Race Report: 2021 Minnesota Senior Games

On August 13, I competed in the 5000 meter race-walk event at the Minnesota Senior Games.  The Senior Games are open to athletes who are at least 50 years old.  I’ve been eligible to compete in them for the last 10 years, but this is the first year I’ve done it.

The Minnesota Senior Games are held over a four-day period in Mankato, MN.  They have events in 18 different sports, including running and race-walking.  As a runner, I never considered competing.  The longest running event is 10 kilometers.  I tend to focus on marathons and ultras, so I wouldn’t expect to be competitive in a race as short as 10K.

This year, I haven’t done much running, but I’ve been trying to get back in shape by race-walking.  I’ve mostly been training to walk marathons, but as part of my training, I’ve done a few fast workouts.

In late April, I set out to do a moderately fast five-mile walk.  I took the first mile much faster than I expected, and I made an impulsive decision to shorten my walk to 5K and see how fast I could go.  My time was 32:41.  That’s when I first started thinking about competing in the Senior Games.

In late June, I set out so see how much faster I could walk 5K.  I launched into such a fast pace that I was already getting out of breath after only about 100 meters.  I had to throttle back my pace a little, but not much.  I managed a 5K time of 30:14.

After that workout, I had soreness in my glutes and my left hamstring.  I wondered if I had pulled a muscle (or two).  I was able to do long workouts with a manageable amount of discomfort, but I held off on doing any other speed workouts until the soreness was gone.  That took weeks.

In late July, I did one more 5K time trial.  This time I didn’t start quite as fast, but as soon as I got warmed up, I made a serious effort to walk as fast as I could.  My time that day wasn’t as fast.  I managed a time of 30:59.  Once again, I wondered if I had injured myself.  For the next 24 hours, my left knee felt a little funny.  I took it easy for the next two days, and then I felt fine.

There are two race-walk events at the Senior Games: 1500 meters and 5000 meters.  I might have considered doing both, but they were on the same day.  The 1500 meter race-walk event was at 2:00.  The 5000 meter race-walk was at 4:00.  If I attempted an all-out 1500 meters, I would probably destroy myself for the 5000.

I’m not used to racing in the late afternoon.  For marathons, which are typically held in the morning, I’ll eat a light breakfast, if anything.  Today, I ate a light breakfast and a light early lunch.  I didn’t want to have too much food in my stomach.  As it is, I still felt heavy after having a large dinner on Thursday.

I left for Mankato right after lunch.  I wasn’t competing until 4:00, but I wanted to get there early enough to watch the 1500-meter race.  Partly, I wanted to watch the race-walking form of the various competitors.  Also, I wanted to get oriented to the venue where I would be competing two hours later.

Both events were on the track at the Mankato campus of Minnesota State University (a.k.a. Mankato State).  Before heading to the track to watch the 1500, I stopped at the Taylor Center to check-in.  I got my program and T-shirt, and they told me where the track was.  I would need to check in at the track to get my race number.  Before leaving the Taylor Center, I browsed the list of people who were signed up for my event.  I learned there were only seven people signed up for the 5000.  Of those, I was the only one in my age group.

Even though I wasn’t competing in the 1500 meter race-walk, I still sat in on the pre-race instructions, where the race-walking judge went over the rules.  There are two rules that distinguish race-walking from running.  The first one is obvious.  You must always have at least one foot in contact with the ground.  Failure to do this is called “lifting.”  The other rule is less obvious.  From the time your lead foot makes contact with the ground until that leg is vertical, you have to keep that knee straight.  Failure to do this is called “bent knee.”

Ordinarily, there are multiple judges around the track who watch all the competitors to look for infractions of either of these rules.  If they see an infraction, they can give you a “red card.”  A single red card won’t result in disqualification.  If, however, you’re given red cards by three different judges, you’re disqualified

Today, there was only one race-walking judge.  Because of that, he said he wouldn’t disqualify anyone unless their infraction was flagrant.  If he saw less flagrant infractions for which he would normally give a red card, he would instead hold up a yellow paddle during the race and discuss it with the walker in question after the race.  Even though he wasn’t likely to disqualify anyone today, he wanted us to know if we had form problems that could get us disqualified at nationals.

As I watched the 1500-meter event, I had an opportunity to observe the walking form of walkers of different abilities.

Besides the race-walking events, there were also power walking events.  Power walking is similar to race-walking, but their rules are a little bit different.  One difference is that they’re required to make contact with their heel before shifting their weight through their toes.  I think most race-walkers do that, but it’s not a rule for race-walking.  The more significant different is that their “bent knee” rule is much more liberal.  You can get by with bending your knee a little, as long as it’s not flagrant.  I chose to do race-walking instead of power walking, because the rules are better defined and I was already familiar with them.

One of my goals today was to qualify for the National Senior Games.  To do that, I had to place in the top four in my age group and meet a minimum qualification standard.  The standard for my age group was 32:15.  I knew I could do that, having done it twice in training, but I also knew it would take an all-out effort.

I already knew the event would be thinly attended.  Two of the seven people who signed up couldn’t make it, so there were only five of us on the track.  With that in mind, my mindset was that I was only competing against the clock.

At this time of year, afternoon temperatures are typically in the 80s or 90s.  Today, the high temperature was a relatively comfortable 79 degrees.  That helped.  The last two times I timed myself on this distance, it was warmer.

As I toed the line, I had three things on my mind.  First, obviously, I wanted to start fast enough.  In a distance this short, you can’t make up for lost time.  My top speed for 5K isn’t much different than my top speed over shorter distances, so there just wasn’t much room to speed up.  Second, I didn’t want to walk so vigorously that I injured myself.  That was a real concern.  The last two times I timed myself over this distance, I felt like I came close to an injury.  Finally, I had to keep my form legal.  The harder I pushed to go fast, the more I risked changing my mechanics in ways that I might not be consciously aware of.

When the gun went off, I started my watch.  I didn’t use GPS.  I didn’t know how accurately a GPS watch would measure my distance around a track, and I didn’t want to be misled by inaccurate data from my watch.  Instead of getting splits from my watch, I glanced at my time as I completed each lap.

