If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

For most of 2021, chronic inflammation in my right knee prevented me from running.  While I was recovering, I pivoted to race-walking.  I walked several marathons, and also posted fast times in 5K and 10K races.

By November, my knee had recovered enough that I could finally run marathons again.  Then I started having lower back problems.  During the winter months, I cut back significantly on my training, but I still managed to run a few marathons.

I was experiencing intermittent soreness on the right side of my lower back.  Sometimes I had pain just to the right of my tailbone.  Other times, I had pain near my right hip.  After running the Surf City Marathon in February, I started to notice some minor pain or tingling along the outer edge of my right thigh.  These symptoms are consistent with pressure on the sciatic nerve.

My doctor diagnosed a muscle strain in my lower back, but he also ordered an MRI.  The MRI showed a few minor issues in the lumbar region of my spine, but it seemed more likely it was the strained muscle that was causing the tension on my sciatic nerve.  In retrospect, they were probably both contributing factors.

I started physical therapy in February, and my back improved significantly over the next few months.  By the end of March, I was back to running marathons, and I was also able to resume race-walking.

It’s easy to take for granted how good it feels to be able to run.  Most runners take that for granted until they have an injury.  It’s been two years since I was last able to go for a run without worrying, “is this too much for my knee?” or “is this too much for my back?”  I was just getting to that point around the beginning of the summer.  My right knee was no longer an issue, and my lower back was also improving significantly.  Then I started having hamstring issues.

I first noticed my left hamstring felt tight as I was starting to run a marathon on a chilly morning in May.  I ran that race and my next two races at a cautious pace to make sure it wouldn’t get worse.  It was never a big issue during the FANS 24-hour race in early June.  It didn’t flare up until about two weeks later.

While training for FANS, I was deliberately training at a slow pace.  As I recovered from the race, I also trained at a slow pace.  It wasn’t until I started to pick up the pace of my training runs, that I felt soreness in my proximal hamstring tendon.  That forced me to go back to running at a cautious pace.  I held off on race-walking.

I was able to get through several marathons in July be keeping my pace slow enough that it didn’t aggravate my hamstring tendon.  Then I tried race-walking.  I wanted to know if I could still walk competitively at the Minnesota Senior Games.  I didn’t realize it until the next time I ran, but race-walking at a fast pace seriously aggravated this injury.  Since then, I’ve limited my running to every four or five days, and I’ve held off on race-walking.  Most days, I get exercise by going for frequent long walks at a casual pace.

A week ago, I traveled to South Dakota to run the Sioux Falls Marathon.  That went better than I expected.  By taking short rapid steps, I was able to finish the race with only minimal discomfort in my hamstring tendon.  The next day, everything changed.

My hamstring tendon bothers me most when I sit in a car for a long time.  It’s OK on short drives, but it was painful driving home from Mankato after the Minnesota Senior Games.  On the way to Sioux Falls, I was able to manage my discomfort by sitting with my weight shifted to my right side.  On the drive home, I expected to have much more discomfort.

For the drive home from Sioux Falls, I took a neck pillow and positioned it so I wasn’t putting any pressure on the sore spot near my left hip.  Instead, I had extra pressure on my right side.  That worked fine at first, but after about an hour, my right leg felt uncomfortable.

After stopping at a rest area, I removed the pillow.  I continued driving, but my right leg still felt uncomfortable.  When I stopped for lunch, my right hamstring felt tight as I got out of the car.  My first few steps were awkward, but I gradually loosened enough up that I could walk.

After getting home, I continued to have discomfort along a narrow line on out outer edge of my right hamstring.  Over the next few days, the perception of a tight muscle was replaced with pain or a mild burning sensation.  The location of the pain was consistent with sciatica, which is pain caused by a pinched sciatic nerve.

I’ve been doing physical therapy since February.  Most of my exercises are for strengthening my core muscles or correcting minor issues with my posture.  A few others are for my hamstring and the muscles around my knees.  During the week, a few of these exercises caused an uptick in the pain in my right leg.

On Friday, I went for a short run.  As usual, I had a little mild soreness from my left hamstring tendon.  My right leg didn’t cause me any difficulty.

When I did my exercises on Saturday, more than half of them were causing pain.  In retrospect, I should’ve stopped doing those exercises until my next physical therapy appointment.

Saturday afternoon, I helped Deb get ready to do a load of laundry.  I lifted a hamper full of dirty clothes and tried to carry it.  As soon as I took a step forward, I noticed severe pain on the back of my right leg.  The muscles in my lower back were like a powder keg, and the motion of walking while carrying something heavy was the spark that set it off.  After that, I had severe pain in my right leg any time I tried to stand up straight or walk.

Before Saturday, my right leg was most likely to feel tight or painful when I got up after sitting for too long.  It felt best after walking around for a while.  Since Saturday, it’s been painful any time I try to walk.  I’m pretty much only comfortable when I sit.

On Sunday, I went to the urgent care center of the orthopedic center where I’ve been doing PT.  Walking from my car to the building and through the hallway was more difficult than I anticipated.  The only way I could walk for that distance was to bend forward at the waist.  I probably looked like Quasimodo.

Before he examined me, the doctor had already reviewed my medical history.  He noticed that the lumbar MRI I had in February showed a synovial cyst between my L5 and S1 vertebrae.  At the time, it wasn’t putting pressure on my nerve root, but he ordered a new MRI to see if anything had changed.  In the meantime, he wrote two prescriptions and sent me to physical therapy.  I was able to see a therapist immediately.

After my intake assessment, the therapist told me my lower back was as tight as a drum.  He gave me a few gentle stretches, but told me to hold off on doing any exercises to strengthen these muscles.

A few hours later, I had my MRI.  It showed a change since February.  The synovial cyst at L5/S1 had grown in size, and it was now putting pressure on my S1 nerve root.  With this new finding, he recommended an epidural steroid injection targeted at the site of the cyst.  The spine center that does these injections isn’t open today, because it’s a holiday.  The earliest I can call to schedule an appointment is tomorrow.

