Today was the first day of the
Running Ragged 20in20 Series. Our venue
for this race was Bend in the River Regional Park, which is just south of Rice,
MN. It’s a 14-mile drive from my hotel
in St. Cloud. This was one of the venues
used for last year’s Minnesota Brother Trail Series, so I was already familiar
with the course. In particular, I knew
it was fairly flat, and there wasn’t anything I was likely to trip on.
As you might guess, this park
is located at a bend in the Mississippi River.
Our course took us near three scenic overlooks.
We also ran past the buildings
of an old farm.
All of the races in this series
are multiple laps. Today’s course was an
out-and-back route that we ran 14 times.
There was one aid station in the start/finish area. In past years, the aid stations in these
races were similar to the aid stations in large ultramarathons. Besides water and Gatorade, they had a
variety of snack food. They also had hot
entrees, cooked on site by the volunteers.
For this series, the aid station was scaled down, because of
COVID-19. Water and Gatorade were
provided, but we were each responsible for refilling our own bottles. All food was pre-packaged.
There were about two dozen runners
in the marathon. There was also a
half-marathon, but that didn’t start until an hour later, so the start area
wasn’t too crowded. We all wore face
coverings until we started running.
After that, they were optional, but we also needed to cover our faces if
we stopped at the aid station.
The temperature at the start
was in the mid-50s. Normally, I would
consider that ideal weather for racing, but I was planning to do a mixture of
running and walking. When I’m going that
slow, I like it to be a little bit warmer.
I dressed like I normally would, but added a Tyvek jacket as an extra
layer that I could easily take off as it warmed up.
It rained during the night, but
the rain stopped before the race started.
There was a chance of more showers during the race, so I kept a rain
poncho in the car. One of the nice
things about a multi-loop course is that I would be near my car every time I
completed a lap.
Because the course was damp, I
didn’t think it was necessary to wear gaiters.
There wasn’t going to be as much loose dirt or dust. I didn’t want to wear them if it might
rain. Then the gaiters would just be one
more thing that could soak up water and get heavy.
Last weekend, I ran a marathon
wearing a knee brace. It supported my
knee well, but it was so snug that it felt somewhat binding on the back of my
knee. After wearing it for less than
five hours, it caused soreness in one of the tendons on the back of my
knee. After that race, I realized wearing
it every day for five or six hours wasn’t going to work.
Since then, I bought two different
knee straps. They don’t support the
entire knee, but they’re less likely to cause discomfort in other areas if I
wear them for several hours. I tried out
one of them on a few long walks, but I haven’t run since last Saturday, so I
haven’t had any opportunity to see how much the knee straps help. Ideally, I’d want to try them out before the
race, but rest was more important.
I had no idea how my knee would
feel today, or how much any of these knee supports would help. My knee actually felt better this morning
than it has at any time in the past two weeks.
I started the race without anything on my knee, so I could see how it
felt.
When the race started, I tried
to start my watch, but it didn’t start.
I pressed the button a few more times, and it still didn’t start. Then I realized I was pressing the wrong
button. That’s what happens when you
switch between two different styles of watch.
Once I got the watch started, I finally started running.
I ran tentatively at
first. I think I was afraid to find out
how my knee would feel. To my surprise,
it didn’t hurt at all. I could feel a difference
between my right and left knees. The
right knee didn’t feel perfect, but even without a brace, it didn’t hurt. I would have to monitor it, but as long as it
didn’t hurt, I didn’t see any need to stop and put on a knee brace.
Our course was a trail course,
but it was completely non-technical. It
was all gravel with nice level footing and no hills.
During my first lap, I was
stopping to take pictures. The frequent
stops put me in the right mindset to start at an easy pace.
By the end of my first lap, I
was warm enough that I could take off my jacket. As I began my second lap, I started talking
walking breaks. I walked for a minute or
two at the start of each lap. At the
midpoint of each lap, we made a U-turn around a cone. I always slowed to a walk as I went around
the cone. Starting with my second lap, I
continued walking for another minute or two after making the turn.
When I finished my second lap.
I stopped briefly at my car to put my camera away. I was done taking pictures and didn’t want to
carry the extra weight for the whole race.
Since I was stopping anyway, I also made a bathroom stop.
Before leaving the aid station,
I grabbed a fun-size Snickers bar to eat during my walking break. I usually just drink Gatorade during races,
but between the relatively late start time and my slow pace, I was going to be
running through lunch every day. If it
was just one race, I could get by with just Gatorade. Since I need to run again tomorrow, I felt it
was important to start replacing calories as I ran. After that, I never left the aid station
without eating a cookie or a candy bar.
During my 4th lap, I felt a
grain of sand hop into the back of my shoe, where it lodged behind my heel. It eventually worked its way under my foot,
but I began to regret not wearing gaiters.
