before the “elites” reached it on the way back.

It turned out that I misunderstood the intention.  It would be a gun start for all racers (no chip timing) and the RD was just trying to position walkers in the back.  By the time I figured this out, we were only able to secure a spot near the very back of the pack.  The horn sounded and I was still futzing with my iPhone (I used Kinetic to track this run instead of my trusty Runmeter because Kinetic seems to handle GPS better in wooded areas).  By the time I actually started moving, I was one of a handful of folks in the very back of the pack.

I started passing people left and right.  This was very tricky due to: my proximity to the back of the pack, the number of slower runners/walkers, and the steep downhill portions of the initial run.  I was flying past runners (including my wife) by using the sides of the trail.

Eventually I hit a pocket of runners keeping a comfortable pace.  I would stay with them for most of the race.  The water stop came very quickly but was positioned so that runners would cross it twice (.75 miles in and .75 miles from the finish).

The terrain was gorgeous.  While the full on explosion of fall leaves was still a week or so away, the park was beautiful.  There were heavily wooded areas, lake views, open fields, plenty of hills, gravel, and – my nemesis – sand.  Even though I was keeping an incredibly slow pace (around 11 minutes/mile) I found the run challenging.  I ran the first 1.5 miles before taking my first walk break.  I have learned from my previous trail runs that there’s no shame in taking walk breaks.  My breaks were very short (10 – 20 seconds), but were more plentiful than I would have liked.  Still, I managed to stay with the same group of runners through most of the course.

I hit the water stop for the second time and grabbed some water.  I knew what lay ahead.  The last leg consisted of a big hill, followed by a small downhill and a small streth of flat terrain, and then finished with a monster hill.  I was during this portion of the run that I started picking off more and more runners.  When the monster hill finally appeared I was surprised to see EVERYONE ahead of me walking it.  It didn’t matter if they were at the top or bottom of the hill, they were all walking.  I planned to run as much as I could and then join them.  Another guy had been pacing off of me for the last .5 miles or so and we were the only ones running the hill.  He started walking about halfway up the hill and I was going to follow suit, but I noticed that the photographer was positioned about 3/4 up the hill.  There was no way I was going get photographed walking and panting, so I sucked it up and ran past the photog.  I started walking right after that.    I walked most of the rest of the way up the hill and regained running for the (incredibly short) remainder of the race.  I must have passed about 20 runners on that last hill and was going to pick off a couple more before the finish line, but their kids ran out from the spectators and joined them and I really didn’t feel like flying by them at that point.

I crossed the finish line and stopped Kinetic.  It recorded the distance as just short of 3 miles.  So much for the GPS accuracy.  One of the things that I don’t like about Kinetic is that you cannot change the distance.  Oh well, even with the correct distance, I managed to average 11:09/mile, by far my slowest race so far.

I found the monkey with his new hat sitting by the campfire playing video games.  We waited for my wife to cross the finish line.  She punched me because I guess that “monster hill” didn’t adequately prepare her for the final hill.

I really enjoyed the Timberdash.  The event was extremely well run.  The race shirts were awesome as were the finisher medals (first time I’ve received a finisher medal for a 5K).  I would love to run this race again next year if it’s not on the same date as the Twin Cities Marathon.

I am thankful that this is my last trail run of the year.  I only have two races left: a local 5K and the Monster Dash 10 Mile run (will be my longest race yet).

Tonight was the fifth and final race in the 2011 Lifetime Trail Series.  Tonight’s run was in Elm Creek Park Reserve near Maple Grove.  Since the course was near my work, I left from there.  Even though I was less than 10 minutes away, I managed to just barely make it to the race on time.

I drove to the park and followed the large Lifetime signs with arrows on them.  This is a nice touch, especially in a spacious park like Elm Creek.  There were two large parking lots near the start of the race…both of which were full.  Runners had started parking off the side of the road and my late arrival was actually a bit of a blessing as I was able to get a spot directly across the road from the registration area.

I got into the registration line at 6:20, only 10 minutes before the start of the race.  I was pre-registered and soon I had my bib.  I was given the choice of a tshirt or a hat.  The hats were nice (and very popular), but I went with the dark shirt as I wanted it to match the light one I got at the last trail run.

I stashed the shirt and all non-essentials in my car and went for a quick pre-race jog.  The weather was a pretty chilly 54 and since sunset was set for about 7:10 it’s going to be quite a bit colder before I’m done running (the temps dipped to 48 degrees at the end of the run).  I wore shorts and a long sleeved tech shirt.  I was debating whether or not to throw on a light jacket.  I decided to skip the jacket, which turned out to be a good idea as I was drenched in sweat by the end of the run.

We lined up for the start of the race.  The race director advised us about some of the course details.  I had checked out the course on Monday so I knew that we would be mostly on cross country trails with a .75 mile portion on a paved trail.  The hills were much more mild than the beasts on the Carver run.  They were mostly rolling hills and not too steep.  Most of the trails contain a very narrow single track bike trail of packed dirt.  To take advantage of the single track, runners would need to run single file and run on a tightrope for a lot of the trail as the tracks were only about six inches wide over much of the trail.  Oh, and one more advantage compared to the Carver trail: no horse shit.

The race director advised that the trail had been measured at 5.2 miles.  The trail I mapped out on Monday was over 6 miles (including some of my wrong turns).  They had obviously trimmed the 5.75 mile loop from last year’s race.