It’s hard to say exactly why or when the cyst grew to its current size, or when it started to impinge on my nerve.  My best guess is that sitting in an awkward position driving to and from Sioux Falls caused a shift in its orientation.  That’s what caused the pain I’ve felt for the past week.  Then muscle spasms in my lower back made it worse.  I don’t actually know for sure how much of my pain is caused by pressure from the cyst and how much is caused by pressure from inflamed lower back muscles.

The timing of this injury couldn’t be much worse.  I was planning to travel to Estonia on Wednesday and run the Tallinn Marathon on Sunday.  I was planning to do all my sightseeing on foot, which would mean walking five or more miles each day, not counting the marathon.

Yesterday, I not only couldn’t imagine running a marathon, but I also couldn’t imagine doing all that walking.  Even walking through an airport with luggage seemed impossible.  At this point, I’m not sure if I’m going.

One of my prescriptions was for a muscle relaxant.  I started taking it last night, and I’ve already noticed improvement.  It was easier getting into a comfortable position to sleep last night, and I’m walking a little bit better today.  I’m still bending forward a little when I walk, but I can now stand upright briefly.

This is a trip that I was originally planning to take two years ago.  That year, the marathon was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  This year, the race is happening, and international travel is getting much easier.  If I go, this will be my first international trip in two and a half years.

Although I’m starting to improve, I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to go.  I need to improve enough that I can be confident that walking through airports and around Tallinn won’t be a problem.  I’d also like to feel like I would have a realistic chance of finishing a marathon.  I’m not there yet.

I doubt if I can get the injection scheduled before the trip.  They’re unlikely to have an opening tomorrow.  Even if they did, they wouldn’t want me traveling the next day.  If I make the trip, I’ll have to schedule the injection for after I get back.

Cancelling this trip would be a big disappointment after waiting so long.  It’s also unlike that I can recover the money I’ve spent.  I booked my flight using an unused ticket from two years ago.  If I remember right, that ticket expires at the end of this year.  It’s also too late to cancel my hotel without paying for at least one night.

I’ll wait at least one more day before making a final decision about whether to go on the trip.  Yesterday it seemed impossible.  Today, it merely seems unlikely.  Wish me luck on a speedy recovery.

Race Report: 2022 Sioux Falls Marathon

On August 28, I ran the Sioux Falls Marathon.  I signed up for this race after I found out Steven Yee was running it.  Steven Yee was one of the founders of Marathon Maniacs.  He’s run hundreds of marathons, but he hasn’t run marathons in every state yet.  This year, he decided to run marathons in the last three states he was missing:  North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.

I haven’t seen Steven at a race in years, so I wanted to join him for at least one race this year.  I couldn’t join him in Fargo last May, and I won’t be able to join him for his 50 states finish in Detroit, but I was able to fit the Sioux Falls Marathon into my schedule.

I drove to Sioux Falls Saturday morning.  Including stops, the drive time was four hours.  I encountered quite a bit of rain during the drive, but the rain stopped by the time I got to Sioux Falls.

I got to Sioux Falls around lunch time.  It was too early to check into my hotel, so I stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was close to the freeway.  After lunch, I drove to the Sanford Pentagon, where the expo was held.

I didn’t realize it when I signed up, but this race was also a quarterly reunion for the 50 States Marathon Club.  After picking up my race packet, I checked in at their booth.

After the expo, I drove to my hotel, which was across the river from downtown Sioux Falls.  They didn’t have a room ready when I arrived, but I didn’t have to wait too long.

In the afternoon, I attended the reunion meeting for the 50 States Marathon Club.  They started out by recognizing everyone who has recently finished running marathons in every state.  Later, everyone in attendance got to say a little about themselves.

Later, I had dinner with a group of Marathon Maniacs.  I wasn’t the only one who came to this race largely because Steven Yee was here.

The marathon started at 6:30 on a street alongside Howard Wood Field, where the race would eventually finish.  It’s basically a single loop, which is my favorite type of course.  I like starting and finishing in the same place.

Getting to the race was a bit of an adventure.  I kept encountering streets that were blocked for the race.  I’ve done enough marathons that I should’ve considered that possibility.  It was a bit frustrating, but I still got to Howard Wood Field with plenty of time to spare.

This was my first marathon in five weeks.  During that time, I did very little running.  Every four or five days, I do a few miles.  On the other days, I walk for exercise, but only at a casual pace.  I’m trying to do just enough running to keep from getting too out of shape, while resting enough to heal from a high hamstring injury.  I fully expected to struggle today.

I’ve found that it’s easier on my leg if I take really short strides.  That’s easier said than done.  It’s not a stride that feels natural.  The only way I can keep from slipping into a more natural stride is to maintain a fast cadence.  If my cadence is fast enough, it forces me to take small steps.  I’ve been doing that in short training runs, and I did it in a 10K race a couple weeks ago.  I didn’t know if I could maintain a fast cadence for a marathon.  When you’re not used to it, it gets tiring after just a few miles.

I wanted to run with Steven Yee, but I didn’t know what pace he was going to run.  Before the race, he said he was going to try to keep up with Patti, and Patti was planning to run with the 4:30 pace group.  I had doubts about whether I could sustain that pace, but I decided to give it a try.  Two other friends, Pascal and Dan, also started at that pace.

This was a relatively small race.  There were about 400 runners in the marathon.  Of those, 77 were members of the 50 States Marathon Club.  In a race of this size, it doesn’t take long to get into your desired pace.

As we started running, I felt a little bit of soreness in my injured hamstring tendon.  I forced myself into the same short stride and rapid cadence that I’ve been doing in my training runs.  Then I felt more comfortable.

I stayed close to Steven and Patti, and they stayed close to the leader of the pace group.  As we settled into our pace, I quickly got comfortable with it.  It seemed like the pace would be sustainable, and I found a stride that was reasonably comfortable.

