The Mile and Other Stuff

Last week I tried to break one of the goals I set for the year by breaking 4:50 for the mile. I failed--miserably.

There was a summer league track meet up at St. Louis Park High School, so I thought I might have a chance to run a fast mile on the track. You know, get behind some speedy runners, let them pull me around 800m in around 2:21, and cruise to a 4:48 or something like that. It. Didn't. Happen.

When I showed up to the track meet, I noticed a general lack of distance/middle distance-type athletes. There were about 138 people running in the 29 heats of the 100m dash, but as far as the mile went, it looked like I was on my own.

The meet was running pretty late (around a 1/2 hour) and it was also hot and humid. These factors also did not contribute to ideal conditions for a fast mile. By the time I got to the start I was already somewhat doubtful of my ability to run this thing very well, and apparently it was for good reason. I passed what I assume to by a 10-year-old girl in the first 20m, and from then on I was running solo.

Short story even shorter, I ran the first lap right about where I wanted to (~70s) and was all over the place (slower than I wanted to by various degrees) the next three. I did win the race by over a minute, but with the second place time being around 6 minutes flat, it was nothing to get too excited about and not very close to breaking 4:50.

I might try again to hit this mile goal time--maybe in July.

In other news, Last week I got to hang out with Michelle from The Runner's Plate. She just crushed her marathon PR and is headed to the Boston Marathon in the spring.

Laura's on the shelf right now with a knee injury. She's doing some physical therapy and she should be back in time to run the Twin Cities Marathon in October. She was signed up to run a race on the 4th of July. I won't say which one since I'm going to be running with her Bib number.

I just finished my first official month of marathon training for the Whistlestop Marathon. It was a pretty good month considering I fit a triathlon in there, started grad school, and got a little part-time job for the summer. I ran 290 miles in June, capping it off with an 80 mile week.

Last weekend I had to run from an angry dog off a gravel road outside Lake Bemidji State Park. Besides that adrenaline rush and running at my 800 pace for close to a minute, Lake Bemidji was lovely and offered some nice scenery for running and spending time with my lovely wife.