We started at the beginning of a turn.  I was lined up in the middle, so I tried to start quickly, so I could race ahead of everyone and get into lane one before going too far around the turn.  There was one other walker starting at the same pace, and he was already in lane one.  I picked up my effort in a frantic attempt to get ahead of him.  I didn’t want to stay in lane two any longer than necessary, but I also didn’t want to move over too quickly and cut him off.

One consequence of racing for the inside lane is that I quickly established a rapid cadence.  Sometimes, when I’m trying to go faster, I start to overstride.  Today, I did a better job of speeding up by increasing my turnover.  I never felt like I was overstriding.

By the time I got around the first turn, I was already getting out of breath.  That wasn’t too surprising.  I’ve sometimes had the same experience walking 5K on my own.

We were on a 400-meter track, so I had to do twelve and a half laps.  On the side of the track where we would finish, there were lap counters, the official timers, and a sign that showed the number of remaining laps for the leader.  I led from wire to wire, so I could always look for that sign to see how many laps I had left.  That was convenient, but it wasn’t actually necessary.  The laps counters told every walker their lap count each time they crossed the finish line.

The first time I went through, I was only done with 200 meters.  I checked my watch.  Before the race, I figured out what time I would need at this point to be on pace for 30 minutes, and what time I would need to be on pace to break 32:15.  They were 1:12 and 1:17, respectively.  I went through at 1:10.  I knew I was starting at a good pace, but I was still surprised to be this fast.  I was on pace for 29:10, which would be an all-time PR.

I checked my time again at 400 meters.  It was 2:23.  I slowed down by a few seconds, but I was still on pace to break 30 minutes.

My time at 600 meters was 3:35.  I was still on a 30-minute pace, but I was already having to fight for it.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain this pace much longer.

I didn’t think to check my pace at 800 meters, but at 1,000 meters, I saw that I was slowing down.  For the rest of the race, I only checked my time on the side of the track where I would finish.  I also gave up on a 30-minute pace.  Instead, I paid attention to whether I was still doing my laps at a pace that would bring me in under 32:15.  After a few more laps, my pace stabilized at about 2:30 per lap.  That’s about five seconds per lap faster than I needed to be.

By now, I was starting to lap some of the other walkers.  By the end of the race, I would lap everyone at least once.  I lapped most of the other walkers multiple times.  Fortunately, there weren’t that many other walkers on the track.  One thing that was annoying is that I always seemed to overtake other walkers when I was on a turn.  I rarely made it through a turn without having to go out into the second lane, which adds a little extra distance to the turn.

There were occasional wind gusts from the north.  I only felt the wind when I was going around the turn at the east end of the track.  Going around that turn, my mouth always got dry.

With six laps to go, I was really struggling to hold the pace.  I had one had that took 2:40.  Before that, my slowest lap was 2:31.  That one slow lap scared me, and I fought hard to pick up the pace.  After that, every remaining lap was 2:30 or faster.

With three laps to go, I felt like I was hanging on for dear life, but I put in as much effort as I could.  I eventually finished in 30:43, winning the race and easily meeting the performance standard to advance to nationals.

I knew the race-walking judge, because I see him every year at the FANS 24-hour race.  After the race, he told me my form was perfect for the first 10 ½ laps, but fatigue was affecting my form in the last two laps.  In those two laps, it was getting to be questionable as to whether I was straightening my knee by the time I made contact.  It might not be enough to get me disqualified in a more tightly officiated race, but it’s something I need to work on.

Overall, I was pleased with my performance.  The best part is I didn’t have any unusual soreness after the race.  I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to race this fast without hurting myself.

I’ve only walked one other judged 5K race.  That was 30 years ago.  My time then was 29:38.  In 30 years, I’ve only lost a minute and five seconds.

At some point, I’ll get an invitation to the National Senior Games.  Those will be held next May in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Whether I’ll go is still up in the air.  It’ll depend on several factors.  Am I back to running by then?  Am I doing sufficient race-walk training to have a good race at nationals?  Does it conflict with other races that are more important to me?  I don’t know any of those answers, but it’s nice to know I’ll have the opportunity.

Race Statistics

Distance:  5000 meters

Time:  30:43

Average Pace:  9:55 per mile

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 4

Today was the fourth and final day of the Alaska Series.  Today’s race was on the same course as yesterday’s race.  For the third time in four days, I race-walked.

I have a long-term goal of doing a quadzilla (4 marathons in 4 days) in as many states as I can.  I signed up for this series last year, so I could do a quadzilla in Alaska.  The series was cancelled last year because of COVID-19, so I deferred my entry to this year.  At the beginning of April, I still wasn’t training, so I was worried about being in shape to do a quadzilla in August.  I started getting in shape by race-walking, but I was still hoping to run the races.  Eventually, I realized I would need to race-walk them.  I was even more worried about being in shape to do that, since I had never done that before.

Yesterday was the first time I race-walked a marathon after doing a marathon the day before.  It may have helped that I mostly ran the day before, since running emphasizes different muscle groups than race-walking.  Today was the first time I race-walked a marathon for a second straight day.  I didn’t hold back much either Tuesday or yesterday, so I knew I would be fatigued.

Today’s race was the toughest of the four, but it was also the most gratifying.  Today was the day I would finally complete a quadzilla in Alaska.

I had an assortment of sore muscles, but my knee no longer felt stiff.  I think yesterday’s race worked wonders for it.  Meanwhile, the blister that bothered me in the last two races also bothered me during the night.  It’s a blood blister underneath one of my toenails.  This morning, I poked a pin under the toenail, so I could drain it and relieve some of the pressure.  That helped.  It didn’t bother me during today’s race.

When I went to bed last night the forecast was for a 68% chance of rain from early morning through noon.  When I got up this morning, the first thing I did was to look out my window.  The parking lot was wet, but I didn’t see any rain coming down.  I checked the hourly forecast again.  Now it was showing a 56% chance of rain throughout the morning hours, with a higher chance of rain in the afternoon.  Maybe we would get lucky today.