The horn sounded and we were off.  As usual, I had positioned myself in the back 20% of the field.  The initial portion of the run was mostly downhill and I found myself unable to hit my pace, so I started passing runners.  I ended up passing more runners than usual and by the .5 mile mark Kinetic announced a pace of 9:04.  That’s fast for me on a paved course, it was much faster than I’m used to running on a trail (the trail usually adds 1.5 – 2 minutes to my average pace).  Still, my legs felt great, the weather was perfect, and I knew that there were no monster hills ahead of me, so I kept up the pace.  I was a little worried about burning out, but my goals for this race were simply to finish and to avoid the tons of walk breaks I used at Carver.

I had switched back to Kinetic for this race as I’ve been pretty unimpressed with Runmeter’s GPS accuracy lately.  Kinetic measured the miles short, it would announce a mile marker shortly before the mile marker would appear on the course.  This is exactly the opposite of Runmeter’s behavior.  On mile 5 though, the mile marker showed up before Kinetic announced it.  Kinetic measured the 5.2 mile course at 5.23 miles, so I’m still impressed by it’s GPS accuracy.

Mother Nature reached out and reminded us that this was indeed a trail race:  a runner ahead of me tripped and fell on the trail.  He was on his feet quickly and uninjured thankfully. 

At the 1.6 mile mark, I took my first walk break near the top of a hill.  I had been attacking the hills, but this sucker was the last of three successive hills and I needed a breather.  This also gave me the opportunity to fall behind a group that I had been pacing.  They were too fast for me on the flats, but I would end up passing them going up or down hills.  I didn’t want to keep "rubberbanding" with them.  I took a quick breather and started running again.

At this point I was alone.  I decided to kick my pace down a notch.  I was about 2 miles in and still running around 9:30.  I dropped down to a pace above 10 minutes and continued on.  Of course, this meant that I ended up getting passed by a dozen or more runners over the last 3 miles, but I was cool with that.  I would occasionally pace behind some of these runners and that kept my legs pumping.  5 miles is still a long run for me.  The weather and the (albeit passing) familiarity with the course meant that I was never super tired, but I did take a few strategic walk breaks, but kept them all to around 10 seconds.  I only took 2 of them on hills.

Around the 3 mile point we started the paved trail portion of the run.  This is where most of the runners passed me.  For whatever reason, it seemed like I actually slowed down on this part of the course.  My feet went slightly numb.  This has happened to me before and, as usual, it cleared up within a half mile.  We ran over a long wooden bridge and past the disc golf course.  Near the end of the trail we hit the only water stop.  I grabbed a cup of water and walked through the stop.  A number of the runners ahead of me did the same, so when I started running again I was in a small pack of runners.  I stuck with them for the rest of the race.

I made one attempt to race ahead of the pack.  Just before the 5 mile mark, I decided to increase my pace and see if I couldn’t get ahead of the dozen runners in the pack.  My idea seemed brilliant…until I hit one of the last hills.  I had to take an embarrassing walk break to catch my breath.  Nothing like racing past a group of people only to have them pass me as I walked with my head down, wheezing, at the top of a hill.

The sun had just set prior to the end of the race.  There were some pretty dark, tree covered patches on the last mile of the race.  There were a few bits (including the paved trail) that were lit.  I assume that these lights are there for the cross country skiers.  The dark spots were manageable, but I did keep a heightened eye out for anything that I might trip over.

There was one more hill right before the finish line.  I looked up and saw 53 minutes on the clock.  I stopped Kinetic and saw that I had run 5.23 miles in 53:18.  I was pretty happy with the 10:12 pace even though I had toyed with trying to trim that to under 10 minutes.  I had a shot at doing that, but my humiliating hill walk ended that pipe dream.  Oh well, I had a much better run than I did at Carver.

Lifetime has a ton of post-race food available.  I grabbed a slice of pizza, some water, and an energy bar.  As I was a sweaty beast and the temps were now in the 40’s, I finished my pizza and took off.

I really liked this course and really like the Lifetime Trail Series.  Next year I hope to hit all five of the runs and improve on my performances from this year.  I am definitely going to do a LOT more hill work.  I have two more trail races left this year (Autumn Woods Classic and Timberdash) but they are both 5Ks and will not be as challenging as the Lifetime courses.  I’m also getting better at long runs.  5 miles now feels to me like 5K felt mid-summer: challenging, but very "doable".

Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to “having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.

– Wikipedia

I signed up for this race quite a while ago.  I’m not sure what drew me to the race: the setting (Wirth Park), the fact that it was a trail race (at a time when I had not run any trail races), or maybe that it was taking place on a unique date (9/10/11).  When I signed up for it, I did not have any races scheduled around it.  Fast forward a couple of months, and this race turns out to be the 3rd race within 5 days.  I ran the Red Rooster 5 mile race on Monday, the Lifetime Trail Series Carver Park 5 mile trail run on Wednesday, and was now ending my busiest race week with this run, described as “A wooded and challenging 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course.”

Vendors

After getting my ass handed to me on the Carver Park trail run, the thought of tackling another trail run was far from enticing.  I seriously contemplated skipping this race, but it was a nice day and I had already paid to run, so I headed over to Wirth Park to pound this sucker out.

Theodore Wirth Park

The website and subsequent email notice warned about parking issues.  It turns out that the big parking lot near the race course is under construction.  It was strongly suggested that runners bike or walk to the park.  I live about 30 miles away, so this was not an option.  Consequently I got the park around 8:30 am, an hour and a half before the 5K began to (hopefully) get a parking spot.  It turned out that the event was allowing people to park on the grass close to the starting area, so parking was not a problem (as long as you didn’t mind a little “off road” action).