I currently have a few dietary restrictions.  Among other things, I’m not supposed to drink any red or purple beverages.  When we reached an aid station, I was disappointed to see that the Powerade was blue.  That’s close enough to purple, that I figured I should avoid it.  I usually count on getting all my calories from sports drinks.  I drank water and crossed my fingers that they would have other flavors of Powerade at some of the other aid stations.

After a couple miles, we started running in front of the 4:30 group.  I was fine with that, as long as we didn’t get too far ahead of them.  In the third mile, we started running downhill.  As we approached the downtown area, we were descending into the river valley.  We started running a little faster, but we weren’t putting any extra effort into it.  I kept my feet moving fast.  In the early miles, my cadence was about 200 strides per minute.

As we continued running downhill, I started talking to Dan.  I realized I was getting ahead of Steven and Patti, but we were having an interesting conversation.  After five miles, we reached Falls Park.  I decided to stop and take pictures of the falls and give Steven and Patti a chance to catch up to me.

I underestimated how quickly Steven and Patti would catch up.  They went by me while I was taking pictures.  We went up a small hill after crossing the river, and I had to work hard to catch up to them.

After that one small hill, we came back down to the river level.  For the next few miles, we ran alongside the Big Sioux River.  I didn't realize it at the time, but we ran right past my hotel.

I’ve run this race before, but it was several years ago.  I think the course is different now.  I remember running by the river, but I remember it being much later in the race.  I also don’t remember the course having so many miles along greenways.  There were a few residential neighborhoods, but we were mostly running next to the river.

After about six miles, two volunteers on bicycles told us to make room for the half marathon runners on the left.  Their race started 30 minutes after ours.  We saw the leader of the half marathon run by.  It was a long time before we saw the next runner in that race.  I only remember seeing two half marathon runners.  Then our course diverged from theirs.

The aid stations all seemed to have the same blue Powerade, so I kept drinking water.  Finally, in the eighth mile, we reached an aid station with Gu.  I wanted to have a Gu packet, but the flavor I saw was some type of berry.  I didn’t know if it would have red or purple food coloring, so I just drank water.

After about nine miles, I left the river and ran a few miles through residential neighborhoods.  As we moved away from the river, there was some uphill running.  I was still able to keep up with my friends, but it didn’t seem as easy now.

Patti and I were still just a short distance ahead of the 4:30 pace leader.  Steven was running with Pascal, and they were starting to get ahead of us.

At about 12 miles, we crossed a bridge.  The bridge was a noticeable hill.  I commented to Patti that I thought that might be the high elevation of the course.  I was wrong.  About a mile later, we started a hill that was more than a mile long.

Patti and I reached the halfway mark in 2:14.  We were a minute ahead of the pace for a 4:30 finish, but the pace still felt sustainable.

Before we reached the end of that hill, Patti needed to take a walking break.  If I was smart, I would’ve walked too.  I should’ve waited for the 4:30 group to catch up to us.  Instead, I kept running and tried to catch up to Pascal and Steven.  They were going a little faster, but they were only about half a block ahead of me.

For the next mile, I picked up my effort in an attempt to catch Pascal and Steven.  I was going as fast as I could without causing discomfort in my left leg, but I wasn’t gaining any ground on them.

There was a place where we crossed a bridge and then turned to go underneath the same bridge.  As I made that turn, I looked back to see if  I could spot the 4:45 group.  I saw them on the bridge.  Then I saw Patti a short distance behind them.  She was running again.

In the 16th mile, I doubled down on my effort to catch up to Pascal and Steven.  I was working hard, but I didn’t feel like I was going any faster.  Pascal and Steven continued to pull away from me.  At times, they would disappear around a corner and I would lose sight of them.

At about 16 miles, I reached another aid station with Gu.  They had a variety of flavors.  I ate a vanilla bean Gu.  It was the first calories I took in since the start of the race.

In the next mile, I caught sight of Pascal and Steven again.  They were no longer running together.  Now Pascal was pulling away.  I wondered if Steven would slow down enough for me to catch him.  Before long, I saw him walking.

I ran until I caught up with Steven, and then I walked with him.  I told him where I last saw Patti.  While we were walking, the 4:30 group passed us.  We expected to see Patti soon, but she was nowhere in sight.

We resumed running, but Steven immediately started to cramp up.  He had to switch back to walking.  We walked across a bridge.  From the bridge, we could see a long distance back along the course.  We still couldn’t see Patti.

After crossing the bridge, Steven tried to run again.  We shuffled slowly for about 30 seconds, but then he had to walk again.  He told me to go ahead.  He was planning to walk the rest of the race.  He didn’t care how long it took.  He just wanted to finish.

I resumed running, but I couldn’t run as fast as before.  With nobody else setting the pace, I had to find a pace that was sustainable and a stride that wouldn’t bother my injured left leg.  It took a few minutes, but I found a comfortable gait.

I didn’t know how fast I was running until I ran a complete mile that didn’t include any walking.  That was my 19th mile.  My new pace was about a minute slower than my previous pace.  The 4:30 group was long gone, but I was still on pace to stay ahead of the 4:45 group for the rest of the race.  That became my new goal.

It was a hot day.  It was 69 degrees at the start, and it had already warmed into the upper 70s.  We had cloud cover, and that was the only thing that kept it from feeling oppressive.

I was running along the west bank of the river, but I could see runners on the east bank going in the opposite direction.  Eventually, I reached Durham Park and crossed the river.  I immediately felt a cool breeze.  I had been running with the wind at my back, so the wind didn’t have any cooling effect.  Now that I was running into it, it helped with the heat.

I followed the east bank of the river for almost two miles and then crossed another bridge.  I assumed after crossing the bridge, I would turn right and continue running in the same direction.  I didn’t even notice the chalk arrows pointing to the left.  I turned right, and two volunteers started shouting emphatically that I needed to go the other way.  If nobody had said anything, I could’ve gone a long way before realizing I was off course.