It still wasn’t raining when I left the hotel, but it started drizzling as I was driving to the race.  It stopped about the time I got there.  For the first time in three days, we had a dry start.

Even though it wasn’t raining, it felt a little bit chilly.  There was a cold breeze blowing through the valley.  I started the race wearing a Tyvek jacket.

Yesterday, I expected to be sluggish at the start, so I put extra effort into getting into a quick walking rhythm.  Today, I was more confident, so I didn’t work as hard in the first lap.  Yesterday, I averaged 24 minutes per lap for most of the race.  Today, I settled into a pace that was about 30 seconds per lap slower.

Halfway through my first lap, I started to feel warm, so I unzipped my jacket.  By the middle of my second lap, I was sufficiently warmed up that I felt hot even with the jacket unzipped.  After that lap, I took the jacket off and put it in my drop bag.

I’m not sure when they started doing this, but before one race of each Mainly Marathon series, Daniel hides a “loonicorn” sticker somewhere along the course.  The “loonicorn” is a mythical loon.  Whoever finds the loonicorn gets a special T-shirt.  Before the race, Daniel announced that today was the day he had hidden the loonicorn.

For the first few laps of the race, I was scanning the bushes and other landmarks along either side of the course.  I never slowed down or left the trail, but I was looking around.  I saw several others doing the same thing.  A few runners, who were taking it more seriously, were sometimes stopping and going a few feet off of the trail to look in the bushes.  One of the runners doing this was Trena, who everyone knew really wanted that T-shirt.  Trena was doing the 5K race today, but she was mostly looking for the loonicorn.  When I went by, she said she was probably going to do the world’s slowest 5K

By the middle of my fourth lap, I no longer saw people looking for the loonicorn.  I assume word got out that someone had found it.  It was Trena.

In the other races of this series, I always did a measured effort.  I was walking at a pace that was tiring, but I was always conscious of how many laps I had left and whether I thought the pace was sustainable.  Today I wasn’t doing that.  I was walking at a brisk pace, but I wasn’t putting quite as much effort into it.  I wasn’t thinking about how many laps I had left.  I was walking at a pace that I knew I could walk for several hours.  I just kept doing laps.

My mindset changed in the sixth lap.  That’s when the rain started.  At first, I started seeing a few small drops hitting the puddles.  It took a few more minutes before I started to feel the drops.  At first, I wasn’t concerned.  It wasn’t enough to make me think I would need a jacket or rain poncho.

In the second half of that lap, it felt different.  I was no longer feeling individual drops.  Instead, I felt like I was walking through mist.  I looked up at the mountains in front of me, and they were shrouded in mist.  I felt like I was running through the same mist at ground level.  I was going into the wind, so it felt cold as the front of my shirt started getting wet.

By the end of that lap, I was again noticing individual drops.  Now there were more of them.  It wasn’t raining hard, but it was gradually turning into a steady light rain.

In my drop bag, I had both a plastic rain poncho, and the Tyvek jacket I was wearing earlier.  The rain poncho is waterproof, but I wondered if it would be too hot.  The Tyvek jacket isn’t waterproof, but it takes a long time for water to soak through it.  I knew I could put the jacket on quickly, so as I started my next lap, I put on my jacket.  At first, I left it unzipped in front.  The front of my shirt was already wet, and I was worried the jacket would trap too much heat if it was zipped up.

Early in the seventh lap, a runner came alongside of me.  He was doing the half marathon and he was in his last lap.  We were going at about the same pace.  I sped up a bit to match his running pace, so we could talk.  As we talked, we both slowed down, but we stayed together for the whole lap.  That made that lap seem easier for both of us.

When I finished that lap, I was half done with the marathon.  I was noticing the rain more, so I zipped up my jacket.

In the second half of the race, the trail started to seem lonely.  Several of the runners doing the half marathon were done now.  Our route went past two lakes, and there was a small hill between them.  On one of my laps, I went over this hill and didn’t see anyone else all the way to the turnaround.  There were still about two dozen people on the course, but none of them happened to be at the same end of the course where I was.  I experience the same thing on the next lap.

Now that my jacket was zipped up, I felt like I had to measure my pace carefully.  It wasn’t a question of walking at a sustainable pace.  Instead, I found that if walked too fast, I would start to get hot.  I wanted to speed up and get done as quickly as I could, but I didn’t want to work so hard that I would overheat.

It still wasn’t raining hard, but with six laps to go, it had been raining long enough that my shoes were soaked.  Inside my shoes, they felt squishy.  Now I had another reason to be careful about my pace.  I worried if I pushed too hard to speed up, it might cause one of my insoles to slip within my shoe.  I no longer had the same carefree attitude I had earlier.  Now I was much more conscious of the number of laps I had left.

When I finished my ninth lap, I only had five laps to go.  That sounded manageable until I realized five laps would take me about two hours.  Five laps doesn’t sound like much.  Two hours sounds like a long time.

That’s a problem with race-walking.  It takes a lot longer than running.  For most of my life, I could run a marathon in three and a half hours.  At that pace, I would’ve been done by now.  Instead, I still had two hours to go.

By now, I was pretty sure it was going to be raining for the rest of the race.  I hated the feeling of my soaking wet shoes.  I also was starting to feel the rain gradually soaking through my jacket.  I probably should’ve opted for the rain poncho.  As my jacket got wet, it eventually began to feel like I was wearing a wet rag.

With four laps to go, I told myself it would take me another hour and 36 minutes to finish.  Clicking off one lap didn’t seem like a big deal.  Counting down 24 minutes seemed more significant.  I wasn’t worried about having the energy to finish.  I only cared how much longer I had to endure the miserable conditions.  Miles and laps had no meaning.

For the rest of the race, I was counting down the remaining time.  It was a big deal when I reached the turnaround in my 12th lap.  That’s when I had just one hour to go.

By this time, I was noticing a funny feeling inside my left shoe.  My insole was sliding forward.  Eventually, it would move so far forward that I would feel it curling up inside the toe box.  All I could do was try to ignore it.

