On July 26, I ran the
Xenia Avenue Marathon in Brooklyn Park, MN.
I’ve run this race every year since its inception in 2020. It’s the only race that I’ve never missed.
I drove to Brooklyn Park
on Friday to pick up my race packet. I
could’ve waited until Saturday morning, but picking it up on Friday gave me the
opportunity to stop at Rocky Rococo for my pre-race pizza. Rocky Rococo is a Wisconsin-based chain with
pan-style pizza by the slice. The
Brooklyn Park restaurant is the only location in Minnesota, and I don’t get
there very often.
The race started Saturday
morning at 6:30 at Orchard Trail Park.
Parking was available across the street at Champlin Park High School. This race is a fundraiser for the Champlin
Park track team, and most of the race volunteers are students.
The race consisted of a
2.2 mile loop, followed by five laps of a 4.8 mile loop. The first loop started out on paved bike
trails, but included about one mile on city streets. It was this section that included two blocks
along Xenia Avenue.
The longer loop was
entirely on paved bike trails. About
half of it was out-and-back along the Rush Creek Regional Trail. We had two-way traffic on this trail, and we
were sharing it with bikes. I’ve learned
to keep right, rather than trying to run the tangents.
We went through a tunnel
under Douglas Drive. Then we continued
through Oak Grove Park.
There was an aid station
set up at a junction inside the park. We
went by this aid station three times per lap.
There was also an aid station near the finish line.
After passing this aid
station the first time, we did a short out-and-back. When we got back to the aid station, we ran a
loop that took us through the park and around a meadow.
It was a typical summer
day, with temperatures in the 70s and 80s.
It was too hot to race for a fast time, so my plan was to treat this
race just like the Summer Camp races. My
only goal was to finish within five hours.
I saw a lot of other
runners I knew. About a dozen of them
had done one or more of the Summer Camp races.
I started the race with my friend Karen.
Her plan was to run for the first half of the race and then switch to a
run/walk strategy.
After my last race, my
left Achilles tendon felt really tight.
I’ve had two rest days since then, and I’ve been icing and stretching,
but I didn’t know how it would feel today.
In the early laps, I sometimes
noticed it when I stopped to drink at an aid station or when I resumed
running. Other times, I noticed that the
top of my left calf felt tight or sore.
I barely noticed it, but it was a concern.
I let Karen set the pace. We were going at a pace that was a little
faster than I probably would have started on my own. I noticed the high humidity, but it wasn’t
forcing me to slow down.
Occasionally, Karen would
notice that her heart rate was getting too high. Then we would ease up a little on the
pace. Whenever she mentioned it, I would
look at my watch to see what my heart rate was.
It was always 120 or 121. The
conditions were bothering her much more than they bothered me.
We ran the short lap together, plus the first two long laps. Early in our third long lap, we reached the halfway mark. I was surprised to see that we were on pace for 4:30. Our average pace was about 10:15 per mile. All through the summer camp series, I was averaging 11 minutes per mile or slower. Apparently two rest days made a huge difference.
For the second half of
the race, Karen switched to one minute of walking for every three minutes of
running. I kept running and went ahead
on my own.
The miles always pass
easier when you’re running with someone else and having a conversation. I expected it to feel more tiring when I was
running on my own. I fully expected to
slow down to something closer to 11 minutes per mile.
As I continued through
that lap, I noticed that all my mile splits were under 10 minutes. On my own, I was speeding up. I started to wonder if I could keep that
up. I tentatively set a goal of running
negative splits.
After that lap, I had to make
a bathroom stop. The next time I got a
split from my watch, it was under 10 minutes, even with the bathroom stop. I had just under two laps to go, and I was
now fully invested in keeping my pace under 10 minutes. For the rest of that lap, my pace was in the
9:20s and 9:30s.
I paid attention to how
my Achilles tendon felt each time I stopped at an aid station or turned a sharp
corner. I still noticed it a little, but
not as much as I did in the first half of the race. I no longer noticed any tightness in my calf
muscle.
I also sometimes checked
my heart rate. Each time I looked, it was 131. That’s higher than it was during the first
half of the race, but I was nowhere close to my limit.
There were volunteers at
all the important turns. At some of
them, they were writing down the bib numbers of each runner who passed. As I reached the end of the out-and-back
section, the volunteer there said, “I’ll only see you one more time.”
