Gopher to Badger 1/2 Marathon Race Report

It started out a little rainy on the drive over to Stillwater, Minnesota but the weather turned out to be perfect for the Gopher to Badger 1/2 Marathon. Laura was kind enough to get up early with me to go to Stillwater for the start, take some pictures, and drive to the finish line in Hudson, Wisconsin. For those of you not familiar, the Gopher and the Badger are the respective mascots of the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Today, thankfully (though in animals terms highly improbably) the Gophers triumphed over the Badgers with Gerad Mead of Minnesota taking home the title.

Before the race I said "hi" to some of my pacing friends from the Minnesota Pacers. It was nice to actually be racing and not pacing after a pretty full pacing schedule this spring and summer. I was less nervous knowing that I didn't have to worry about 10-20 other runners counting on me to run an even pace. Here I am talking to the 1:35 pacer and Ragnar teammate Dan:

There were a good amount of runners, but fortunately the start wasn't congested at all. I told myself I was going to run by feel and though I was shooting for a 1:20-something, I didn't want to limit myself and go too slow if I was ready to run faster. I also didn't want go too fast if 1:20 wasn't possible.

So off I went, by feel, hanging with two guys for the first mile. I hit the lap button on my Garmin to check my split: 5:39. Whoops, I guess the adrenaline of the start made running by feel a little trickier than I was planning. I decided that I'd back it off a little bit because I knew no matter how good I was feeling I wasn't ready to run that pace for a 1/2 marathon.

Around mile 2 I grabbed some water and Laura was there to offer some encouragement. I smiled and she snapped a picture of me--obviously she wanted to capture how handsome and athletic I was looking with an extreme close-up.

Miles two and three I was able to reign the pace in a little bit and hit 6:05 and 6:02. I was still feeling pretty good at this point and confident that I was at a good pace. I cruised through the next few miles at a similar pace, though it was difficult to know quite how I was doing as my Garmin and the mile markers were not agreeing. I'm used to the mile being about .01 different due to GPS error. Every course is measures a little long, but these miles were going from 1.05 to .94. Oh well.

There were some hills between miles 5 and 7 and that slowed me down a little--one of the miles in there was 6:31, but fortunately that was pretty much it as far as any significant hills.

At some point I could see the next runner ahead of me, I think around mile 9. I checked to see how far behind him I was based on a tree he passed. Using my tree-based calculation he was about a minute and twenty seconds ahead, so I knew unless he fell apart I probably wasn't going to catch him.

We crossed the St. Croix River at mile 11--probably the nicest view of the race. The bridge was almost a mile long. At that point I snuck a peak behind me, and I couldn't see anyone. Although I knew I wasn't going to catch the runners ahead of me and it appeared that no one was going to catch me, I still wanted to pick it up for the last mile. From 12 to 13 I ran at 5:37 or 5:57 pace depending on whether you believe the Garmin or the mile markers. I came in right at my goal--unofficially a 1:20:10 chip time. Also I unofficially finished 9th out of 588 runners.


Laura was invited to come into the finishing shoot with the photographer to take a picture, so she got this nice shot of me finishing. It was great having her there--I couldn't ask for a more supportive wife.

Here I am basking in some post-race glory before hitting up the food table. Next weekend it's the Ragnar Relay!

Minnesota Half Marathon Pace Report and Wedding Weekend Fun!

I had a crazy weekend with a lot going on, including a good amount of running. I also, unfortunately, broke my streak of consecutive days of 10 mile or more runs. I'm not too upset about it and although I was feeling pretty strong with all the 10 milers I think taking a break this past Friday did me some good.

Like I said, my weekend was crazy. On Thursday night we had a wedding rehearsal in the Twin Cities then drove an hour to Rochester for another wedding--my sister-in-law's--on Friday. We got there about 11:00 PM Thursday and I was planning on getting my 10 mile run in before 9 AM on Friday. Unfortunately I woke up at 6:45 AM feeling exhausted. I'd gotten up on Thursday morning at 4:10 AM to do a track workout with some MN Running Wild friends so I'd gotten about 5 hours of sleep Wednesday night and then had 6 or fewer hours of sleep Thursday night. It was Friday morning and I knew I had two more late nights coming, a race to pace on Saturday, and I felt tired and sick to my stomach. I decided to sleep another couple hours before wedding day brunch and thus ended my 10 mile streak.