Just like yesterday, the wind was coming from the south.  I really felt it in the early laps.  Then it died down.  Later in the race, it got strong again.

In the second half of my 13th lap, the wind felt really cold.  My legs began to feel cold and stiff.  I knew it would probably rain today, but I underestimated how cold it would feel.  I regretted my decision to wear shorts instead of tights.

Getting through the second half of that lap was tough.  When I started my last lap, I had the wind at my back for the first half.  When I reached the turnaround, I dreaded going into the wind again.

I didn’t feel it at first.  It wasn’t until I went over the small hill between the lakes that I really felt it.  Now my legs were really cold.

If my legs get too cold for too long, I can have circulation issues.  Blood vessels in my legs constrict, and I don’t get as much blood flow to my muscles.  With about half a mile to go, I started to experience that.  My legs felt so stiff that it took everything I had to keep them moving.  More than once, my legs seemed to quit on me, and I almost came to a stop.  Each time, I forced myself to keep moving.

I was grateful to be in my last lap.  If wasn’t about being tired or being relieved to be finished.  I honestly don’t think I could’ve done another lap.  I barely managed to finish this one.

I finished the race in 5:40:23.  Despite all the difficulties I had in the second half, I managed negative splits by three minutes.  In the first half of the race my pace was relaxed.  In the second half, I felt at times like it was a battle for survival.  Interestingly enough, I had negative splits in all four races of this series.

After I finished, I got the last two pieces for my chain of medals.  The medal for today’s race was a caribou.  Then there was an extra medal signifying that I finished every race of the series.

I got back to the hotel as quickly as I could, so I could get out of my wet clothes.  By then, my fingers were already turning white.  After a hot bath, I felt much better.

By finishing today’s race, I also finished my Alaska quadzilla.  Now I’ve completed a quadzilla in eight different states.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:40:23

Average Pace:  12:59

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  439

Alaska Marathons:  7

Marathons/Ultras Race-Walking:  21

Quadzilla States:  8

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 3

On August 5, I race-walked the third race of the Alaska Series.  Today’s race was at a different venue than the first two races.  Our course was a paved trail at Twin Lakes.  The Twin Lakes are two narrow lakes just north of Salmon Creek. They’re right next to the highway that runs between downtown Juneau and the Mendenhall Valley.

The trail followed the eastern shore of both lakes.  We started at the south end of one lake, went all the way past that lake, and about half the length of the next lake.  Then we turned around and went back.  We needed to do 14 laps for a marathon.

Yesterday, I ran most of the race.  I ran more than I planned, and way more than I probably should have.  Immediately after yesterday’s race, my knee felt OK.  A few hours later, my knee started to feel stiff.  I iced it after the race and again in the evening, but I knew I shouldn’t do any running today.

Yesterday, I forgot to pack a rain poncho.  I had to compensate for my lack of rain gear by wearing clothes that were warm and didn’t soak up too much water.  Today, I remembered the rain poncho.  I actually packed it last night, so I wouldn’t forget.

When I looked at the forecast last night, it seemed likely it would rain for the entire race.  When I checked again this morning, the forecast was slightly more optimistic.  It was still going to rain, but it might clear up a couple hours after the race started.

As I was getting dressed, I checked my weather app, and it said it was currently cloudy.  I was surprised it wasn’t raining.  This is when the probability of rain was the highest.  I wondered if we would get lucky and it wouldn’t rain after all.

My hopes were dashed as soon as I stepped outside.  It was raining.  It might not rain for the whole race, but we were going to have a wet start.  No matter what happened after that, I would have wet shoes for the entire race.

My goal today was to finish in less than six hours.  Ideally, I wanted to break 5:47, which is my slowest time for walking a marathon.  It wasn’t necessary to go any faster.

When I got to the start, I was pleased to see that the aid station was inside a small shelter.  Our drop bag area was a set of picnic tables that was also covered.

Before the start, my right knee still felt stiff.  I flexed my knee several times to loosen it up, but it didn’t seem to help.  I wondered how it would feel when I started walking.  Thankfully, it didn’t bother me at all when I started walking.  It actually felt much better when I was moving.

I expected my walking to be slow and sluggish.  This is the first time I’ve ever race-walked a marathon after doing a marathon the day before.  It took about a minute to get into my rhythm, but then it felt surprisingly easy.

About half a mile into the first lap, I happened to glance at my watch.  It wasn’t running.  I remembered pressing the start button, but I was wearing gloves.  I must not have made a firm contact.  At this point, the best thing I could do was to start it at the end of my first lap, and track my lap times from that point on.

When I finished my first lap, I asked Daniel how much time had elapsed.  He said I did the first lap in 23:02.  I immediately started my watch and set out on my second lap.

That first lap was surprisingly fast.  It put me on pace for a 5:22 marathon.  That’s much faster than I expected.  I slowed down a bit in the second lap and more in the third.  Eventually, I settled into consistent 24-minute laps.  That was still a bit fast, but it wasn’t crazy fast.

Before the race, it had been raining steadily.  About the same time the race started, the rain began to let up.  I still felt drops, and I could see them hitting the puddles, but it was just a sprinkling.

By the time I started my third lap, it seemed like the rain might be stopping completely.  I pushed my hood back, but I kept the poncho on.  By the end of that lap, I realized I was going to be too warm with the poncho if it was no longer raining.  After that lap, I stopped long enough to take it off and put it in my drop bag.

I was in the second half of my 4th lap, when I glanced over at one of the lakes and saw raindrops hitting the water.  I didn’t feel it yet, but it was raining again.  I didn’t want to have to stop again to put my poncho on, so I decided to go without it as long as I didn’t get too cold.

In my next lap, the rain seemed to stop again.  After another lap, I noticed the sun occasionally shining through a gap in the clouds.  By now, I was pretty sure the rain was done.  I was starting to feel hot, so I took my gloves off.

There was a breeze blowing from the south.  In the first half of each lap, it was at my back, so it didn’t do anything to cool me.  That’s when I often felt hot.  In the second half of each lap, I was going into the wind.  Then I felt more comfortable.  Sometimes, it even felt cold.  That pattern persisted for the rest of the race.

