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

Race Report: 2022 Summer Camp Series, Day 4

Today was day 4 of the Mainly Marathons Summer Camp Series.  Today’s race was at Warner Lake County Park in Clearwater, MN.  The race started at 6:00 AM, and it’s a 20 minute drive from St. Cloud to Clearwater, so I had to get up early.

After yesterday’s race, I worked hard to rehydrate.  Today was going to be another hot day, although not quite as hot as yesterday.  That wasn’t my only concern about the weather.  When I got up, I checked the forecast and saw a chance of a morning thunderstorm.  I pulled up the radar picture and saw a band of storms moving in from the west.

The race didn’t start until 6:00, but I didn’t want to drive in a thunderstorm.  I rushed to get ready, so I could drive to Clearwater before the storm arrived.  My worst fear was driving in the dark on a two-lane road that’s not familiar to me, and then having my phone lose the GPS signal.

As I drove to Clearwater, I saw lightning in the distance, but it wasn’t raining yet.  I arrived at the park by 5:00.  I saw the Mainly Marathons trailer and RV in the parking lot, but I didn’t see any other cars.  I didn’t see anything set up yet.  Then I remembered seeing a pavilion when I stopped by this park on Saturday.  I moved my car to the corner of the parking lot closest to the pavilion.  When I walked over to the pavilion, I saw Jesse setting up.

About 20 minutes before the race, it started raining, but it wasn’t raining hard.  It was windy, but I only felt scattered drops of rain.  We were on the southern edge of the storm.  It was mostly missing us to the north.

Like all Mainly Marathons races, this one was multiple laps of an out-and-back course.  We started at the pavilion.  Then we went around the north end of the lake and a bit farther west before turning around and returning the way we came.  It was just over eight tenths of a mile each way, so we had to do 16 laps for a marathon.  I find more laps to be harder psychologically.

Yesterday, I came into the race well-rested, and I still took almost five hours to finish.  Today, I came into the race tired from yesterday’s effort.  I slept well, but I still didn’t feel like I had much energy.

I knew I would be slow today.  I just didn’t know how slow.  When I did two races of this series last year, I was race-walking, and my slowest time was 5:33:16.  This year, I was running, but I wasn’t confident I would be much faster than last year.

I started running at a really relaxed pace.  My first mile took just over 12 minutes.  The temperature at the start was the same as yesterday, but the rain and wind made it feel much cooler.  I didn’t initially feel the need to take walking breaks.

I was expecting to have sore muscles from yesterday, but I didn’t notice any soreness as I started running.  Even the sore spot near my left hip wasn’t bothering me.  I didn’t have any energy, but my legs felt much better than I expected.  In some respects, I felt better than yesterday.

The rain didn’t last long.  By the time I finished my second lap, it was obvious that we were done with the rain.  Some parts of the course weren’t even wet.  Where there was a canopy of trees, the rain never made it to the ground.

After my second lap, I paused at the aid station to get my camera.  During my third lap, I paused occasionally to take pictures of the course.  The main aid station was under the pavilion.  That’s where we started and finished each lap.

As we left the pavilion, we were on a paved path, but only briefly.  Then we transitioned to a gravel trail.

About halfway to the turnaround, there was a self-service aid station, similar to the one we had yesterday.

Just past the self-service aid station, we crossed a wooden bridge over a creek.  From the bridge, we had a nice view of the lake.

After the bridge, the trail was packed dirt.  This section had a few roots, but they were easy to avoid if you were paying attention.  I never tripped on a root, and I trip on everything.

By the time I finished my third lap, I was getting tired of having the weight of my camera in my fanny pack.  After that lap, I stopped at the aid station long enough to put my camera away.  As I began my next lap, I started to feel like I had more energy.  I was still running slowly, but not as slowly as I was earlier.

During my fourth lap, I started to notice some minor chaffing on my legs.  I usually smear Aquaphor on my legs to prevent chaffing.  I didn’t do that this morning, because of the rain.  Now that the rain was done, it was time to apply some.  I had a small tube of it in my fanny pack.  I stopped in the middle of that lap to apply some.  For the rest of that lap my hand was greasy.  When I finished that lap, I used a paper towel to wipe my hand.

After four laps, I was on pace to finish in about 5:10.  That was disappointing.  I knew I wouldn’t break five hours today, but I didn’t expect to be this slow this soon.  After all, I wasn’t taking any walking breaks yet.  I had to wonder how slow I would be by the end of the race.

I was drinking Gatorade at the same rate as yesterday.  After four laps, I had to refill my bottle.