We finished up the wedding on Friday night and headed back to the Twin Cities. Laura was in her friend's wedding and had to leave at 7 AM Saturday morning for all those festivities and I was pacing the Minnesota Half Marathon at 8 AM and had to leave at 6:30 AM for that so it was another short night of sleep. After warming up and chatting with the other pacers we waited for the inline skaters to get going and we were off.

It was another warm one but not as warm as Red Wing. The sky was overcast and I actually felt pretty good the whole race. There were more hills then Red Wing but nothing too terrible. I had a pretty decent-sized group the first 6 or 7 miles and then I had quite a few people take off ahead of me. It was a nice change to see people going for it rather than dropping runners as has been the case the last few events I've paced. It's nice to know I'm helping people start out conservatively so that can hit a good time.

I was pacing the 1:35 group--7:15 per mile. My mile splits were great with my fastest mile being 7:07 and my slowest mile at 7:23 (the last mile). Besides those two miles every other split was between 7:11 and 7:18. My group had broken apart completely at mile 10 or so with a couple taking off and a couple falling back. Around mile 12 I caught up to one of the runners who had started with me. He stayed with me a little bit and then sped off. At mile 12 I was 5 seconds fast according to my pace band, though according to my Garmin the last 1.1 miles were actually 1.15 miles so I was probably right on or a little slow at that point.

At 12 one of the course marshals told me I was close to the third place female and I could see her just ahead. I caught her with about 3/4 of a mile to go and slowed up for her a little bit. I told her we had 3/4 of a mile left and since I had no more pace group I would run her in. With about a quarter mile left I knew I was a little behind my pace and I was encouraging her to take off. She did and I let her go--I didn't think it'd be cool to stay while she was in third place. She finished several seconds ahead me.

As I finished the announcer said, "And here's a member of the MN Pacers finishing almost exactly on pace!" That was pretty cool to hear and my official time was 1:35:07. Not bad. I chatted with a MN Running Wild friend, Scott, who went and showed everyone up running the fastest pace group at 1:29:59. Color me impressed. I did a little cool down and finished with 15 miles for the day.

After a short nap it was time to go to the next wedding. We had a great time and I ate a ton of food. Fortunately we got to sleep in on Sunday morning which was good as I did a double running 7 miles around noon and then a 10 mile tempo run in the evening.

I'm racing the Gopher to Badger 1/2 Marathon on Saturday and then running in the Ragnar Relay in less then two weeks so I'm planning on cooling it a little bit--not tapering, just cutting back the mileage a hair. I'm hoping for a good time at Gopher to Badger as I haven't raced a 1/2 Marathon in over 18 months. If you read this long thanks for indulging in my long-windedness.

Shoe Review: New Balance MT10

I had a great idea during my run this morning and unlike most of my great ideas during my runs I actually remembered it. So instead of forgetting my great idea or having my great idea actually be a low blood sugar and lack of oxygen to the brain-induced bad idea, I can share this idea. I'm sure you're curious beyond belief about my good idea, so here it is: shoe reviews. Sure, your foot is probably complete different than mine and our ideas of what a good shoe are may be completely different, but who cares? And so what if you can find dozens of other shoe reviews from more competent reviewers. Maybe if I write a few shoe reviews some company will send me a pair to review--for free!

My great idea struck as I was running through the forests of Lebanon Hills Regional Park and was really enjoying my shoes: New Balance MT10s. New Balance advertises them as their minimalist trail running shoe. They also have a "minimus" road shoe which is, unfortunately, really ugly. I think the trail shoe looks pretty good, but to each their own.I love how this shoe feels on the trail. The outsole pretty much has nothing to it--just round grips and no hard rubber to speak of--just round lugs for traction. On the trail this is a huge asset making it really easy to feel the ground, though the softer, lights round lugs aren't too good in muddy conditions. The sole is made by Vibram and as such is very light and flexible.

The lightweight sole combines with a very lightweight upper--the other thing I really like about the shoe. New Balance says it's 7.1 oz. When I look for a shoe I'm generally a sucker for lightweight. I like a little support (and the MT10 has slim to no support), but I love lightweight shoes.