I wasn’t quite half done when my left shoe started to feel funny.  I suspected my insole might be slipping.  It wasn’t too bad, so I did my best to ignore it.  Thankfully, it never got worse.

I was also noticing a painful blister on one of the toes of that foot.  I don’t usually get blisters on the tips of my toes when I’m walking.  This was a blister that I first noticed yesterday, when I was running.  Now that it was there, it hurt both running and walking.

When I finished my 7th lap, I was half done.  I was still averaging 24 minutes per lap, which put me on pace to finish in 5:36.  I tried to tell myself that I could afford to slow down, but I was in a nice rhythm.  I continued to consistently click off laps in 24 minutes each.

One of the runners was celebrating her 100th marathon.  She brought cupcakes.  I don’t normally eat much solid food during a race, but now that I was half done, I grabbed a cupcake and ate it while I was walking.

When I finished my 10th lap, I just had four to go.  I was still trying to convince myself to slow down a bit and save some energy for tomorrow.  I tried to tell myself I had 18 laps to go (including 14 tomorrow), and I should pace myself accordingly.  I tell myself a lot of things.  I usually give myself good advice.  The problem is I never seem to listen to myself.  I continued to click off 24-minute laps.

The closer I got to finishing, the more I became emotionally invested in maintaining the same pace.  With only a few laps to go, I wanted to have even splits.

There’s a runner who lapped me at least twice on Monday, but never lapped me today.  I kept seeing her walking, and I was getting close to catching her.  I picked up my effort just a bit and caught her just before the end of my 13th lap.  I later learned that she ran the first half of the race and walked the second half.  She was saving something for tomorrow.  Obviously, she’s smarter than I am.

As I finished that lap, Daniel asked me if I had one lap to go.  I said, “15 laps, including tomorrow.”  Even when I said it out loud, I didn’t listen.  As I started my last lap, I was on pace to do the second half about 30 seconds faster than the first half.

I was determined to at least do even splits.  As I started my last lap, I put effort into maintaining my pace.  I didn’t realize it, but I was actually speeding up … a lot.

In between the two lakes, we go up and down a small hill.  For 13 laps, I never noticed it.  In my last lap, I finally realized there was a hill.  As I crested the hill, I started to get hot.  The sun was out, and I could feel it.  I reminded myself I just had to get to the turnaround, and then I would have the cool breeze all the way back.

At I reached the turnaround, I looked at my watch.  I did the first half of that lap in 10:30.  Suddenly, I was on pace to have negative splits by at least two minutes.

Now I wanted to see if I could keep up the same pace on the way back.  I tried, but I couldn’t quite do it.  I finished the race in 5:33:45.  My last lap was 21:15.  To put that in perspective, if I had done every lap that fast, I would’ve finished in less than five hours.

I got another medal to add to the chain.  The medal for today’s race was in the shape of a wolf.

Since the race, I didn’t notice any stiffness in my right knee.  Doing several hours of walking did wonders.  Now that I’ve been sitting for a while, It’s starting to stiffen up again.  I’m still worried about the knee, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be an issue for tomorrow’s race.  Instead, I have to worry if I have any gas left in the tank.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:33:45

Average Pace:  12:44

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  438

Alaska Marathons:  6

Marathons/Ultras Race-Walking:  20

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 2

On August 4, I ran the second race of the Alaska Series, in Juneau, AK.  That’s not a typo.  I ran this one.  Actually, I did a run/walk mix, but I did a substantial amount of running.

Every so often, I do a run/walk workout that includes a quarter mile of running for each mile.  At first, these workouts aggravated my right knee, even though the amount of walking was minimal.  I would try again every few weeks, usually with the same result.

More recently, I started doing run/walk workouts once a week.  Two weeks ago, I did a five-mile run/walk workout and barely noticed any knee discomfort while running.  I still noticed increased discomfort walking up and down stairs, but not as much as after my previous run/walk workouts.

Last week, I stepped up to a seven-mile run/walk workout, and it was encouraging.  I didn’t notice any knee discomfort while running, and I barely noticed a difference afterwards when I walked up and down stairs.

I felt I was ready to step up to a longer distance, so I decided to try a run/walk mix during one of the races of this series.  I was originally planning to wait until the last day.  That was before I saw the courses.

Today’s race was on the same course as yesterday’s race.  It’s mostly on a dirt trail and there’s a section that isn’t easy to race-walk.  By contrast, the course for the last two races in this series is entirely paved.  It looks like a great surface for race-walking.  With that in mind, I decided to try running today and then race-walk the last two races of the series.

It was about five degrees warmer than it was at the start of yesterday’s race.  There was rain in the forecast, but it wasn’t raining when I left the hotel.  I felt overdressed in tights yesterday, so I wore shorts today.  I wore a fairly warm tech T-shirt, and brought some other clothes that I could keep in a drop bag.

I opted to wear gaiters again, but I had mixed feelings.  On one hand, they were effective at keeping dirt out of my shoes yesterday.  On the other hand, they would get wet and muddy if it rained during today’s race.

I wasn’t expecting the rain to start until an hour or two after the race started.  Within minutes of leaving the hotel, it started to rain.  That made me realize I had forgotten to put my plastic rain poncho in my drop bag.

After getting to the start area, I made a last-minute decision to put on a long sleeve polypro shirt.  My race bib was pinned to my T-shirt, so I put the polypro shirt under my T-shirt.  I also started the race wearing my jacket and polypro gloves.

Since there was one segment of the trail that wasn’t easy to race-walk, I decided that would be the section I would run.  Yesterday, I picked two landmarks that were a quarter mile apart.  I ran the section between them in both directions.  That meant I was doing about a half mile of running during each lap.  If I kept that up for the whole race, it would add up to eight total miles of running.

The section I was running had some rocks imbedded in the trail.  It also had one awkward down and up crossing a gully.  I ran cautiously, taking small steps, going slowly, and staying on the balls of my feet.  It felt OK, but it didn’t seem like my running pace was much faster than my race-walking pace.  Partly that’s because of the way I was running, but I doubt if I could run very fast even with an all-out effort.  I’m just not in shape for it.