Parking

After parking I walked to the registration area.  We had been mailed postcards with a bar code on it that the volunteer would scan.  The scanners were not cooperating, but even so, registration was quick and painless.  I scored my swag bag (pretty cool stuff) and t shirt.  I walked back to my car, stowed my gear, and pinned on my bib.  Now I just had to kill 1.25 hours.  Luckily, walking around Wirth park on a beautiful morning is a great way to kill time.

Wirth Park

I eventually wandered to the starting area.  There was a lot of stuff going on.  There was a nice collection of vendors as well as a number of races already taking place.  There was a half marathon and “Nordic Walk” already in progress.  I was running the 5K, which would share a 10 am starting time with a 13.1K race.  Yes, I typed that correctly.  I’m not even sure what to call that race?  A half-marathon poorly converted to kilometers?

Start

As the start time approached, I took a 5 minute jog to get warmed up on the trails near the start of the race.  There were definitely going to be some hilly areas on this run.  I followed the runners with the red 5K bibs to the starting area.

Start

The starting area is the only real complaint I have with this race.  The race started on a paved trail about 6 feet wide.  Between the 13.1K and 5K, there were about 250 runners crammed onto the trail.  A lot of them (myself included) were standing outside of the paved trail.  Once the race began, the flow of runners had to squeeze together to get everyone on the trail and moving.  Needless to say, it was a slow start.  I positioned myself in my usual back 20% position and did not start actually running for a good 2 minutes after the race started.  This brief jogging period came to an abrupt end when the course turned left off of the paved trail and onto a dirt trail.  The trail went up a hilly area right away.  Everyone started walking again.  It was impossible to pass anyone.  Once the trail widened out a bit, I started passing as many people as possible.  I generally don’t try to run fast up hills, but in this case it was the easiest place to pass people, so I powered up the early hills just to pass runners and try to create some space.

Even this strategy was flawed.  Once we hit the single track trails, it became impossible to pass once again.  The trails were very narrow (as single tracks are wont to be) and passing would mean running though waist high foliage.  There was also a beautiful single track area that wound up a large hill.  Everyone was walking at this point.  Not because the hill was super steep, but because all of the runners were clumped together on the trail and the trail was right on the edge of the steep hillside.  Trying to pass would most likely result in a nice tumble down the hill.

This was definitely not a run to PR on.  While I was not happy to be crunched together single-file walking, I did welcome the involuntary walking breaks.  I did have a runner try to pass me at one point.  A younger runner (I would guess around 12) tried to pass me on my left.  The combination of no room to pass plus him being exactly tall enough that when he fell trying to do so that he ran into my elbow made for an ugly scene.  I helped him up, which meant stopping and subsequently stopping everyone behind us.  I felt bad for the kid, but could not understand how the hell he thought there was room to pass.

Other than the extreme congestion, there were plenty of cool parts of the run.  This was very much a trail race.  There were woods, streams, mud, roots, rocks, fields, and hills galore.  There was even a point where you ran through a muddy area and then had to duck through a hole cut out of a metal fence. I didn’t realize there was a choice of bypassing this (I saw the sign but did not understand it):

At one point on the course, the path diverged with two signs pointing to “ick” and “no ick”. “Ick” was through a sinking muddy sludge pool, and “no ick” involved ducking and running through the bramble and log debris to the right of the mud; the choice was yours.

Eventually we hit an open field area on the backside of a school campus.  At that point the runners could finally spread out and start passing other.  I kicked my pace up a notch here so that I could get ahead of as many runners as possible before hitting the trails again.

After this point, the trails were wide enough to accommodate the runners.  There were a bunch of small to medium hills, with a couple of larger hills.  I ran most of the hills, but did walk a couple of them.  I ran the biggest of the bunch, but actually ended up walking a bit of the downhill because I was so winded and the downhill portion was pretty winding and steep.

Second Half Hill

Runmeter must have been having GPS problems, because it nearly a half mile off of the actual distance.  It measured the 5K course at 2.78 miles.  This also meant that it was telling me that I was running 13+ minute miles.  I was running slow, but not that slow.

There was one point where the 13.1K runners and the 5K runners split.  This was confusing and a number of the 13.1 runners went the wrong way.  The volunteers did manage to get them turned around, but they did not look happy about the wrong turn.

The water stop came pretty late in the run (around the 2.8 mile mark) and there were cups of water and “blue stuff”.  I grabbed a cup of the blue stuff.

The final bit of the run was on paved trails.  I was pretty wiped out and knew that my time was going to be well north of 30 minutes so I didn’t try to kick it down on the last stretch.  Plus with Runmeter so off on the distance, I really wasn’t sure how much further I had to run.  One dude tried to pass me at the end but my inner asshole was stronger than his and I sprinted to finish before him.

I had no idea what my finish time was.  When I crossed the finish line, I was too sweaty for my iPhone.  I wasn’t able to stop the timer on Runmeter.  There was a digital clock, but it was still showing the time for the half marathoners.  I know I ran the race slowly, but I was pretty sure that the 1.5 hours on the clock was not correct.

Finish Area - Clock was for 1/2 Mary

All in all, this was a tough, but pretty fun run.  I felt a lot better about my performance than I did at the Carver trail race.  I’m still a long ways from being a trail runner.  I did end up in the top 50% of runners even with my 33 minute run.  That’s pretty good for me, though I can’t help but think I could have done much better if I would have been able to pass other runners in the first half of the race.