I ran continuously for one more lap.  Then, in my sixth lap, I started to get hot.  That’s when I started taking walking breaks.  Yesterday, I walked for one minute each time I reached a turnaround.  Today, I walked for a minute at the far turnaround, but I felt like I was getting enough of a rest break at the main aid station.  I always had to stop long enough to drink as much Gatorade as I could.

In the middle of my eighth lap, I felt my left shoe graze my right ankle.  That hurt quite noticeably.  This has been a problem since the middle of May, but it hasn’t been happening as much recently.  It never happened yesterday.  When it happened today, I was on a section of trail where the footing was sometimes uneven.  That may have been a contributing factor.  I hoped it wouldn’t happen too many more times.  Each time hurts more than the time before.

Now that I was taking walking breaks, I expected to slow down a little.  When I finished my eighth lap, I was still on pace to finish in about 5:10.  That was a pleasant surprise.  I still expected to slow down in the second half, but I thought I had a decent chance of breaking 5:15.

I would normally wear gaiters for a trail course, but I neglected to pack them.  Even if I had them with me, I might not have worn them.  I was expected heavy rain.  For the first half of the race, I wasn’t noticing any grit in my shoes.  About halfway through the race, a small rock got into the back of one of my shoes and settled right under my heal.  I had to hope it would move somewhere that didn’t hurt as much.  Eventually, it did, but not before I started to notice grains of sand in my toe box.

Early in the race, there were several runners ahead of me.  Most of them eventually slowed down and started taking walking breaks.  There were two runners, however, who were always way in front of everyone else.

The fastest runner was already finishing his eighth lap when I was just starting mine.  He was doing the half marathon, so that was his last lap.  In the second half of the race, there was only one runner ahead of me.  I didn’t know her, but we all had our names on our race bibs.  Her name was Talia.

For the first several laps, Talia was farther ahead with each lap.  Halfway through the race, she was already about half a lap ahead of me.  She seemed like she was off to the races, and nobody was going to keep up with her.

For two or three laps, I saw Talia in about the same place.  Then, in my 10th lap, I got farther along the trail before I saw her.  For the first time in the race, her lead got smaller.  That made me wonder if I could gradually catch up to her if I picked up my pace.  My competitive side suddenly took over.

I thought I could go about 30 seconds per mile faster if I started working harder.  I could shave off another 30 seconds if I stopped taking walking breaks and just ran continuously.  That might be fast enough to catch her by the end of the race.

It was risky to pick up the pace like that.  I could overheat and blow up.  I only considered it because there was a strong breeze.  The breeze might be enough to keep me from overheating.

I picked up my effort for the rest of that lap.  I took a good long drink of Gatorade and then started my 11th lap.  I was able to pick up my pace without causing any discomfort in my left leg.  When I got to the turnaround, I kept running.  As I got farther though the lap, I started looked for Talia.

For the second straight lap, I made it farther before I saw her.  As I passed her, I looked at my watch.  I looked at my watch again when I reached the pavilion.  I took me three minutes to get there after passing Talia going the other way.  That meant she was about six minutes ahead of me.

I still had 8.2 miles to go.  I had to go almost a minute per mile faster than Talia to catch her.  I didn’t want to count on her slowing down.  I assumed I had to speed up.

Yesterday, I rarely got faster than 11 minutes per mile.  Today, I got as fast as 10:16.  If I could keep that up, I would catch her, but I risked blowing up.

Trying to catch Talia made the race more exciting.  I wasn’t just running to finish.  I was going for the win.  The race was on.

By now, most of the other runners were doing a lot of walking.  After all, it was getting hotter.  When people walk, they’re more likely to travel in groups and talk to each other.  The trail wasn’t very wide.  Increasingly, I had to work hard to find room to pass people.

On one of my laps, I reached the turnaround just as three other runners were getting there.  I usually keep right going around the cone, but there wasn’t room.  I tried to go around on the left, but if I went around the cone, I would run into Jim and Bettie.  I spun around on one foot to change direction.  As I tried to reverse direction, I lost my balance and fell sideways into Jim.  Neither of us fell over, but I’m sure I knocked him off balance a little.  I apologized, but the expression on his face told me he wasn’t happy about it.

As I got closer to the end of my 12th lap, I started looking for Talia.  There’s a clearing just before we get back to the pavilion.  When I saw Talia going out on her 13th lap, I could see the clearing just behind her.  I did another time check.  She was only two and a half minutes ahead of me when I finished that lap.

I had to refill my Gatorade bottle.  That added another 20 seconds to her lead, but I was still withing three minutes.  In one lap, I had cut her lead in half.  I started my next lap knowing I wouldn’t have to fill my bottle again before the end of the race.