I paid close attention to how my right knee felt.  I could detect a hint of discomfort, but it was barely perceptible.  I only noticed it because I was comparing my right knee to my left knee.

After one complete lap, I started to feel warm.  I unzipped my jacket.  By the middle of my second lap, I realized the jacket was too warm, in combination with the layers I was wearing underneath.  When I finished my second lap, I took off my jacket and put it in my drop bag.

For the next two laps, I felt fairly comfortable.  Then the rain started to let up.  Without the rain, I suddenly felt overdressed.  I took off my gloves and stuffed them in my fanny pack.

That’s about all I could do without a time-consuming stop.  Now that it wasn’t raining, I was overdressed with both the T-shirt and the polypro shirt.  I couldn’t easily take off the polypro shirt, because it was underneath my T-shirt.  I couldn’t easily take off the T-shirt, because it had my race bib.  Without knowing if it would start raining again, I left them both on and accepted that I would be a little bit hot.

I was in my sixth lap when I felt one of my insoles slipping within the shoe.  I wear orthotics, so I always remove the insoles that come with the shoes, and I replace them with Spenco insoles, so there’s room for my orthotics.  That usually works well, but if my shoes get too wet, the insoles can slide forward within the shoes.  When that happens, the insole bunches up in the front of my shoe, and it gets really uncomfortable.  I’ve noticed that this is most likely to happen when I’m running down a steep hill or when I’m doing frequent transitions between running and walking.

If I only had a few laps to go, I would live with the discomfort.  I still had 10 laps to go, so I stopped at the aid station to fix it.  I had to remove my gaiter, so I could take off my shoe.  It took time to get the insole back into the proper position and put my shoe back on.  I didn’t bother putting my gaiter back on.  The trail was wet enough that I wasn’t worried about getting loose dirt in my shoes.  Since I had stopped for a few minutes already, I also made a bathroom stop.  Then I started my 7th lap.

If I went back to the same run/walk mix I was doing before, I would probably have the same issue again within a lap or two.  My knee was feeling OK, so I decided to just ran the rest of the way.  If my knee bothered me, I could always switch to walking.

After running the next two laps, I was half done with the race.  In the first six laps, I ran three total miles.  In the next two laps, I ran about 3.3.  At this point, I had already run more miles today than in the previous six months combined.  Running continuously felt tiring, but it was no more tiring than race-walking.  I decided to stick with it as long as my knee wasn’t bothering me.

My time at the halfway point was faster than yesterday, but not by that much.  So far, I was only five minutes faster, which was disappointing considering how much running I was doing.  I expected the second half to be faster, but I realized already that I would still take more than five hours to finish.

When I was only running the most difficult part of the trail, I had to run cautiously.  Now that I was also running the easy parts of the course, I felt like I could open it up a little.  Where it was flat, and I had good footing, I started to run with a more relaxed stride.  I also picked up the pace a little.  Still, it was much slower than the pace I’m accustomed to running.

Early in the second half of the race, it started to rain again.  I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad news.  As it turns out, it didn’t matter.  The rain only lasted for about 10 minutes.

With five laps to go, I was tempted to switch back to run/walk, but I didn’t want to have insole problems again.  I didn’t want to stop again, and five laps was too far to live with the discomfort if the insole moved forward within my shoe.  I decided to run for at least one more lap.  Then I’d only have four laps to go.

When I had four laps to go, I again persuaded myself to run at least one more lap.  If I had insole problems, three laps of run/walk would feel more manageable than four.

With three laps to go, I caught up to two runners who had been just ahead of me for a long time.  They were going at about my pace, but they were doing a different run/walk mix.  They mostly ran, but sometimes took brief walking breaks going up hills.  I adapted to their run/walk mix, so I could talk to them for the rest of the race.  That made the last three laps seem to go by quicker.

I finished the race in 5:11:16.  I was about 14 minutes faster in the second half.  If I had run the entire race, I probably would’ve broken five hours, but not by much.

In all, I ran about 19 miles of the race.  Most of that was continuous running.  It wasn’t fast, but it was the first time in months that I felt like I was doing meaningful training for running.

When I finished, I got the next piece in my chain of medals.  Today’s medal was in the shape of a moose.

When I got back to the hotel, I wasn’t sure what do first.  I reheated some leftover pizza, so I could refuel.  While I was eating, I iced my knee.  Then I took a hot bath and did some stretching.  Finally, I massaged a few muscles with my massage stick.

I don’t know for sure how this much running affected my knee.  Usually, the real test is seeing how my knee feels going up or down stairs.  When I’m home, I go up or down stairs several times a day.  When I’m staying in a hotel, I don’t go up or down any stairs.  I feel like I’ve given my knee a test, but the test hasn’t been graded yet.

There are two more races in this series.  They’ll both be on a different course.  I’ve already gone to check out that course.  It’s paved and looks to be pretty flat.  It should be a good course for race-walking.

At this point, my plan is to race-walk both of those races.  The only wildcard is the weather.  I’m not sure what I’ll do if it rains, and I have problems with my insoles.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:11:16

Average Pace:  11:52

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  437

Alaska Marathons:  5

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 1

On August 3, I race-walked the first race of the Alaska Series, in Juneau, AK.  The Alaska Series is a 4-day series of marathons sponsored by Mainly Marathons.  I was registered for this series last year, but the series was cancelled, because of COVID-19.  This year, I finally got my chance.

I originally assumed I would be running these races.  It wasn’t until June that I realized I wouldn’t recover from a knee injury in time to run them.  Instead, I trained to race-walk them.

I’ve run series like this on many occasions, but I’ve never race-walked marathons on consecutive days.  I find race-walking to be much more tiring.  In late July, I walked four marathons in a span of nine days.  I experimented with different paces, and I think I found the pace that I would allow be to finish in less than six hours, while still saving some energy for the next day.

There aren’t any direct flights from Minneapolis to Juneau.  I had to change planes in Seattle.  I didn’t arrive in Juneau until 10:30 PM.  Knowing I would have a late arrival, I got here on Sunday, so I wouldn’t have a race the next morning.