There was plenty of after race food and drink.  In the swag bag we received a wooden nickel which you could redeem for a beer.  I grabbed a banana and drank a lot of water (it was in the mid 80s and very humid by the end of the run).

Swag

The only problem I had was when I was driving out of the makeshift parking lot.  Some late arriving car drove in while I was trying to get out.  I had no choice but to take a right and let him in.  I drove down the between the rows of cars, but they were parked all the way to the end, so I would have had to reverse all the way back to get back to the exit.  Instead I drove to the end of the rows and onto the street.  Unfortunately this meant dropping over a curb.  I cursed as I heard the bottom of my car scrape on the curb.  I drove home and found no damage.

I found the Finn Sisu trail race to be challenging, yet fun and beautiful.  The race was very well run and there were plenty of volunteers.  I would suggest starting the run on a street for the first .25 mile at least to allow runners to spread out and hit their pace before hitting the (very narrow) trails.  If you’re running this race I would suggest starting further up than normal and starting out faster than normal to get some space.

Wooden Nickel

T Shirt - Front

T Shirt - Back

Route

I checked out this trail series earlier in the year.  I really want to do trail runs because that’s the type of running I enjoy the most.  We are blessed in Minnesota with tons of different wilderness trails.  I love running through wooded areas and along some of our 10,000 lakes.  I rarely get bored while on wilderness runs.  When I checked out the LifeTime Trail Series I balked for a couple of reasons: I’m not a member of LifeTime fitness, the distances seemed pretty long to me, and the results for last year’s races showed very small attendance.  I’m still a crappy runner and I really didn’t want to be an anchor for the experienced trail runners.  

I was checking out Active.com for local runs and saw a Thursday night run in Maple Grove.  I work in that area and an evening run after work appeals to me much more than waking up early on weekend and driving into the Cities for a race.  I checked the race website and found that it was the last of the 5 Lifetime Trail runs.  

I almost passed on the run again.  After the debacle at the Granite City 5K (my worst run and the closest thing to a trail run I’ve done for a race) I pretty much decided that I’m not a trail runner.  The previous race results (they’ve already run 3 of the 5 races) were posted to the site, so on a whim, I checked out the results.

First of all, the distances aren’t nearly as long as I remembered them being (I swear they were all 5 to 9 miles long) as they are all around 5 miles, with one race at 5K.  Probably more importantly, they had around 200 runners for each event.  I remembered (my memory is probably faulty) the fields being 30 or less for last year’s races.  Finally, there were a number of runners with paces that I am confident that I can match.  I might still be an anchor, but at least I’d be part of a gang of anchors.

The Thursday night schedule was too good to pass up.  Plus now that I’ve finished a 5 mile race, that distance – while still challenging – doesn’t frighten me the way it used to.

It turns out that you don’t need to be a LifeTime Fitness member to participate in the runs.  The pricing is $20 for non-members and $15 for members.  The site is a bit confusing as to whether that price is for all five races (amazing bargain) or just for each race.  It’s for each race (includes a shirt).

I signed up for the 08 September run.  The other cool part of the series is that each is in a different park.  This week’s run is in Carver Park – which is a beautiful park in a gorgeous area.  The site has maps available detailing the course for each run, so you can scout them out in advance, which is what I did for this first run.

If I have a good time on this first run, then I’ll sign up for the next one at the end of September (in Maple Grove – another gorgeous park).  The only downside is that the NFL season starts this Thursday, so I won’t be hitting the bar after the run (not going to punish everyone with my sweaty mess) but I should be able to watch the Saints crush the hated Packers after the run. 

I ran five miles.  Let me restate that: I JUST RAN FIVE MOTHER-JAMMIN MILES.  

I started out the day doing what I do most mornings: running late and pissing off my wife.  The race was in a nearby city (if you want to stretch the definition of city) and started at 8:30.  We had preregistered and it’s a small event, so I was not in a hurry to get out the door to get there early.  Unfortunately, I had no idea where the run was starting other than “at the ballpark”.  We rolled into the registration area to pick up our bibs and shirts just in time to hear “runners…five minutes”.  I ran the shirts back to our car while my wife went to the bathroom (not before shooting me the stink eye for being late).  I jogged back to the car.  By the time I got there, I was wheezing.  WTF?  Here I am getting ready to run five miles (which is still a long ways for me) and I’m winded after jogging a few hundred yards?  I jogged about halfway back to the starting area, walking the rest so as not to be breathing heavy.

We lined at the very back of the field.  There looked to be about 150 – 200 runners.  Just before the start about a third of those runners filtered out as they were running the 1 mile fun run, which would start after the 5 mile run began.  This run was part of Red Rooster Days and there was a runner dressed up as a big, red rooster.

The race director made an announcement over a bull horn.  I could only understand about 10% of his words.  I did hear “big hill near the finish” and a number of the runners groaned.  Shortly after, a gun fired and we were…standing still.  Someone had fired a gun, but it was not the race director.  I thought it was a well played joke and something that would probably not happen in Minneapolis.  Soon after, a horn sounded and we were off.

Since I was in the very back of the pack and I was starting slower than normal (plus the run started on wide streets), I didn’t have to do a lot of zig-zagging and passing over the first half mile.  I pretty quickly fell into a pace and ended up in a pocket of runners with whom I would stay for most of the race.