When I got to the bridge, there were three other runners there.  I heard one say, “It’s a race now.”  I could only assume that he had just seen Talia go by and noticed that I was catching up to her.

Besides the marathon and half marathon, there was also a 5K, a 10K, and a 50K.  The 5K consists of one full lap and a shorter lap that has a different turnaround point, which is marked with a yellow cone.  I knew when I reached the yellow cone, I would be close to the turnaround.  Right after the yellow cone, you go around a corner.  From there, you can see the turnaround.

As I was nearing the yellow cone, I saw Talia coming around that corner.  We both reached the yellow cone at the same time, but from opposite directions.  It can’t take more than about 40 seconds to get to the turnaround from there.

After I made the turnaround, I started looking to see if I could see Talia ahead of me.  I didn’t see her until I reached the bridge.  Talia stopped to get water at the self-service aid station.  I passed her and kept going.

Now that I had passed Talia, the hard part was over.  Now I just needed to stay in front of her.  I still had just over five miles to go.  That’s more than enough time to blow up on a hot day if you’re running too hard.  I eased up a little in my effort.

When I got back to the aid station, I took a good long drink of Gatorade.  I left the aid station just before Talia got there.

I had three laps to go.  As I started my next lap, I took a much more relaxed stride.  I felt like I did at the beginning of the race, when I wasn’t trying at all to run fast.  I expected my pace to slow down to about 12 minutes per mile.  The next time my watch recorded a split, it was 11:00.  That included a stop to drink at the aid station.

I didn’t need to run as hard now, but I still had to overcome some pain.  I was noticing more and more grit getting into both of my shoes.  Almost every step was painful.  At this point in the race, I just had to do my best to ignore it.

I figured it would be a good idea to resume taking walking breaks at the turnaround, to make sure I didn’t overheat.  When I got there, I turned first, to see if Talia was coming.  She wasn’t within sight, so I started walking.  I walked for one minute.  I resumed running just before turning a corner.  After going around that bend, I still couldn’t see her.  I had a safe lead.

When I got back to the aid station, I wanted to make a bathroom stop.  Yesterday, the bathrooms were right next to the course.  Today, they were a distance away.  I couldn’t afford to lose time now.  I had to wait until after the race.

As I began my 15th lap, I continued to run easy.  When I saw Talia again, I appeared to be about four or five minutes ahead of her.  When I started my last lap, I expected to get farther.  I did.  I got all the way to the boat launch before I saw her.

Just then, my left foot kicked my right ankle again.  This time, I couldn’t blame it on uneven footing.  Near the boat launch, we briefly ran on pavement.

In that last lap, I was really feeling the effects of the heat.  I just had to hold together for about a mile and a half.  I wanted to do more walking, but I forced myself to run.  It didn’t have to be fast, but I needed to keep running.

At the turnaround, I looked at my watch, so I could do a time check.  I was shocked when I saw my time.  I wasn’t going to break five hours, but I was going to be much closer than I ever imagined.  I was going to have negative splits by several minutes.

I didn’t see Talia again until I was across the bridge.  I checked my watch.  My lead was almost nine minutes.  I could walk the rest of the way in nine minutes, but I forced myself to keep running.

I finished the race in 5:03:28.  I ran negative splits by more than six minutes.  After finishing, I needed to lean on the table for a minute to catch my breath.  Then I went to sit down for a few more minutes.  Then I made a long-overdue bathroom stop.

Walking to the bathroom, I felt soreness in my left leg, even though I was walking slowly.  I never felt any soreness during the laps that I was running hard.  When I’m exerting myself, I can tune out a fair amount of discomfort.  Now that I was more relaxed, I suddenly felt soreness that I was suppressing before.

I got back to the aid station in time to see Talia finish.  I congratulated her on a good race.  She might not have known it, but she pushed me to run much faster than I would’ve on my own.  She also made the race a lot more fun.

By now, it was 83 degrees.  That’s not as hot as yesterday, but it’s still hot.  There’s a swimming beach not far from the pavilion.  I noticed it when I was at the park on Saturday.  I brought a swimsuit and flip flops, with every intention of cooling off in the lake after the race.  With all the grit in my shoes, that now seemed like a bad idea.  After swimming, I’d need to put on the same shoes and socks to drive back to the hotel.  If I took them off, I wouldn’t want to put them on again.  Instead of swimming, I cooled off by sitting under the pavilion and enjoying the cool breeze.

When I got back to the hotel, I was able to add a new medal to my chain.  I’m not doing tomorrow’s race, so this is as many pieces as I’ll get.  For people doing the entire series, their chain of medals will have eight pieces after tomorrow.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:03:28

Average pace:  11:34

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  461

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  87