This shoe also has a 4 mm drop from the heel to the forefoot and has a very thin sole overall. Supposedly this lack of heel to forefoot drop is good for your form and helps you to land more on your midfoot. Generally I like shoes with little or no heal lift and I enjoy the very slight difference in the MT10. I definitely feel like this shoe helps me keep good form and cadence.

Now, I'm not one of those crazy "YOU MUST LAND ON YOUR MIDFOOT!" types. In fact, if you're running downhill and you don't want to do a forward somersault and crack your face open you're probably better off landing on your heel a bit. One reason I like that there's a little bit of heel on the MT10 is that you can pound the downhills and have some protection on the heel while keeping good balance.

Though the MT10 is great on trails I don't love it on the roads. It's fine for the first few miles but I think the total lack of hard rubber on the outsole doesn't do me any favors on the pavement--especially when it's hot outside. At the end of my run today I could feel the bottoms of my feet heating up on the blacktop. I know some people run barefoot or in those 5 finger things with no cushion but on the hard, hot pavement I like to have at least a little bit of cushion in my shoes and there is almost none in the MT10.

Two other things I don't love about the MT10s are the lack of toe protection and the seems inside the shoe. The toes, like the soles, have no hard rubber on them. This was a problem during the Afton Trail Run 50k when I stubbed my toe on a rock. It was almost like I kicked the rock barefoot.

New Balance says the MT10s can be worn with or without socks. I would highly recommend not wearing them without socks--especially if you haven't worn shoes without socks for awhile. I went on my first run with these--about 6 miles--sockless. It was not a good plan. I ended up with blisters on both feet--and not in places I've ever got blisters before. Both blisters were the result of seams rubbing on the tops of my feet. One seam was clear sewn wrong and I eventually used a scissors to cutout the excess material that was folded over itself. Maybe the seams being a problem were unique to my MT10s but I've worn spikes and racing flats that were much more comfortable without socks then the MT10s. I haven't tried these without socks since that first run.

Other than the minor faults I think the New Balance MT10 is a pretty solid shoe. Others have run with it on pavement and without socks just fine. I enjoy how lightweight it is and how I can really feel the trail when I'm running. I'll definitely keep using it as my main trail shoe.

River City Ramble Pace Report

It. was. hot. Seriously hot. Although 77 degrees doesn't sound that bad at the start of a race, it was also 84% humidity according to a runner who checked the weather station on his dock minutes before the race started (apparently people have weather stations on their docks in Red Wing). This same runner ran with me for part of the Minneapolis Marathon. He was planning on running with me the first half of the Red Wing 1/2 Marathon and then taking off. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for him.

The running conditions at the River City Ramble 1/2 Marathon were far from ideal. The humidity was high, it was very sunny, and there wasn't a breeze to speak of. When there were breaks from the hot sun in the trees it was often even more humid--it was so humid I had to take my sunglasses off because they were fogging up.

I started with a pretty good-sized pace group with around 15 runners looking to run a 1:35. I usually plan on losing a fair amount of runners 8-10 miles into a half marathon but this one was so hot and humid that I lost the initial group at the mile 4 water stop. Only one runner was with me at that point--the one planning on taking off halfway through.

It was nice having him to run with as I'm amazed at his ability at 60+ years old to run the kind of times he runs. Around mile 8 he started hurting and I dropped him around mile 10. After that I picked up a couple stragglers beat down by the heat and humidity but they too eventually fell back. I felt bad for everyone going for a good time or a PR as it just wasn't the day for it. I finally motivated one gentleman as I passed him with about 1/2 a mile to go. He caught back up and ran past me to the finish line.

I came in officially at 1:35:04 though I thought I was closer to 1:35:00 according to my watch--still a pretty solid pacing time.

I was a little sick to my stomach after finishing and forgot to grab the camera to catch Laura's big 2 minute PR in the 1/2 marathon. I was a little worried she wouldn't set a PR with the poor running conditions but she came through with good pacing and a tough effort to finish over a minute ahead of her pacer. I'm so proud of her--I can't imagine many people set a PR on a day like that.