After turning around and heading in the right direction, I realized I no longer had a headwind.  I felt hot again.  As I was getting to the 23 mile mark, I felt the heat of the sun.  When it was cloudy, I only felt a little bit hot.  Now that the heat of the sun was bearing down on me, I felt much hotter.

The last three miles were grizzly.  It was all I could do to keep moving.  With two and a half miles to go, I wanted to start taking walking breaks.  Walking for a minute or two each mile would’ve been reasonable.  I was afraid if I started walking, I’d have trouble forcing myself to run again.  I was still on pace to break 4:45.  I didn’t want to get passed by another pace group.

In May, I started having an imbalance in my stride that caused my left shoe to graze the inside of my right ankle.  It hasn’t been a problem in the last month, but it resurfaced today.  In the last few miles of the race, it happened several times.  My ankle was starting to bleed, but that wasn’t my biggest concern.  My immediate concern was getting to the finish line.

With a mile and a half to go, I ran under a bridge.  Then I had to go up a small hill.  I walked up the hill, but then I forced myself to resume running.

Shortly after that, I heard a few shouts in the distance.  I wondered if it was people cheering at the finish line.  Then I heard an occasional PA announcement.  I couldn’t see the finish yet, but I could hear it.

With just over a mile to go, I turned away from the river.  As I came around a sharp turn, I looked back to see if I could see the 4:45 pace group.  I couldn’t see them coming.

Now I was running through the neighborhood between the river and the stadium where we would finish.  With just under a mile to go, I realized I could walk about half of the remaining distance and still break 4:45.  I started talking walking breaks.

I would walk a block or two.  Then I would run a block or two.  Running was starting to get me out of breath, but I didn’t really notice it until I took a walking break.  Then I’d be gasping to catch my breath.  I was right on the threshold of heat stress.

The finish was on a track.  We had to run past the stadium before we entered it.  I didn’t want to have to walk going around the track, so I decided to walk until I got there.  I had time.  When I got to the 26 mile mark, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had only slowed down by about a minute and a half, even with the walking.

I resumed running.  As I turned onto the track, I was told I had 300 meters to go.  I could run that far, but it was hard work.  I couldn’t speed up at all.  I finished in 4:44:07.

At first glance, I thought the finisher medal looked kind of plain.  Then I noticed it was in the shape of South Dakota.

They had some good post-race food, but I was mostly thirsty.  I had some chocolate milk, an ice cream bar, and some water.  I had to sit down in the stadium seats while I finished my ice cream bar.  Standing was too tiring.

I made a bathroom stop and then headed to the beer tent.  We had a choice of a Belgian wit or a hard seltzer.  I went with the Belgian wit.  Then I had to sit down again while I drank it.  After sitting long enough for my sweat to evaporate, I finally walked to my car.

Immediately after the race, I didn’t have any soreness in my left leg.  That changed when I sat down in the car.  Fortunately, the drive back to the hotel took less than 10 minutes.

Later in the day, I found out Steven finished the race in 5:12.  He must have recovered enough to do some running, because walking the last 9 miles would've taken much longer.  Patti finished in 5:19.  She's normally much faster than that, so she obviously had a tough race.

I didn’t pace myself well in this race.  It was a mistake to try to catch up to my friends.  Had I stayed with the 4:30 group, I probably could’ve kept up that pace much longer.  I probably wouldn’t have stayed with them for the whole race.  I think the heat would’ve still broken me in the last few miles.

For now, it seems like my leg held up OK.  The real test will be how it feels tonight and tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I’ll have to drive home.  Nothing bothers my leg more than sitting in a car for a long time.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:44:07

Average pace:  10:50

Average cadence:  174 strides per minute (including walking breaks)

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  463

2022 Minnesota Senior Games: Running Events

Today was the second day of the Minnesota Senior Games.  Yesterday, I did one of the race-walking events, but instead of trying to compete, I did the minimum necessary to qualify for nationals.  Today, I did the same thing in the road race events.

My events today were the 5K run and the 10K run.  At the National Senior Games, these events are held on different days.  Here, they were not only held on the same day, but at the same time.  The 5K course was a loop.  The 10K course was two laps of the same loop.  The only way to do both races is to sign up for both and then run the 10K race.  They record your 5K split as your time for the 5K race.

In most events, you need to place in your age group to qualify for nationals.  Since these events aren’t held on a track, they don’t need to limit the field as much.  Anyone who completes in their state games is automatically qualified for nationals, regardless of how fast or slow they run.

I didn’t know it when I signed up for these events, but if you do either race at the state level, you can do both at nationals.  My only goal today was to qualify for nationals, so I didn’t actually need to run the 10K race.  Running the 5K would be sufficient.  I decided to see how I felt after 5K before deciding if I would continue and finish the 10K.

I was expecting heavy rain for most of the morning, so I opted to wear a regular stopwatch instead of GPS.  I was worried my watch would have trouble locating the satellites during a storm.

When I left the hotel, it was windy, but it wasn’t raining.  That was a pleasant surprise.  The weather radar showed a large storm system moving through the state, but we right on the southern boundary of the storm.

Both races started and finished in Sibley Park, which is about a mile west of downtown Mankato.  Our starting line was in the parking lot, but then we turned onto the road that goes around the park.

In races where nobody expects to be fast, everyone is reluctant to line up in front.  When nobody lined up within five feet of the starting line, I finally moved forward.  The race wasn’t chip timed, so why handicap yourself by running an extra five feet before crossing the line?

I took a couple walking steps before reluctantly starting to run.  I wanted to be cautious about my pace.  By the time we left the parking lot, almost everyone was in front of me.  There may have been one or two slower runners who were still behind me.  I didn’t look.

As I turned onto the road, I realized I was starting faster than I would if I was by myself.  Subconsciously I wanted to keep up with at least some of the runners in front of me.  There was a tug of war going on inside my brain.  On one hand, I wanted to keep up with the other runners.  On the other hand, I wanted to tread lightly, so I wouldn’t put too much strain on my injured left leg.  The result was a short stride with a rapid cadence.