Because I arrived so late, I didn’t pick up my rental car until Monday morning.  My hotel is close enough to the airport that I was able to walk there Sunday night.  After picking up my rental car, I bought some groceries.  Then I drove to each of the race venues to make sure I knew the way, and to see where I could park.  At the venue for today’s race, I met four other runners, who were also checking out the race venue.

Monday afternoon, I drove to Mendenhall Glacier to do some sightseeing.  I didn’t want to overdo the hiking, but I did the Nugget Falls hike.

On my way back from the Nugget Falls hike, I met another runner.  She recognized my 2018 Boston Marathon jacket, because she was there the same year.  It turns out she’s also here for the Alaska Series and she was at one of the races I did last month.  It’s a small world.

We have two different race venues.  Today’s race was on Douglas Island.  The course was a segment of the Treadwell Trail, starting and finishing in Savikko Park.  It was an out-and-back route.  To finish a marathon, we needed to do 16 laps.  There was also a half marathon, which consisted of eight laps.  As with other Mainly Marathons races, there was one aid station in the start/finish area.

The trail surface was a mixture of pavement, hard-packed dirt, and gravel.  Most of it was fairly flat, but there was one section with some undulations, including one spot where we went into and out of a gully.  This brief hilly section also had some rocks imbedded in the trail.  It might’ve been fine for running, but it wasn’t the easiest section to walk.

Packet pickup started at 6:00 AM, and the race started at 7:00.  I got to the start just after 6:00, before the line for packet pickup got too long.  We use the same race bibs for the entire series, so I won’t have to get there as early the other days.

All of my recent marathons were in Minnesota, with temperatures climbing into the 80s.  It’s much cooler here in Alaska.  For the entire race, the temperature was in the 50s.

I was a bit conflicted about what to wear.  If I was running, I would consider these temperatures ideal, and I would wear shorts.  I was going to be on the course much longer, and I wasn’t planning to go all-out, so I wore tights as a hedge against my legs getting cold.  All of my recent races have been in much higher temperatures, so I wasn’t too worried about getting too hot.

At home, we’ve had bad air quality lately.  Last week, there were days when you could step outside and immediately smell smoke.  I had mixed feelings about training with so many particles in the air.  I didn’t walk as many miles as usual.  It was a relief to get to Alaska and have nice clean air for these races.

I wanted to walk at a pace that wouldn’t tire me out too much for the next three races.  I didn’t want my pace to be slower than 13 minutes per mile, but I also didn’t want to be too much faster than that.

I wasn’t trying to start fast, but I walked the first mile in 12:17.  That was a little too fast.  I didn’t go out of my way to slow down, but I told myself I could relax a little.  That didn’t work.  I walked the second mile in 12:01, which was clearly way too fast.  I suspect I had extra energy after an unusually light week of training.

By now, I was into my second lap.  In my first lap, I found I had to work harder to maintain my pace going through the brief hilly section.  Starting with my second lap, I didn’t put any effort into maintaining my pace through this section.  I allowed myself to slow down for a few minutes, and then I got back into my rhythm when the course leveled out.  I also found myself speeding up at the beginning and end of each lap, where the course was paved.

Overall, I was now going at a more reasonable pace.  For the next several laps, my mile times were between 12:30 and 13:00.

I was expecting a cloudy day, but it was mostly sunny for most of the morning.  Most of the course was shady, and when I was in the sun, I started to get hot.  I felt foolish wearing tights.  I would’ve been comfortable in shorts.

At the halfway point, I was on pace to finish in about 5:34.  By then, I was beginning to feel a cool breeze.  The trail was close to the Gastineau Channel, which separates Douglas Island from downtown Juneau.  The water in the channel is always cold, so air cools down when the wind blows through that valley.  At first, I only felt the cool breeze when I was near the start/finish area.  Later, I also felt the cool breeze when I was walking through the forest.  In the second half of the race, I was never hot.

Twice, I sped up briefly, so I could talk to one of the runners.  The first time I did that, it didn’t seem to take too much out of me.  The next time, it did.  Even after slowing down to my usual pace, I started to find the pace tiring.

By now, I was into my 10th lap, but I still had almost seven laps to go, and I wondered if I should slow down.  My next mile was 13:14, which was my slowest so far.  I didn’t go out of my way to slow down.  I just didn’t put any extra effort into maintaining the same pace.  I wondered if the rest of my miles would be in the 13:00 to 13:30 range.  I may have slowed a little, but at least half of my remaining miles were still between 12:30 and 13:00.

The last time I walked a marathon that was partially on a dirt surface, the dust got into my shoes, and I developed horrible blisters.  Today, I was wearing gaiters.  They're good at keeping dust and grit out of the back of my shoes, but they don't cover the toe box.  I was worried about dust getting into the toe box and causing friction between my big toes and the top of the toe box.  Late in the race, I was relieved that I wasn't noticing any blisters yet.

With four laps to go, I got the sense that I was going too fast today.  I wasn’t going to have any difficulty finishing, but I also wasn’t going finish feeling fresh.  It didn’t seem like I was leaving enough gas in the tank for the next three days.

Early in my last lap, I saw my time for my 25th mile.  It was 12:23, which was my fastest mile since mile two.  I think I was subconsciously speeding up in anticipation of finishing.  I slowed down after that, but I still finished in 5:34:50.  My time for the second half was about a minute slower than my time for the first half.

Within minutes of finishing, my legs started to feel stiff.  That confirmed my suspicion that I walked too fast today.  The next three days may be harder as a result.

Like other Mainly Marathons series, this series has medals that link together to form a chain.  Today, I received the top piece, plus the medal for today’s race.  Today’s medal is in the shape of a bear.

After the race, I had lunch with five other runners at a pub on Douglas Island that has pizza.  By the time I got back to the hotel, it was almost 2:30.

