Today was day four of the Summer Camp Series. I don’t usually do the whole Summer Camp series, but I’ve done the fourth race of the series every year.
Today we were back on
smooth pavement. Our race venue was at River
Bluffs Regional Park, which is in St. Cloud.
We were just a couple miles south from Beaver Islands, where we ran on
Day one. This trail was an extension of
the Beaver Island trail.
The aid station was set
up in the parking lot, so there wasn’t enough room for more than a few cars to
park there. There were volunteers to
direct us to the closest street parking.
I knew how limited the parking was, so I arrived an hours early to get a
close parking spot.
The weather was a little
cooler this morning, and we didn’t have any rain. It was 60 degrees at the start, and it only
got into the low 70s by the time I finished.
That’s about the best you can hope for in the summer.
Our course was an
out-and-back that was a little less than a mile each way. To complete a marathon, we needed to run 14
laps.
The start/finish area was
on higher ground than most of the course.
Early in each lap, we ran down a hill. Coming back, we had to run up that same
hill. I always enjoyed running it in the
downhill direction, but coming back up was tiring.
In my first lap, I was
taking pictures, but I was having a problem with my camera. That caused me to lose some time, so I fell
way behind the other runners. After
that, I was by myself. I was well behind
the people who were doing continuous running, but I was well ahead of the
people who were walking or doing a run/walk mix. The worst part is that only three of my
pictures turned out.
In my second lap, I ran
the whole way, but then I had to make a bathroom stop. It wasn’t until my third lap that I had any
hope of gradually catching up to some of the other runners who were ahead of
me.
As I was nearing the end
of my fifth lap, I saw Tim just starting his sixth lap. I was hopeful I could catch up to him, but I
had to pause at the aid station long enough to refill my bottle. That caused me to fall farther behind.
During the next lap, I
did catch up to Tim, but only because he was walking, so he could talk to
another runner. Tim usually starts fast,
but he eventually starts taking walking breaks.
Now that he was walking, I missed my chance to run with him for a lap.
At least four of the
faster runners were doing the half marathon, and they ran the whole way. I never caught up to any of them. That left two faster runners who were doing
the marathon. I passed one when he
started taking walking breaks. The other
was Mike, who kept getting farther and farther ahead. There was nobody else still running who was
going my pace, so I had to run the whole race by myself.
Through my first seven
laps, I was averaging just under 20 minutes per lap. That put me on pace to finish in 4:40. My only goal at the start of the day was to
break five hours, so I had room to slow down in the second half.
Running up the hill was tiring,
but I forced myself to do it for the first half of the race. Starting with my eighth lap, I gave myself
permission to walk up the hill.
Walking the hill was a
game-changer. Before, the hill was the
most tiring part of the lap. Now it was
my rest break. I actually looked forward
to the hill. Getting a rest on the hill
made it easier to run the rest of the lap.
There was another
advantage to walking the hill. It kept
me from getting too hot. Most of the
course was out in the open, but there was a row of trees next to the trail. In the morning hours, those trees provided
shade. The hill was in the middle of a
meadow, where there was no shade. Running
up the hill under the late morning sun would’ve caused me to overheat.
I expected my laps to be
slower after I started walking the hill, but they weren’t. I was still finishing laps in less than 20
minutes. I wasn’t sure how long that
would last. I kept up that pace for four
more laps, but I expected to slow down at some point.
During my 12th lap, I ran
a mile in 9:39. Before that, I was never
faster than 10 minutes. That was in a
mile that was net downhill, but it made me realize I could run negative splits. I wasn’t as fast in the next uphill mile, but
in my next downhill mile, I sped up to 9:35.
At this point I had just
over two miles to go. Even if I slacked
off a bit, I would still run negative splits.
As I started my last lap,
I saw Mike already finishing his last lap.
I didn’t push quite as hard in that lap, but I still ran negative splits
by more than three minutes. I finished
in 4:33:21. It was my fastest race of
the series by six minutes. I hope I won’t
regret that tomorrow.
Today I got a walleye
medal, to go with the lady slipper, monarch, and morel mushrooms. Tomorrow, I’ll get the last two pieces to
complete the chain.
Today’s hot food at the
aid station was tacos. Before leaving
the finish area I finished my Gatorade, ate a taco, and drank a glass of
chocolate milk.
I’m worried that I
overdid it today, and I’ll either be sore or tired tomorrow. I can’t do much now to prevent fatigue, but I
can do something about soreness. As soon
as I got back to the hotel, I put ice packs on both legs to minimize soreness
in my quads. While I was at it, I also
iced my left heel. It didn’t bother me
today, but it’s still an area of concern.
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