My goals for this race were to finish and to try to break 55 minutes.  I have only run 5 miles or more a half dozen times in my life.  This distance to me is what I imagine a half marathon is to most runners: a challenging, but “doable” distance.  I was buoyed with some confidence because I’ve been doing long runs over the last few weeks.  My most recent long run was 8 miles and my fallback long run (every other week) is 4 to 4.5 miles.  So I’ve had some practice with longer runs and 5 miles doesn’t seem like some unobtainable distance anymore.  Of course, I’m using the Galloway run/walk/run method on these long runs, so my times are far from blazing.  I intended to use the same method on this run (I run .5 miles then walk briefly) but I was hoping to not start the walk breaks until at least 1.5 miles into the run.

The weather was beautiful.  It was in the mid fifties.  Much cooler than any race I’ve run so far.  The sun was out, but for whatever reason we were enjoying an October morning in early September.

The first mile was a bit tricky.  My body slowly woke up.  I’m a caffeine addict and had planned to grab some gogo juice in a can on the way to the run.  My tardiness crushed that plan.  I managed to down a large glass of coffee with ice cubes.  Even though I crave caffeine, I’ve stopped drinking coffee.  I’m not sure why, I just don’t enjoy it much anymore (except in the winter).  I could feel the coffee sloshing around in my stomach as I ran.  Wonderful.  While I wasn’t exactly struggling, I was not feeling as well as I normally do at the start of a run.  I kept thinking, “this is not your day”.

The run spilled onto a paved path and even if I had wanted to pass my pacers, I would have had trouble as they were taking up the entire path.  A few runners eventually did pass them but they maintained their running wall.  At the 1 mile mark there was a race volunteer shouting out split times.  All I heard was “minutes” and then “4, 5, 6, 7…” as I ran past.  I had begun the race without listening to my iPhone (I was trying out new headphones (earbuds) and they were a pain to put in while running) for the first bit of the race and had not heard my pace from Runmeter (it announces it every .5 miles) so I had no idea how fast I was running.  It felt like I was running a 10 minute or slower pace.  Soon after, Runmeter announced that I was running at a 9:28 pace.  That was faster than I thought and made me feel pretty good.  I wanted to “bank” time early in the race so I could counteract my slow pace and walking on the back-end of the run.

We made a left off the path and onto a rural highway.  Around this time (1.25 – 1.5 miles in) I was still feeling a little shaky, but running much better.  I had hit a sweet pace and was mentally digging in for the remainder of the run.  I decided then that I would walk at the first water station at the 2 mile mark and start my run/walk/run strategy at that point.  The runners had all spread out at this point.  I was still pacing behind a group of five runners.  We started on a slight downhill and something happened to me that has never happened before in a race: I felt great.  I was out running on a beautiful day with cornfields and forests around me and I was feeling strong and running at an enjoyable pace.  I wasn’t stressed out at all and I was confident of reaching my goals.  I decided to scrap the run/walk/run plan and run as far as I could without stopping. 

As I approached the water stop at the 2 mile mark, I decided to run through it.  I wasn’t thirsty at all and I knew that there was another water stop at the 4 mile mark.  The pack became a little jumbled and I actually passed a few people that were walking though the stop.  I lost one of my pacers, but she sprinted back to regain her spot (she was running with a friend).  I was still feeling good and since I usually break down and walk at the 2 mile point, I decided my next goal was to try to run until at least the 3.1 mile point.  This would be the equivalent of running a 5K with no stops – something I’ve only done once before.

Just before the 3 mile mark, we hit the first of the big hills.  It was a long, brute of a country hill.  I knew that I would need to conquer it if I wanted to reach my 5K goal, so I powered through it.  I passed a runner on the way up the hill.  This would be the last runner I would pass until the end of the race.  At the top of the hill there was a family cheering on the runners.  There were actually quite a few locals doing the same along the course.  Pretty cool support for a small race.

I was going to make my 5K goal.  At that point, I decided that my next goal would be to run until at least the 3.5 mile mark.  The longest I’ve ever run without stopping is about 3.25 miles.  I was still feeling pretty good (that hill did take a bite out of my butt) and wanted to use this good mojo to set a personal record.  The course was flat for a short while after the big hill then it took a sharp downhill dive.  I was thanking the running gods for the downhill but soon started cursing them when I saw that this downhill was just before a hill that made the last one look like a speed bump in comparison.  

Normally I lean slightly forward on downhills and let gravity do its magic.  I actually kept the brakes on for this downhill because I didn’t want to fly past my pacers only to have them pass me on the monster hill.  My goal was to get as far up this hill as possible without walking.  I remembered the race director stating that there was a big hill at the end of the course so I figured since this hill (we were around the 3.5 mark at this point) was not mentioned, that the next hill would be even bigger.  I had reached my 3.5 mile goal and was resigned to the fact that I would be walking a portion of this hill.  Just before the incline started we reached the second water stop.  I was going to walk through this one, but they were handing out small bottles of water.  I was able to complete the aquatic baton exchange with the race volunteer and kept running (at a slower pace) through the water stop.  I wasn’t very thirsty and I was only at the 75% level of complete sweat drenching, but I figured that I would drink a bit of the water and then save the rest for my inevitable hill walking stage.  The water was really cold.  I managed to down about a 1/4 of the small bottle.  Then I did something I don’t normally do: I tossed it to the side of the road.  I’m the chump that normally crushes his paper cup and stores it in my pocket rather than throwing it into the grass.  I couldn’t do that with a plastic bottle so my water bottle joined its other abandoned buddies on the side of the road.