After taking a bath, doing some stretches, and working on my legs with a massage stock, my legs felt much better.  I don’t think I’ll start tomorrow’s race feeling sore, but I do worry that I won’t have as much energy tomorrow.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:34:50

Average Pace: 12:46 

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  436

Alaska Marathons:  4

Marathons/Ultras Race-walking:  19

Race Report: 2021 Xenia Avenue Marathon

On July 24, I race-walked the Xenia Avenue Marathon in Champlin, MN.  This is the second time I’ve done this race.  I ran the inaugural race last year.

When I signed up for this race, I was training for the 4-day Alaska Series, but I wanted to get one marathon under my belt before doing four in a row.  More recently, I walked three other marathons, making this my fourth race in a span of nine days.

Champlin is about 35 miles from home, so I didn’t need to stay in a hotel.  I drove up on Friday to pick up my race packet.  Then I drove up again this morning for the race.

The weather was much warmer than you want for a marathon.  The overnight low was 72 degrees, and I expected the temperature to climb into the upper 80s by noon.  It rained during the night, but the rain was done before the race started.  It didn’t do anything to help with the heat, but it did take some of the smoke out of the air.

Because I did this race last year, I was already familiar with the course.  Most of the course was along paved bike paths.  We did one relatively short loop that included some residential streets.  Then we did five laps of a longer loop that was entirely on bike paths.

There were two aid stations on the course.  One was in the start/finish area, and the other was about halfway through the main loop.  Volunteers set bottles of water on tables, and we could grab a bottle as we went by.  I wore a fuel belt, so it would be easy to keep a bottle with me until I finished it.

The biggest difference between this year’s race and last year is that I was race-walking this year.  That meant I could expect to be on the course for about an hour and a half longer.  That’s if I put an all-out effort into walking as fast as I can.  I wasn’t planning to go all out.

I never bothered to look at who else was registered for this race.  When I got to the start, I was surprised to see Alexis Davidson.  Alexis is a race-walker.  He’s walked hundreds of marathons, and his time is usually less than five hours.  Ordinarily, I wouldn’t expect to be able to keep up with him.  Because of the heat, he said he’d be happy with any time under six hours.  With that in mind, I lined up next to him.

We started in a small neighborhood park across the street from Champlin Park High School.  By the time we got out of the park, most of the runners were ahead of us, and I was walking next to Alexis.  It wasn’t long before I started finding the pace to be a little bit tiring, and I wondered how fast we started.  We walked that first mile in 11:38.  Had I been on my own, I would’ve tried to keep my pace between 12:30 and 13:00.  I was a little worried about blowing up, but I decided to stick with Alexis for a few more miles and see how it went.

By now, we were on the only part of the course that follows residential streets.  That included two blocks along Xenia Avenue, for which the race is named.

I was expecting the aid stations to have bottles of water and Powerade.  The water was in  bottles, but the Powerade was in cups.  I drank a cup of Powerade and didn’t carry anything with me.

I didn’t notice my split for the second mile, but the next two were with in the 11:40s.  This was still somewhat fast, but it no longer felt tiring.  Alexis and I were talking constantly.  Normally, I can only walk fast if I’m completely focused on both my effort and my mechanics.  Today, it seemed to help me to be distracted by conversation.

About halfway through our first big lap, we reached the other aid station on the course.  They also had water in bottles and Powerade in cups.  I seemed to be doing fine just drinking a cup of Powerade at each aid station, so I continued to do that.  I could always start drinking water later, but for now, it was nice not needing to take a bottle with me.  I did, however, feel foolish wearing a fuel belt that I wasn’t using.

For the next several miles, we slowed down a bit.  Now our pace was settling into the 12:00 to 12:30 range.  This was still faster than I planned to walk, but it felt comfortable.

We were almost halfway through the race before we finally had a mile that was slower than 12:30.  We reached the halfway mark on pace for 5:20, but I expected to slow down in the second half.  By now it was getting really hot.  Earlier in the race, we had some cloud cover, but now it was sunny.

Over the next several miles we gradually slowed down from 12:30 per mile to 13:30.  Alexis was struggling with the heat.  I wasn’t bothered by the heat, but after starting so fast, I was content to slow down, as long as we were still easily on pace to break six hours.

After about 19 miles, we slowed down dramatically.  In one mile, our pace slowed from 13:30 to 14:30.  Alexis was really bothered by the hot conditions.  On my own, I would’ve gone faster, but I stayed with him for the whole race.

We were on our second to last lap.  As we went through the remote aid station, we didn’t see any more water bottles on the table.  We decided to each grab a bottle when we got back to the start/finish area, just in case they ran out of water at the remote aid station.

As we began our last lap, I drank a cup of Powerade and put a full bottle of water in my fuel belt.  For the first time in the race, I was carrying a little extra weight, but I was finding the pace to be easy at this point.

I didn’t drink any water before reaching the last aid station.  I drank a cup of Powerade and kept walking.  About half a mile later, I finally opened the bottle and started drinking the water.

In the last two miles, we slowed down some more.  We weren’t really race-walking any more.  Now we were just walking at a brisk pace.  I could live with that as long as we would finish in less than six hours.  We were still way ahead of that pace.

When we finally got back to the park for the last time, I looked ahead to see the digital clock at the finish line.  It didn’t look like I would break 5:45, but I neglected to consider how much time in took me to cross the starting line after the race started.  Alexis and I were lined up near the back.  When I finished, my chip time was 5:44:44.  Alexis was right behind me.

It was really nice having someone else to walk with.  When I'm race-walking, I'm usually by myself for the whole race.  I don't see many other race-walkers, and it's rare for a runner to be consistently going at the pace I'm walking.  This was a nice change of pace.

This was my fourth marathon in a span of nine days.  In the first one, I learned how fast I can walk a marathon with an all-out effort.  In the second one, I was reminded how badly I can crash if I start too fast.  In the third one, I found a pace I could comfortably sustain when I already had tired legs.  In this race, I could’ve gone much faster in the second half, but I had the patience to hold back.  I’ve been preparing to do a series of four marathons in four days.  I think all the pieces are in place now. 

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:44:44

Average Pace:  13:09 per mile

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  435

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  82

Marathons/Ultras Race-walking:  18