Then I had an epiphany.  I quickly realized that I had discovered a gait that was easier on my leg, but still faster than any of my recent training.

When I’m deliberately going slow, I usually relax and take a long loping stride.  It seems that the only way I can force myself to take shorter strides is to pick up my cadence.  I’ll often use a stride like that when I’m trying to go fast, but never when I’m trying to go slow.  When I’m taking it easy, I gravitate toward the stride that feels most natural.  Taking really short strides doesn’t feel natural.  I had to force it.

Shortly after leaving the park, we went up a small hill.  Going up the hill, I caught up to one of the other runners and passed him.  I worried about how my leg would feel when the road turned downhill.  I was even more conscious about taking short rapid strides.  I felt comfortable going down the hill.

Before long, a volunteer directed us off the road and onto a trail on top of the bluff overlooking the Minnesota River.  We followed this path toward downtown.

Turns on the course were marked with blue signs and chalk arrows, but there were also volunteers stationed at almost every turn.

On one section of the trail, there were bands of fresh asphalt, where they had sealed cracks in the older pavement.  The surface was rough in spots, and I scuffed my right shoe on one of these rough spots.  I could easily have had a harder foot strike with my left foot.  That’s the sort of thing that could really make my left leg hurt.  I was OK this time, but I made a point of watching my footing more carefully.

Just before reaching the downtown area, we turned to begin looping back toward Sibley Park.  At one point, our trail crossed a road, but there was a volunteer there to watch for cars and stop the traffic, if necessary.

After that, we ran through a residential neighborhood.  The streets were all open to traffic, but I rarely saw a car.  Most of the time there was a sidewalk alongside the street.  I ran on the sidewalks whenever that was an option.

For most of the first loop, I could see two runners ahead of me.  One started to slow down, and I eventually passed her.  I continued to follow the other runner, who was always a block or two ahead of me.

Late in the loop, we made a left turn in front of a large hill.  There was a large hill adjacent to Sibley Park, and I wondered if I was seeing the same hill from the other side.  Sure enough, within a few minutes, the road took me around the hill and within view of the parking lot where we started.

Instead of continuing on the road, we diverted onto the Minnesota River Trail for the last part of the loop.

When I finished my first loop, my 5K split was 29:49.  I had suspected from the beginning that I was going faster than I planned, but I didn’t know for sure.  There weren’t any mile markers, and I wasn’t using a GPS watch.

By now, I had committed to doing the second loop.  I was having less leg discomfort than I expected.  In particular, I wasn’t noticing any increase in the discomfort.  There was just a hint of soreness, and it didn’t seem to be getting worse.

As I started my second lap, I no longer had anyone to follow.  The runner who had been in sight at the end of the first loop was doing the 5K race and had already stopped.  Usually, not having anyone to follow would make me nervous.  I was confident at this point that the course was sufficiently well marked.

I started up the same small hill where I passed someone on my previous lap.  This time, I noticed some discomfort in my left leg going up the hill.  The discomfort went away when I reached the top.  Going downhill, I focused on taking short rapid steps, and I felt fine.

As I got farther into my second lap, I found myself getting fatigued from maintaining such a fast cadence.  I started to slow down, and as I did, I noticed soreness in my left leg again.  When I wasn’t forcing myself to have a rapid cadence, I began to take longer strides.  I had to maintain the fast turnover.  It was the only way to force myself to keep my stride short enough.  It was getting tiring, but I only had a couple miles left.

I knew I was getting close to the finish when I recognized the back of the hill that’s next to Sibley Park.  I just had to follow the road around the hill and then run a short segment along the Minnesota River Trail.

I finished the race in 57:26.  You could easily conclude that I ran faster in the second loop, but my time was misleading.

The 10K course is described as two laps of the 5K course, but the 5K course wasn’t actually a loop.  We started and finished in different places.  Most of the course was a loop, but there was a short segment at the beginning that was there to make the distance come out right.  The 10K course does the loop twice, but it only does that extra segment once.  Here’s a map of the route.

Neither race had a certified course.  I’m assuming they had a reasonably accurate 5K course, but the 10K course was short, because it didn’t repeat the entire 5K route.

Early in the race, I had noticed a few raindrops, but it stopped after just a few minutes.  At the end of the race, I started to feel rain again.  This time it persisted.  I had to stand around in a rain for a bit before they gave out the awards.

I was the only one in my age group for the 10K race, so I got the gold medal.  There were supposed to be four runners in my age group for the 5K race, but one didn’t show up.  I did show up, so I got third place.

Before the race, I was talking to another runner who described the senior games as a war of attrition.  You win if you keep showing up when others don’t.  The older you get, the more that’s true.  I was slow today, but I collected a gold medal and a bronze medal for my efforts.  I got a silver medal yesterday, so now I have a complete set.

Track and field events are tomorrow.  I was signed up for the 1,500 meter run, but I’m going to skip it.  There’s too much injury risk.  Tomorrow, someone else can get a medal for showing up.

I didn’t really come to Mankato for the medals.  My goal was to qualify for next year’s National Senior Games.  I did that.  I’ve qualified to do both race-walking events and both road race events.  Hopefully, by next July I can be ready to run and walk competitively.

Yesterday, I had brief moments of soreness during my race, but I felt fine afterwards.  That wasn’t the case today.  I had more soreness afterwards than I did during the race.  That was especially true as I was driving home from Mankato.  Sitting in the car got increasingly uncomfortable.  When you’re driving, it’s hard to move around in your seat.  You either stop and get out of the car, or you live with the discomfort.

Race statistics:

5K time:  29:49

Average pace for 5K:  5:58 per kilometer (9:36 per mile)

10K time:  57:26

Average pace for 10K:  5:45 per kilometer (9:14 per mile)*

* take that with a grain of salt

2022 Minnesota Senior Games: Walking Events

Last year, I competed in the Minnesota Senior Games for the first time.  A knee injury prevented me from competing in any running events, but I was still able to compete in the race-walking events.  There are two race-walking events, and they’re both held on the same day.  Last year, I skipped the 1,500 meter race, so I could focus on winning the 5,000 meter race.