As I was going around the
meadow, a volunteer at one of the turns said, “You’re almost there.” I definitely wasn’t almost there. I wasn’t even in my last lap yet. I still had at least seven miles to go.
When I started my last
lap, I was determined to keep up the same pace.
I’ve run this loop enough times that I know every inch of it. I broke it into segments, and I focused on
keeping up a good pace on the next segment.
The first segment was getting around Orchard Trail Park and out to the
Rush Creek Trail. When I saw my split
for mile 22, it was 9:18. That was my
fastest mile so far.
The next segment was getting
to the tunnel. As I ran through the
tunnel, I saw Daniel going the other way.
Daniel is one of the race directors of the Mainly Marathons races. I’ve seen him at a lot of marathons, but I
rarely see him running one. Of all the
people doing this race who were also at the Summer Camp Series, he was the
fastest. He was only about a mile from
finishing his last lap.
Shortly after exiting the
tunnel, I saw Karen. She was about two
miles behind me now. She was a full lap
behind Daniel.
When I got my split for
mile 23, it was a few seconds faster than the previous mile. I was accelerating.
I reached the turnaround
of the out-and-back section for the last time.
The volunteer said, “This is the last time you have to see me.” I was thinking more about seeing each part of
the course for the last time. Now I was
on my way back, but I still had to go through Oak Grove Park and around the
meadow.
I drank at the secondary aid
station every time I went by. That
included before and after that short out-and-back section. I wondered if stopping to drink twice in the
same mile would slow me down. I was almost
to the meadow when I got my split for mile 24.
It was 9:27, despite stopping twice at the aid station.
My watch had been reading
high. It said I was at 24 miles, but I
knew I had at least two and a half miles to go.
I was coming back through
the park when I got my split for mile 25.
I sped up to 9:08 in that mile.
As I got back to the Rush
Creek Trail, I drank at the aid station for the last time. The Gatorade was ice cold. They must have just poured it form a bottle
that was on ice. As I resumed running, I
increased my cadence. Now, I was on the
home stretch. At most, I had a mile and
a half to go.
I made it back to the
tunnel. Just after the tunnel, I saw Karen,
who was now on her last lap. I told her
I was going to run negative splits by a wide margin. At this point, I was pretty sure I was also
bringing my average pace down under 10 minutes.
The Rush Creek Trail is
serpentine. I wanted to run the
tangents, but I was careful never to cross the center line. I still had to make a bend to the left and a
bend to the right before I could see the spot where I would leave this
trail. I was just getting to the first
bend when my watch gave me a split for mile 26.
It was 8:48.
I still had more than
half a mile to go. After two more bends,
I could see the last important turn. Now
I was on my way back to Orchard Trail Park.
There wasn’t much
wind. Earlier in the race, I sometimes
felt a breeze, and it briefly cooled me off.
As I was running toward Orchard Trail Park, I felt a breeze, but it wasn’t
cool. It was hot. The pavement here had been in the sun all
morning, and it was heating up. The
breeze was lifting heat from the pavement.
I felt hotter than at any
time during the race, but I could see the finish line now. I ran hard to the line, finishing in
4:18:49. I ran negative splits by 11
minutes.
I immediately wanted something
to drink. I started to double back, so I
could get something to drink from the aid station. Then it occurred to me that there was probably
a volunteer trying to hand me my finisher medal. I turned around, and he crossed the path to
give me my medal. He also gave me a
bottle of water.
Now that I had my water,
I headed for the port-o-potty. Suddenly,
I desperately needed to pee. That’s probably
a good sign that I was drinking enough to stay hydrated.
The port-o-potty had been
in the sun all morning, so it felt like I was in an oven. I finished as quickly as I could and walked
back to my car.
In the past, I’ve always
made a lunch stop after the race. Today,
I just wanted to get home as quickly as I could.
It was only 70 degrees
when I started the race, but now it was 85.
With the sun and humidity, it felt like 100. How I was able to run faster in the second
half is a mystery to me.
When I got home, I noticed
how tight my Achilles tendon was. It’s
at least as tight as it was after the last Summer Camp race. I’m going to need to work on that.
My next marathon isn’t for three weeks, but I have two race-walking events next week. I’m not sure how those are going to go. The Achilles tendon might be an issue. Also, I’ve run so many marathons recently, that I’ve been completely neglecting my race-walk training. Wish me luck.
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