On to the monster hill.  With the downhill portion and the water stop, our small group had bunched up again.  There were the two women running together, followed by a woman in red, and then me.  We started up the hill.  In my head I heard “slight forward bend, head up, keep your pace but shorten your stride”.  I have to hand it to the two women in front of me, they powered through this hill without losing their stride or pace.  I kept chugging and actually swung to the left to pass the lady in red (yes, that stupid song jumped into my head) in what would have been the slowest passing move in history.  I was not able to pass her, so we paced each other side by side for the last 1/4 of Mt. Everest.  By the time we hit the top of the hill we were both chugging along a speed at which a tortoise would have screamed at us for being too slow.  I fell in behind her again and for the first time in the race, I felt tired.  

The race continued on another path.  At this point, it was just me and the lady in red.  The two friends had crushed the hill and were quite a ways ahead of us at this point.  I could not see anyone behind me.  I continued at a slow pace and eventually felt a bit of energy return.  The splits were written on the pavement along with words of encouragement.  “4 miles. Way to go! Almost there!”  I had run further than ever before with no stops and I had conquered two big hills to get here.  I knew that there was a monster hill waiting for me before the end of the race, but if I could keep my legs moving I might have a shot at running the entire 5 miles.

Shortly after the 4 mile marker, Runmeter chimed in with my pace.  I was at a 9:58 pace.  Those hills (that last one was about .5 miles long) had eaten into my pace.  I decided that my new goal was to finish the run in under 50 minutes – damn the upcoming hill.

I paced behind the lady in red until about the 4.5 mile point.  We were near the start of the race.  In fact we were pretty much perpendicular with the ballpark.  The rest of the route just ran back to the starting area in a loop through nearby neighborhoods.  This meant no monster hill was possible.  The hill at the 3.5 mile mark must have been the beast described by the race director.  Holy crap!  I only had to run another half mile over flat pavement to complete this race.  I had vowed that I would not blow by the lady in red near the finish line since I had been using her as a pacer, but nothing was stopping me from passing her with this much real estate left to the finish line.  I passed her and quickened my pace slightly.  I had no idea what my time was at this point, but I wanted to beat 50 minutes for the race.

I was completely alone at this point.  I followed the race markers through a few turns in a residential area.  Finally I made a right and could see the finish line.  I picked up my pace some more and surprised myself by sprinting full out for the last 100 yards.  I glanced at the clock and saw 48:30 as I finished.  I had done it.  I had run five miles without stopping and I had done it in less than 50 minutes.

I grabbed a water and waited for my wife to finish.  She is a slow runner, but she has no problem running long distances.  She hasn’t been running much this summer and I figured that she would finish in the 55 – 60 minute range.  She surprised me by finishing about 5 minutes after me.  She told me that she walked twice – which is not normal for her – once at the first water stop and once on the monster hill.  She also told me that during the first half mile or so she noticed a car behind her.  She was getting pissed off that some stupid driver was driving on the race route until she realized that this was the “sweeper car”.  She was the very last person in the race.   She didn’t end up in that position, but it was the first time she had started so far back in the pack and at such a slow pace.

I had a very good time on this run.  I set a couple of personal records.  I know that I am capable of running 5 miles without stopping, so in future 5K runs I can use this knowledge to win the mental battle and keep my legs moving when my mind wants to stop.

If a PR falls in a race and no one records it…

God I hate 6am…especially on a Sunday.  I got up, showered, and made sure that my son did the same.  We headed south to participate in the race for a nearly unpronounceable German "founders festival".  I was running the 5K and the Monkey was running a 1/2 mile kids run.

The weather was very nice.  55 degrees with a light, intermittant breeze.  For some reason the humidity was at 96%.  It definitely did not feel that humid.

There was a pretty good turnout for the run.  So much so that the start was delayed (only about 5 minutes) to allow everyone to finish registration.  I had pre-registered so this was not a problem.  The race shirts were nice, funky green (white for kids) technical shirts.  The race was chip timed using B-tags (the "chip" is in the bib and is disposable) and the bibs were printed with the race name.

I had no expectations for this run.  I was just hoping to have a fun run and that my son have the same experience.  I lined up very near the back once again.  After a nearly inaudible announcement by the race director, the starting pistol was fired and we were off.  I waited until I actually crossed the starting line to start RunMeter.

The first mile went by quickly.  There were at least two nice downhill sections.  On the second of these, I passed about 20 runners by blasting down the hill on the left.  Of course, I slowed up substantially as that hill lead right into another incline.  The splits were well marked with large, white mile markers.  Shortly after passing the first of these, RunMeter announced (it always seems to measure long miles) that my pace was 9:02/mile.  Looking at my splits after the run, it was actually 8:59/mile.  Another RunMeter idiosyncracy is that it announces the splits slower than it actually measures them.  Anyhoo…I was flying.  Well, flying is relative when talking about my slow ass.  Still, my first sub-9 minute mile.    This was also accomplished with the usual glacial start and jockeying for position.

Mile 2 was a bit up and down.  I settled into a slower pace and picked a runner to follow.  I had (as usual) forgetten my heart rate monitor.  I would have been interested in seeing my heart rate because I felt pretty relaxed (as much as I ever am during a run).  We got out of the downtown area and I saw the water stop up ahead.  Right behind it was a big ass hill.  The course description mentioned "two or three challenging hills".  I walked through the water stop.  After about 15 seconds of walking and drinking, I started up the incline.