For the same entry fee, you can sign up for as many as five different events.  I’ve recovered from the knee injury that plagued me last year, so this year I optimistically signed up for two race-walking events, two road running events, and one track and field event.

At the time, my goal was to win the two walking events and try to place in my age group in the running events.  If I could do that, I would also qualify for all five events in next year’s National Senior Games.  I was pretty confident about my race-walking, but I would need to start doing speed work to do well in the running events.

My biggest concern at the time was my lower back.  As it turns out, my lower back is doing much better.  It didn’t bother me in any of my July races, and it’s not holding back my training in any way.

Unfortunately, I have a new concern.  In May, I started to notice some minor discomfort in the proximal hamstring tendon of my left leg.  That’s the tendon that connects my hamstring to my pelvis.  At the time, I was training for FANS, so I was doing all my training at a slow pace.  When I ran or walked slowly, it didn’t bother me.  After FANS, I started to pick up the pace of my training runs.  Then it became much more inflamed.

I got through six marathons in July by running at a slow pace.  At the time, I wasn’t doing any race-walking, since I was pretty sure that would cause this injury to flare up again.

Two weeks ago, I finally tried race-walking.  I walked five kilometers as fast as I could.  I wanted to know how much speed I had lost since the National Senior Games in May.  I also wanted to know how my left leg would feel.

My pace was about a minute per mile slower than it was a year ago.  Still, that might be fast enough to win the 5,000 meter walking event at the Minnesota Senior Games.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that race-walking even once made my injury worse.  That’s when I knew it would be a bad idea to try to compete for the win today.

The race-walking events were both held today.  I was signed up for both events, but I decided to skip the 5,000 meter walk.  At this point, my only goal was to qualify for nationals.  If I qualified in one event today, I could do both events at nationals.  With that in mind, there was no point in doing both events today unless I was trying to compete.

The Minnesota Senior Games were held in Mankato.  The race-walking events were both held on the track at the Mankato campus of Minnesota State University.

I drove to Mankato this morning and went straight to the university.  First, I stopped at the Johnson Alumni Room to check in.  There are several fast food restaurants nearby, so I grabbed an early lunch before heading over to the track.

The 5,000 meter race-walk event started at 11:00.  Although I was no longer planning to complete in this event, I still wanted to watch.  I informed the officials that I was scratching in this event, but I was still planning to compete in the 1,500 meter race later in the afternoon.

There were dark clouds nearby, and we sometimes heard thunder.  There was a storm system about five away, but it wasn’t moving in our direction.  Most of the walkers finished in dry weather.  Before the last two walkers finished, I started to feel drops, so I walked back to my car.

After watching the race, I went to my hotel to check in.  I’m still planning to do the 10K run tomorrow morning, and I didn’t want to drive to Mankato two days in a row.  There weren’t any rooms ready yet, so I drove to Sibley Park to see where I would need to park for the start of tomorrow’s race.  When I got back to the hotel, they had a room ready.

I returned to the track at 4:00 to do the 1,500 meter race.  To qualify for nationals, I needed to place in the top four in my age group.  That was never in question, as there was only one other guy in my age group.  I didn’t have to walk fast.  I just needed to walk 1,500 meters at any pace.

I had no intention of walking as fast as I could, but I also didn’t want to be the last one to finish.  I wanted to walk at a pace that was somewhat brisk, but not fast enough to cause any discomfort in my leg.  Qualifying for nationals was never in doubt, so the most important thing was to keep from making my injury worse.

If I was making a serious attempt to compete, I would start at the fastest pace I could manage.  Instead, I did the opposite.  I made a point of staying behind almost everyone, to keep myself from starting too fast.  After about 200 meters, I gave myself permission to pick up the pace a little, but I was still going much slower than I would if I was trying to compete.

By the end of my first full lap, I was beginning to feel some soreness in my left leg.  Then I had to slow down until the soreness diminished.  For the rest of that lap, I forced myself to stay behind the walker who was right in front of me.

One of the rules of race-walking is that you have to have a straight knee when your lead foot makes contact.  I was about 700 meters into the race when I heard the race-walking judge warn the walker in front of me that his right knee was bent.  As he tried to correct his form, he slowed down a bit.

After he slowed down, I was no longer comfortable staying behind him.  We had just started a turn, and I didn’t want to be in lane two all the way around the turn as I slowly passed him.  I picked up my pace enough to pass him quickly, but then I felt soreness in my left leg again.  For the second time, I had to slow down.

For the rest of the race, I did a better job of finding the pace that wasn’t quite fast enough to cause any soreness.  I eventually finished the race in 13:13, which is about what I expected.  For comparison, the last time I race-walked this distance, my time was 8:59.

Everyone who places in their age group gets a medal.  Placing second out of two in my age group didn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but at least I showed up.  You know what they say.  When you finish last, you’re still lapping everyone who’s sitting on the couch.  I finished last in my age group by more than four minutes, but that was still put me in second place.

 

After the race, I no longer noticed any soreness in my leg.  I’m cautiously optimistic that I didn’t overdo it today.

There’s nothing impressive about walking 1,500 meters in 13:13, but now I’m qualified to do both race-walking events at next year’s National Senior Games.  Tomorrow I’ll work on qualifying for the running events.

Race statistics:

Distance:  1500 meters

Time:  13:13

Average pace:  8:49 per kilometer (14:11 per mile)

I Finally Moved Up a Spot in Minnesota

In 2015, I qualified to be included on the Mega-Marathon List.  This is a list of runners who have completed at least 300 marathons.  The worldwide rankings are maintained by a group in Japan.  There’s also a list that only includes runners from North America.

When I first made it onto these lists, I ranked roughly 500th in the world and 100th among North American runners.  At the time, I didn’t have any ambition to move any higher.  For a few years, I was running 50+ marathons a year, but in 2016, I cut back to about half of that.  At the same time, more and more runners were racing frequently, either to get onto this list or to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs Hall of Fame.