Laura and I after the race:


Pacer Adam from Maple Awesome, Minnesota right before we enjoyed his traditional post-race beverage--PBR:

An update on the 10 mile streak:
I've made it nine days in a row while covering 101 miles. I'm not sure how much longer I want to do this--10 days of 10 mile+ runs sounds pretty good but I don't really have a good reason to stop the streak. I actually feel pretty decent and it's not like I'm short on time. What do you think?

10 Mile Streak

Sometimes in my running I do things for no apparent reason. No, I don't mean going for a 10 mile run sans clothing. Awhile ago I was seeing how many days in a row I could get in a run of 10+ miles. I think I got up to around 6 days when fatigue or schedule problems derailed me. I didn't do it seriously and didn't make a goal out of it--mostly it was just something to shoot for, as in, how many days can I run some arbitrary number of miles, which just happened to be 10.

Now with some days off after summer school has ended and nothing to get in my way besides a "honey-do" list, I figure I might as well just go for the 10 mile a day streak officially. And by officially I mean writing a blog post about it so I have to let everyone know when I fail rather than just letting myself down. So far I'm up to three days and there's no looking back.

Last week was an utter disaster for running. I took a couple of days off for my stupid cold, got one run in, and then had nowhere to run while on our awesome vacation to Voyageur's National Park. I did get some canoeing and swimming in so at least my vacation didn't involve sitting on a lounge chair drinking tropical drinks. In fact, I dare say my vacation was much more strenuous then most. It was also awesome.

Here's some pictures of my week of running failure:





Although the running didn't go as planned it was a great trip. We had lots of fun canoeing, swimming, fishing, and playing games with our friends out in the wilderness. I've already been looking at canoeing trips for next summer.

Summer Cold

No, it's not cold up in the Twin Cities. In fact, the heat index has been above 100 since Saturday. The cold here is all in my head--literally in my sinuses. Every summer I seem to get a cold at some point and this week I just happened to pick it up during one of the hottest weeks of the summer.

It's been too long since I've posted but there really hasn't been much to report and I've been too busy to be creative. I did get in a guest post over at The Runner's Plate--a great blog I highly recommend.

Running has been uneventful but has being going OK. I recovered from Afton pretty well--after an easy week of about 24 miles I got over 50 last week.

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning I noticed the onset of a cold--being up too late several nights in a row and being too busy did me in. I still managed to go on a run with some friends from Minnesota Running Wild for 16 miles in some pretty high humidity. Then, later in the evening I ran another 5 miles in a heat index of 90+. Maybe not the smartest thing to do at the onset of a cold, but I'm running Ragnar in August and I want to get use to running in heat and on tired legs.

I was a little stuffy and felt tired Saturday evening and by Sunday morning BAM! a full-blown cold. I went straight for the zinc, hoping that my symptoms wouldn't be as bad and my cold wouldn't last as long if I started it ASAP. I was miserable enough Sunday to sleep for about 2 hours in the middle of the day and skip my run. Monday I was feeling better but was busy enough to skip a run again.

Today I'm back at it. I'm still a little congested but the achy-ness has subsided and I think the zinc is doing its job. Yesterday was my last day of work for summer school--no school until September so no excuses for not running. It's 8 AM and the heat index is already 85*. I'm bringing water and I'm not planning on any specific distance.

Tonight we leave for Voyageur's National Park for the rest of the week so no blogging until at least Sunday. I hope to post some great pictures of this beautiful water-based national park. I also hope to get at least one run in while we're out there, maybe more.

Afton Trail Run 50K Race Report

My alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. Saturday morning but I was already up. I didn’t sleep too well the night before the Afton Trail Run 50k. I was excited for my first ultramarathon and though I fell asleep at about 9:15 a.m. I was awake again at 10:00, 10:45, 12:00, and 1:45.

It was pretty strange waking up again at two-something AM and wishing it was four-something so I could just get up.

When I finally did get out of bed, I couldn’t stop yawning and my eyes weren’t quite ready to open. Laura was a trooper and was already packing up the car by 4:45 a.m. Brit and Jared, our housemates, were also running the race, so after some breakfast we hopped in the car and drove to the Afton Alps (really, that’s what it’s called) for a race start of 6:30 a.m.