The hill was long, but the climb was not too steep.  As this was an out and back course and I could see some of the faster runners coming down the hill in the other direction, I started looking for the turnaround.  I have RunMeter set to announce every half mile.  The last announcement I remembered was at the 1 mile mark which seemed to have been at least 5 minutes ago, so I was waiting for the 1.5 mile announcement which generally coincides very closely with the halfway (turnaround) point.  This was the only part of the race that sucked.  I looked ahead and the turnaround was at the top of the hill.  I reached the turnaround and decided that I must be running very slowly because the time between the 1 mile mark and the 1.5(5) turnaround point seemed to be closer to 10 minutes than the 5(ish) minutes I expected.  I reached the top of the hill and took my second, short walk break before hitting the second half of the run.  I looked at RunMeter and it showed 1.89 miles.  WTF?  Not only had I missed the 1.5 mile announcement, but it looked like my 3.1 mile run was going to be close to 4 miles.

My mind went back to the race director’s announcement.  Although I couldn’t hear most of it, I did recall him saying that the turnaround point had been moved back 20 meters to make it a "true 5K".  After running a long 5K last weekend, I was sure I was looking at an "ultra" 5K today.  If RunMeter was right, I would be running nearly 4 miles.  Crap.  With my speedy first mile, I was hoping to be in a position to PR.

I started down the hill and I was definitely not in my happy place anymore.  Oh well, it was a nice day and I was going to enjoy the decline after the long climb.  Shortly after I started running again, I saw the 2 mile sign.  That meant that the course was measured accurately.  The halfway point must have been the water stop (that’s probably why I didn’t hear the 1.5 mile announcement – I had removed my headphones briefly at that point) and – although this was an out and back course – the second leg must take a different route.  Sure enough, when we got back down to the bottom of the hill, instead of going straight we veered left.  I would have noticed on the way up the hill if I had not been paying so much attention to the water stop and hill.

I had settled into a comfortable pace at this point.  I did a little mental math and calculated that I was near the 2.5 mile mark.  I was determined to run the rest of the route since I could have easily skipped the last walk stop.  I was now in a group of about eight runners and decided to keep pace with them.

The last leg had plenty of small rises and falls.  Much of it was spent on a paved trail.  After what must have been around the 2.75 mile point, the route became mostly uphill.  I was actually moved ahead of the group I was pacing with and was on my own between them and another small group ahead of me.  The last bit was a pretty steep uphill climb.  I turned the corner, saw the 3 mile sign as well as the crowd near the finish line and started sprinting.  Even running uphill, I blasted past the entire group of runners that were ahead of me before crossing the timing mats [Is this a dick move?].  I caught a glimpse of the clock and it read 28 something.  Holy crap.  I had set a PR. I went to hit stop on RunMeter…but it was already stopped.  Crap.  I must have hit the stop button when bringing the app to focus on my iPhone preparing for the final sprint. Nuts.  Oh well, I would just have to wait for the official timing to see what my official time was.

I grabbed a sport drink and a banana before locating my son.  The race was well stocked with after-race goodies.  There were apples, oranges, bananas along with water and zero calorie sport drinks.  There was also an assortment of breakfast bars.

We waited until the last 5K runners finished before the kids 1/2 mile run began.  The boys ran first.  My son did much better than he had anticipated.  Just like his old man, he finished in the middle of the pack, but was happy with the results.  He even received a sweet medal for his efforts.

We headed back home.  I knew that the rest of my day was shot as I was on call and Hurricane Irene was taking out a number of our east coast networks.

So what was my official time?  There was no official time!  Not for me.  For whatever reason, my results did not show up.  According to the results…I didn’t run at all. 

I was able to identify the last guy I passed and I finished just in front of him (I passed him about 5 feet from the mats).  He finished with a 28:35, so my time was most likely 28:34.  This is a PR by just over 30 seconds.    Not bad for a relatively hilly course on a run which I had no expectations other than to finish.  Too bad there’s no official record of it.  Not a blazing time by anyone’s standards, but it’s 4.5 minutes faster than my first 5K…which was only two months ago.  At this pace, I’ll be running sub-20 minute 5Ks by January. 

My legs were a bit dead yesterday after my 5 mile run on Thursday night.  When I woke up on Saturday, they seemed fine.  This would be my third Saturday in a row running a 5K.  Today’s run was in a small town only about 10 minutes away and the run started at 10 am, so I got to sleep in later than the past few Saturdays.  I did not, however, escape the humidity curse.  The last couple of Saturdays the humidity level had been over 87%.  Being a sweaty beast, I had hoped for a respite, but it stormed last night and well into this morning.  The humidity level was at 97% when I woke up and was at 86% at race time.  Other than the humidity, the weather was outstanding.  64 degrees with a slight breeze and the sun was buried behind the clouds.

I had run around this lake a number of times, so I was familiar with the course…except that the 5K was going to be run in reverse of the route I usually take.  Still, I knew that there were a couple of long inclines on the first half of the run.  The course we took was slightly different than the one I run and it (thankfully) meant missing one of the big hills.

I had preregistered for this run.  Check in was quick and painless.  I always get a bit worried with the old skool mailing of paper registration and check as opposed to registering through a website.  I like having instant verification that I can reference at any point.  The post office did not fail me and I was preregistered.

Around 9:50 I wandered to the starting area.  This was going to be a pretty small field.  I estimated that there were probably only 50 or so runners.  This is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing in that I would not be dodging runners at the start of the race, but a curse in that I would not be able to hide my crappy running.