As I expected, I didn’t move up at all in the next few years.  Then something unexpected happened.  In 2020, there were far fewer opportunities to run marathons.  If you wanted to keep racing, you had to seek out small races that could get permits during a time of strict restrictions on public gatherings.  Most runners ran few if any marathons that year.  Some stopped training, so they weren’t ready to race, even when larger races started happening again.

I actually ran more marathons in 2020 than I did in 2019.  When the Mega Marathon List was updated at the end of the year, I was surprised to see that I moved up to 83 on the North American rankings.  In spite of that, I still ranked seventh among runners from Minnesota.  Minnesota isn’t a high population state, but it has a lot of prolific marathoners.

At the end of 2021, I was again surprised by how much I moved up.  For the first time, I moved into the top 400 in the world rankings.  On the North American list, I moved up all the way to 66th place.  In Minnesota, I was still in seventh place.

The rankings are updated every six months.  I just saw the latest update for the North American list.  I only ran nine marathons in the first half of 2022, but that was enough to move up to 62nd place in North America.  That’s all well and good, but I was more excited to see that I finally moved up among Minnesota runners.  Here’s a list of all the Minnesota runners with at least 300 marathons.  I’m now tied for sixth place.

I’ve moved into a tie with Les Martisko, and I’m only two marathons behind Mark Stodghill, who sits in fifth place.  It’s worth noting that these totals are through June 30th.  Since then, I’ve already run six additional marathons.  The list won’t be updated again until the end of the year, but it’s likely that I’ve already moved into fifth place.

In the next year or two, I could move up one more spot on this list, but the top three Minnesota runners are so far ahead of me that I won’t catch up to them in the foreseeable future – if ever.  That’s OK.  Moving into the top four or five would be nice.

If you’d like to see the entire North American list, here’s a link:  Mega Marathon List

Race Report: 2022 Xenia Avenue Marathon

On July 23, I ran the Xenia Avenue Marathon in Brooklyn Park, MN.  This was the third straight year that I did this race.  It only takes 35 minutes to drive to Brooklyn Park, so this race is too convenient to pass up.

This was my third marathon in six days.  I didn’t plan it that way.  When I signed up for the race, I didn’t know I would also be doing days 3 and 4 of the Summer Camp Series.

Packet pick-up was Friday afternoon at Orchard Trail Park, which is also where the race starts.  Race morning packet pickup was also available, but driving up to Brooklyn Park on Friday gave me an excuse to have dinner at Rocky Rococo, which is one of my favorite pizza restaurants.  This is a chain that’s all over Wisconsin, but they only have one location in Minnesota, and I don’t get up to the northern suburbs that often.

A couple days before the race, we each received an email with pre-race instructions.  Among other things, it advised us that there was a chance of a morning thunderstorm.  The race would go on, rain or shine, but if storm sirens went off, the race would be suspended.

The race started Saturday morning at 6:30.  Our course was one short loop, followed by five laps of  longer loop.  The short loop included about one mile of residential streets.  The rest of the course was on paved bike paths.

Parking at Orchard Trail Park is limited, but we could also park across the street at Champlin Park High School.  This race is a fundraiser for the Champlin Park High School Cross Country Running Booster Club, and several of the students were race volunteers.  When I arrived for the race, the students directed me to the parking lot.

After parking, I consulted the weather app on my phone.  The forecast had improved.  There was still a thunderstorm in the forecast, but it looked like it wouldn’t arrive until mid-afternoon.  The time limit was eight hours, so everyone would be done by 2:30 PM.

The temperature was in the upper 60s.  That was a few degrees cooler than I expected.  Humidity, however, was high, and I also expected it to warm up significantly during the race.  This was my third hot marathon this week, so I paced myself accordingly.

Before the race, I saw at least half a dozen runners who I knew.  I also saw dozens of runners I didn’t recognize.  The race has grown since the first year.

I lined up in the middle of the pack.  That seemed about right.  About half of the runners were faster than me, but the runners right in front of me were going at a pace that was comfortable for me.

The course started with a loop around Orchard Trail Park.  Then we left the park on a bike path that took us to the Rush Creek Regional Trail.  We followed this trail for only a short distance before leaving it to enter a residential neighborhood.  Then we ran on streets for about a mile.  This was the only park of the course that wasn’t on bike paths.

Until I got to the streets, I stayed behind the runners in front of me.  There wasn’t much room for passing on the bike path, and we were still packed together.  On the streets, I had plenty of run to run at my own pace, but I continued to go at a relaxed pace.

About halfway through this section, we turned onto Xenia Avenue.  The race is named after this street, even though we were only on it for two blocks.  This was an excuse to give the race a name that started with “X.”

After completing a loop on city streets, we returned to the bike path and retraced our route back to Orchard Trail Park.

When I finished the short loop, I was surprised to see volunteers holding cups of water and Gatorade.  In previous years, this was a cupless race.  There were bottles of water and Gatorade at the aid stations.  You could pick up a bottle at the aid station, but you needed to carry the bottle with you until you finished it.

I wore a fuel belt, so I could carry a bottle with me between aid stations.  As I went through the aid station, I picked up a 16 oz. bottle of water from the table.  I took a walking break while I drank about half the bottle.  Then I put the bottle in my holster to save the rest for later.

After the short loop, I needed to do the longer loop five times.  The long loop started the same way as the shorter loop, but we kept going west on the Rush Creek Regional Trail.

There was a tunnel where we needed to cross Douglas Drive.  This was the only street we crossed, so we never had to contend with automobile traffic.

After the tunnel, the trail continued through Oak Grove Park.  On the west side of the park, we did a short out-and-back.

When we returned to Oak Grove Park, we left the Rush Creek Regional Trail and turned to run past the playground and picnic area.  This is where a second aid station was set up.

As I neared the aid station, I took a walking break, so I could finish my bottle of water and discard it at the aid station.  I always drank either before or after an aid station.  I walked while drinking, and then I continued walking until I had walked for at least a minute.  That was my run/walk strategy.