During my 6th lap, I felt a few
tiny drops. It was beginning to drizzle,
but at first it was more of a mist. I
decided to wait until my next walking break and then put on my jacket. By the time I finished my lap, the drizzle
had stopped. It was never more than a
few tiny drops here and there.
At the halfway mark, I was on
pace to finish in 5:01. Ordinarily, I
would’ve sped up a little in the second half, to break five hours. Instead, I planned to slow down. I was just waiting for it to warm up a little. So far, my walking breaks had been limited by
how long I could walk without getting cold.
Once it got warmer, I could start taking longer walking breaks.
I took inventory of how I was feeling. My knee didn’t feel any different than it did
at the start of the race. It didn’t quite
feel normal, but it didn’t hurt. My left
Achilles tendon felt tight, and I was noticing it more with each lap. I had noticed that during my last two races
as well. I began to worry that my
Achilles tendon could turn into as big a problem as my knee.
In my 8th lap, I finally felt
warmer. I started taking longer walking
breaks. I was walking twice as far
now. As my walking breaks got longer, I started
walking faster. Instead of just walking
casually, I began to power walk. Even
though I was doing more walking, I’m not sure if my average pace got any
slower.
When I finished that lap, I
made another bathroom stop. I wasn’t
drinking that much Gatorade, but evidently, it was more than enough. It was a cool day, and I was taking walking
breaks. I probably wasn’t sweating as
much as I normally do.
During my 11th lap, it got
sunny. That was a big surprise. Just 30 minutes earlier, I was noticing dark
clouds overhead. Now I looked up to see
blue skies and only a few puffy white clouds.
It was now warm enough that I
could extend my walking breaks even more.
Once again, as I walked farther, I also walked faster.
As I was nearing the end of my
12th lap, a runner who was starting his next lap told me I was about to catch
him. That made me think. There were two runners who were much faster
than anyone else. They were both
finished already. Up to this point, I
had assumed I was in third place. Now I
realized I had been overlooking this runner.
I always saw him when we were going in opposite directions. We seemed to be running at about the same
pace. He probably got way ahead of me in
the first lap, when I was stopping to take pictures. Since then, I had been whittling away at his
lead, and now I was getting close.
With two laps to go, I decided
to speed up enough to catch him. I still
took walking breaks, but I went back to only walking for a minute or two. I also picked up my running pace. I wasn’t going all out, but for the first
time in the race, I was putting some effort into running faster. I caught him before the end of my 13th lap.
Now that I really was in 3rd
place, I could do more walking again.
With the luxury of a lead, I took my longest walking break of the race
at the beginning of my last lap. I went
back to running at a more casual pace.
As I reached the turnaround, I
glanced at my watch. It was the first
time I looked at it since the halfway mark.
I realized I had a chance to break five hours. All I had to do was skip my last walking
break. I slowed to a walk as I went
around the cone, but then I resumed running.
As I got closer to the finish,
I could see the large digital clock.
Realizing my time would be between 4:59 and 5:00, I sped up. I finished in 4:59:09. The first two runners had finished more than
an hour and a half earlier, but I finished in a distant third place.
I once again took inventory of
how I felt. My right knee still didn’t
feel any different than it did at the start of the race. My left Achilles tendon didn’t bother me now
that I was no longer running, but I noticed it more today than I did in my last
two races. It was a concern.
At packet pickup, I received a
base plate that has room for 20 small medals.
The medals for the individual races are held in place by magnets. Originally, each medal was going to have a
design reflecting the state where that race was run. Now that the entire series was being held in
Minnesota, they had to come up with a new design for the medals. The easiest thing to do was to have them
numbered 1 through 20. The bird above
the number represents a loon, which is the Minnesota state bird. It’s also the logo of Mainly Marathons,
because anyone who would do a series like this has to be loony.
In a series like this, your
days are divided into two parts. The
first part is the race. The second part
is refueling and recovery. I was eating
food during the race, so I had a head start on the refueling. I didn’t need a full meal until dinner. When I got back to the hotel, I had two
glasses of chocolate milk and a roll.
I began my recovery by putting
an ice pack on my right knee for 20 minutes.
My knee didn’t bother me during the race, but that could change
overnight.
After icing, I took a hot
bath. Besides washing off the salt and
sweat, I wanting to loosen up my muscles. Then I did several stretches and worked on my
legs with a massage stick.
By now, I was noticing
discomfort in my knee. It felt worse now
than at any time during the race. I iced
it again. Then I did more
stretching. I’m not done with either. It’s an iterative process, which will
continue until I go to bed.
I’ll finish my refueling by
having pizza for dinner. My dinners will
double as both post-race refueling and pre-race dinners. As it happens, pizza is both my favorite
pre-race meal and my favorite post-race meal.
By the time this series is over, I may try every pizzeria in the St.
Cloud area.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:59:09
Average Pace: 11:25
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
406
Minnesota Marathons: 59
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