Even though I positioned myself at the back of the pack, this was the first race where I could actually see the starting line at the beginning of the race.  At 10 am a pathetic sounding horn signaled the start of the race.

I started out at a good pace.  I was going to really try to finish this race under 30 minutes.  I was going to allow myself short walk breaks (a holdover strategy from my Galloway Marathon training).  My strategy was to try to get through the first half of the race with a 9:30 minute per mile average.  Since the first half was pretty much uphill, I figured that even if I could pull that pace off, I would have a decent shot at finishing under 30 minutes even with breaks as the last half would be somewhat downhill and I was familiar with the course.

It still takes me about half of a mile before I get into “running mode”.  My body fights me a bit at the start and my breathing is a bit fitful.  I worked on keeping my arms low and my strides and arm pumping short.  Even though I find this a bit counter-intuitive, it helped me keep a nice pace on my last few runs.

About a quarter mile in, the small field pretty much broke into even smaller clumps of runners.  I found a guy about my age and followed him.  I had no idea what pace I was at, but I didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard.  Near the beginning of the course, there was one of those electronic signs that flash your miles per hour in order to slow down speeding drivers.  I laughed as it flashed the speed for the runners as we passed.  According to the sign I was setting a blazing 8 miles per hour pace at that point.

Runmeter announced my half mile pace in the 8 minute per hour range.  I was a bit surprised.  Though this isn’t a blistering pace for most runners, it’s a pretty quick pace for me – especially at the start of the race.  I wasn’t feeling like I was going too fast, so I settled in and followed the pace of the guy ahead of me.  At the 1 mile split a race volunteer announced that we were running an 8:42 pace.  Wow.  I was well ahead of my goal of 9:30/mile and this was on the uphill portion of the race.  As usual, Runmeter announced my 1 mile split quite a bit later and a bit slower (8:57/mile).  Still, I was well ahead of schedule.

The uphill portion continued until about the 1.2 mile mark.  There was a brief downhill stretch, followed by another brief uphill stretch.  I was near the crest of that hill that I took my first walk break.  I had conflicting emotions about this decision.  I know that I could have kept running and I’ve completed at 1.55 miles with no stops on every 5K I’ve run so far.  I was testing to see if using quick walk breaks would benefit me on a 5K as it had on my long (okay, “long” is relative here) run on Thursday.  At the start of my break, Runmeter was showing that I was still at a 9:15/mile pace.  I kept my first break to about 15 seconds and resumed running.  I couldn’t tell if the break had aided me or not.  I did lose the guy I was pacing at that point and a couple of runners passed me.  I would stop a total of six times on this run.  Most of my walk breaks were less than 15 seconds.  I really hated taking them and I’m sure that I pissed off the couple of runners that would pass me during my breaks, only to have me pass them again later.  One thing that kept me hopeful was that there was a woman about 400 yards ahead of me who was taking breaks as well.  She seemed to be maintaining her position through the entire race.

Mile 2 is where I generally lose my mojo.  The last couple of 5K runs, this is where I’ve stopped.  For whatever reason, between the 2 mile mark and the 2.75 mile mark, I run out of juice.  I was about this point that the course changed from paved streets to a dirt street.  Eventually, it would change again into a gravel path for the last .75 miles.  Runmeter announced the bad news at the 2.5 mile mark: my pace for the entire run was now at 9:48.  Granted, Runmeter paces seem to be about 10 seconds or so off of the “official” pace, but that still meant that I needed to make up 8 to 18 seconds per mile over the last .6 miles.  My walk break strategy seemed to have failed and I was doomed to coming in after the half hour mark yet again.

Oh well, I was feeling pretty good so I picked up the pace.  I had been pacing a woman since the halfway point who ran the entire race.  I would actually take my walk breaks when I caught up with her, so I never actually passed her.  After my last walk break, I started off a bit quicker, but not at a full gallop as I knew that I didn’t have it in me to push it too much over a half mile.  I caught up to my pacer and passed her.  I picked up the pace a bit and caught up to the next runner.  As I passed her, a race volunteer announced “300 more yards.  Less than a minute left.”  I had no idea how far 300 yards was in miles (turns out to be about .17 miles) but I decided that I could sprint 3 football fields in order to finish this damn run.  I took off and even kicked it up one more gear once I could actually see the finish line.  I finished only about 5 feet behind the woman who had also been taking walk breaks who had also maintained a healthy lead over me throughout the entire race.

I hit stop on Runmeter and gasped for breath after slowing down in the chute.  I ripped off my race tag and handed it to the race volunteer at the end of the chute.  There was no digital clock (and the race was not chip timed) at the finish line.  I looked at my iPhone with dread because I was sure that I had missed the 30 minute mark again.  To my shock, not only had I broken the 30 minute mark for the first time, I was within 6 seconds of breaking 29 minutes.  My final (unofficial) time was 29:06.  While this is a time that most runners would spit on, it represented a new PR for this slow bastard.

Needless to say, I was very happy with my time.  I still need to work on my stamina.  I’m hoping that increasing my long, easy runs will eventually make 3.1 miles seem like a short stroll, but for now the 2 mile monster is still kicking my ass.  This may well simply be a mental barrier.  I’ve been trying to determine which part of my body is making me want to stop and I can’t narrow it down.  My breathing is not labored, my legs don’t hurt, and I’m not exhausted physically.  The humidity might be a factor, but at this point I’m chalking it up to a lack of will on my part.