There were port-o-potties in the start/finish area, but Oak Grove Park had permanent bathrooms.  I was drinking so much that I had to make two bathroom stops during the race.  Both times, I used the permanent bathroom.

After going through the park, we did a loop around a meadow just south of the park.  Then we went back through the park, which brought us past the same aid station again.

The aid station in the start area only had bottles of water, but this one also had bottles of Gatorade.  As I came back to the aid station, I picked up a bottle of Gatorade.  It was a 20 oz. bottle, so I only drank a third of it before putting it in my holster.

After that, I had a consistent pattern of picking up a new Gatorade bottle every third time that I reached an aid station.  That worked out to a bottle per lap.  I was drinking more in this race than I did in my previous race.  After each of those races, I felt dehydrated.  Today, I was determined to drink enough.

We finished the long loop by returning along the Rush Creek Regional Trail until we got back to Orchard Trail Park.

Some sections of the trail were serpentine.  Usually, I try to run the tangents, but there was a lot of bike traffic on the Rush Creek Regional Trail.  I’ve learned from experience on this course, that it’s safest to keep right at all times.  Sometimes a bike will come rapidly around a turn, and the rider won’t see you until the last second.

The course was well-marked with signs and chalk arrows.  In addition, there were volunteers stationed at every turn and junction.

It's worth noting at this point that the volunteers were all encouraging us.  At one junction, the volunteers were blasting music, dancing, and cheering enthusiastically, while also making sure we knew which direction to go.

There were volunteers on bikes leading the first runner in each race.  As I was nearing the end of my first lap of the long loop, one of these volunteers rode past me.  Then I saw the first runner in the half marathon.  He was already nearing the end of his second long lap.  He finished in 1:22.

Early in the race, I was going faster than I did in my last two races, but I didn’t feel like I was working hard.  For the first nine miles, every mile was between 10 and 11 miles, and that pace felt comfortable.  After that, I began to slow down.  My next several miles were slower than 11 minutes.  I attribute that to conditions getting warmer.  It wasn’t warming up rapidly, but the temperature was rising.

Early in the race, it was partly sunny.  Along the Rush Creek Regional Trail, we had lots of shade, but other parts of the course were more exposed to the sun.  By late morning, it was cloudy.  Not having as much sun exposure helped.  I didn’t feel nearly as hot today as I did in my last two races.

Early in my third lap of the long loop, I saw another volunteer on bike go by.  He was followed by the leader of the marathon.  I wasn’t quite to the halfway mark, but the leader was already a full lap ahead of me.  He went on to finish in 2:45.

At the halfway point, I was on pace to finish in roughly 4:41.  That’s much faster than my other two races this week.  I expected to slow down in the second half, but clearly, I was going to break five hours by a wide margin.

I maintained the same effort for the rest of that lap.  With two laps to go, I started to pick up my effort.  At first, my mile times were still slower than 11 minutes, but as I kept working, I started to bring some of them back under 11 minutes.

The chip mat at the start/finish line was the only one on the course, but there were volunteers recording bib number as we ran by some of the remote corners of the course.  In my second-to-last lap, one of those volunteers said, “one more,” as I went by.  Indeed, I only had one more full lap, but I still needed to run about two miles to finish my current lap.

As I neared the end of that lap, I heard a runner approaching quickly from behind.  I turned my head in time to see the lead woman go by.  I knew she was the winner, because she was the only woman to lap me.

Early in my last lap, I saw one of my friends going in the opposite direction.  He asked me if we were going to beat the storm.  I said, “no problem.”  I didn’t have any new information since the race started, so I wasn’t expecting a thunderstorm any sooner than 3:00 PM.

A minute or two later, I thought I heard thunder.  As I was running through Oak Grove Park, it seemed like it was getting dark.  This part of the course is under a thick canopy of trees, so it was always a little bit dark, but it seemed like it was darker now than it was earlier in the race.  I wondered if the clouds were getting thicker and letting less light through.

The out-and-back section just west of the park is out in the open.  When I got there, I thought I felt a drop or two of rain.  I didn’t see any drops hitting the pavement, but I had to wonder if a storm was about to start.

I only had a few miles to go, so I was going to be OK.  I had friends on the course who still had two full laps left.  If a storm started now, their races might be jeopardized.

I didn’t hear thunder again, and I didn’t feel any more drops.  I pressed on and finished the race in dry weather.  As I was coming into Orchard Trail Park for the last time, I felt a strong breeze.  That's when I realized that I never noticed any wind before that.

I finished in 4:47:45.  My second half was seven minutes slower than my first half.  That was disappointing, because I felt like I was working much harder in the second half than I was in the first half.

After the race, I was talking with my friend, Tom, who had finished several minutes earlier.  When I mentioned hearing thunder, Tom said he heard that too, but he thought it was an airplane, not thunder.

As we were talking, we saw a bright flash of lightning.  Several seconds later, we heard a rumble of thunder.  I hurried to my car, getting there just before the rain started.  At first, it was just raining lightly.

By now, it was in the upper 70s.  For runners still on the course, a little rain would actually feel good.  Lightning, however was another matter.  That’s never a good thing.

As I was driving to Rocky Rococo for lunch, I heard a loud crack of thunder.  It was so loud, it startled me.  If I wasn’t sitting in my car, I would’ve jumped.

A few minutes later, I was indoors, getting pizza at Rocky Rococo.  I never heard sirens, but I can’t say for sure that I would’ve heard them indoors.  Where I live, they’re pretty loud, but every city has its own storm sirens.

When I left the restaurant, it was raining a little harder.  It wasn’t a downpour, but it was a steady enough rain, that you’d get soaked if you were outside for a long time.  As I was driving home, I saw lightning once or twice, but I never heard any storm sirens.

After I got home, I periodically checked the race results.  My friends all finished the race.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:47:45

Average pace:  10:58

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  462

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  88