The race was supposed to be in Afton State Park, but thanks to our Republican legislator and our Democratic governor, the state government shut down at midnight Friday morning when they couldn’t come to an agreement on the budget. Nice work politicians — now there’s 22,000 state workers laid off, no rest areas open, and I have to run my first ultramarathon at the Afton Alps rather than Afton State park. Having run the state park course a few times I can say with confidence that the Alps were harder — especially the last two miles of each 12.5k loop.

The start of the 50K was a little bottlenecked — I ended up walking for most of the first mile and periodically had to walk and run slowly for the next mile just to get around everyone. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, as the first loop was my fastest.

The race started on some single track trails through the woods and some gravel service roads. It was deceptively easy, though there were several spots where we had to run through big puddles and mud. As I ran through the first two miles and past the first aid station I was thinking that this course was going to be easier than the one at the state park. Then, it got rough.

The course proceeded on mountain bike trails that went up and down the “Alps.” At several points we ran right underneath the chair lifts. I was planning on walking a lot of the hills and there were plenty of hills to walk. After the second aid station, things got even more difficult. The course climbed up a very steep hill and then came down near the finish. During the first loop I thought that either my Garmin was off or the course was off because I could see the finish and I was still a mile short of a 7.5 mile loop.

Unfortunately, my Garmin's measurement was accurate. Before finishing, the course climbed up a slope for around half a mile and then back down. The last hill was the worse hill of the course — not just because it was right at the end but because it was the steepest. It started up some switchbacks, which were also very steep, and then finished going straight up. There were no switchbacks the last hundred feet, no going up at and angle, and the footing was on longish grass.

Running up this hill was not an option for the majority of the runners and there was no way it was an option for me. Every time I got to that last 100 feet of straight up, I thought:

• I wish I had a hiking stick here.
• Man this hill sucks.
• I better start walking sideways (started walking sideways).
• Man this hills sucks (started walking the other sideways).
• It’d be easier to crawl up this hill.
• I can’t believe I have to do this:
• Three more times
• Two more times
• Again

On my last loop, one of my friends from Minnesota Running Wild, Nate, AKA “The Franchise,” ran with me. He ran up the last hill then waited for me at the top. It was nice to have him that last loop. He kept me company and got my mind off the hills a little bit. He also carried a water bottle for me, which was good since I drank three full bottles plus some Coke at the last aid station.

Each of my laps was slower than the last, but it also got quite a bit hotter each lap. It was over 80 degrees by the time I finished, and though a good amount of the course was in the woods there was also quite a bit of it in the wide open sunshine.

It was great to be able to finish the race and now officially be able to call myself an ultramarathoner. My pace was 10:24 / mile for a finish time of 5:22. I ran much too slowly on my last lap and I had a lot of gas in the tank on the downhill finish. I ran very conservatively that last lap and walked way too much.

It’s hard to say how much better I could have done had I known I would have some energy left at the finish. I managed to pass one guy ahead of me in the last couple miles but I also got passed by the first and second place women, and at that point there was no way I could keep up with them.

Still, it was my first ultramarathon and my last ultramarathon for at least a few years. Considering it was my first one I did pretty well. The preliminary results have me at 9^th overall, 7^th male, and 5^th male in my division.

Overall, the Afton 50k was a blast and much different than a marathon. Today my legs are sore, but not as bad as they were after Boston. I did stub my toe very hard with about two miles left and knocked a toenail loose. It bled through my sock and shoe. Today, my whole second toe is black and blue, but it feels much better than last night.

I enjoyed seeing a lot of running friends and running with Brit and Jared. Like I said, I’m done with ultramarathons for awhile, but I would consider doing the 25k at Afton next year. Now it’s on to focusing on shorter races and having a pleasant summer of running.

Laura spent about 6 hours in the sun taking pictures. On Monday I’ll have to return the favor as she races in her third half marathon.

The start of the 50k:


Coming down the hill at the end of the first loop:


Cooling off with an ice water sponge at the end of the second loop:


Coming down the homestretch with Nate, "The Franchise."


Jared, Brit, and I:


My personal "pacer":



Our friends Matt and Joy came for the finish:


The beautiful photographer, who kept a safe distance from my sweaty grossness: