Tag Archives: Half Marathon

Course Preview: Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon

1 Reply

In preparation for this weekend’s Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon, today I’ll look at the race course.

This is a Map My Run Map of the course provided by the race directors.

And their elevation chart – which is kind of weird looking. It says there is a total elevation gain of 17 feet over the entire course.  With a minimum elevation of 912 and a maximum of 1,004feet.  My driving of the course and the picture makes them seem like at most rolling.

Awhile back I drove the course with my video camera.  You can watch a high-speed version (13 minutes) of the video below or a longer (26 minutes) video here.

Below are a couple of pictures from taken along the course (click to enlarge).

Updated: In a pre-race e-mail from the director, there are a few course changes:

Race Course Modification
Just so you are all aware, there are three course changes this year that you should be aware of and pay attention to:

1. START LINE: Moved 300 feet toward Rice Street, away from Wayzata Blvd.
2. 10K MARK: Please follow the arrows and cones as you approach the 10K mark on the course. As you come off of Northview Drive, instead of turning onto Lake Rd where the 3rd Water Stop is located, proceed onto the trail and follow the signs on the course.
3. FINISH LINE: The Finish line has moved 300 feet closer to the LRT Trail exit in Excelsior. Instead of heading across Water Street over to the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot, everything is going to be staged in the main parking lot near the finish line. The school buses will be waiting on George Street after the race to return you to Wayzata.

[tags] Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon, Half Marathon, Lake Minnetonka [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Week 2: Half Marathon Training

Leave a reply
3 m run + strength
7 x 400
5-K pace
3 m run + strength
45 min tempo
Rest
3 m pace
90 min run

Monday was President’s Day and I didn’t have to work so I took some extra time to go to Fort Snelling for a run on Pike Island. I knew it would be pretty icy so I took my new Yaks Tracks along for the ride. Good thing since the trails were solid sheets of ice. They worked pretty well and I never really slipped too much. It wasn’t the easiest 3 mile run due to the choppy conditions of the ice. It was 23 above and 12 wind chill. The Garmin battery malfunctioned again so I didn’t get an exact time or distance.

Tuesday was a nice morning for a speed workout! It was 23 with the wind chill around 15 and sunny!  I ran 6 miles out and back on the Greenway using my Garmin to clock the 7 x 400m intervals at 5k pace.  I set the plan for today of running sub-90 second intervals and nailed it.  1:23, 1:30, 1:29, 1:29, 1:28, 1:30, 1:29 I did 400m rest after each interval as programed in the Garmin. There were still small patches of ice on the trail but none that really hindered my running.   The wind was also in the face on the way back. I finished the 6 miles in 47:42 and felt pretty good about it.

Wednesday brought a much needed 3.25 mile recovery run on my Metrodome loop.  My legs were pretty tired and I ran it in 27:09 which is well over 8 minute miles.  We had just gotten a dusting of snow and the temp was 27 with a 15 degree wind chill, so not too bad!

Thursday was a well deserved day off! It was like 4 above when I woke up so I was doubly glad not to have to run.

Friday was supposed to be a tempo run but my legs felt very sluggish. It was 9f without any wind so that didn’t really have too much of an impact.  I think it was mainly just my tired legs.  I barely even made it under 7 minute pace and my tempos should be at 6:30.  Oh well.  I ran 6 miles in 47 minutes.

Saturday we had planned to meet at Theodore Wirth park and run on some different trails.  We got 5 inches of snow overnight and the Park Board hadn’t plowed any of the roads or paths yet along that stretch so we opted to go down to Cedar Lake and run some of the lakes because they had been plowed.  We got 11.5 miles in 1:33:00 for the morning.  It was around 18f with a pretty rough wind chill.  When we were running on the east side of Calhoun it was quite brutal.  Some places still had significant snow but for the most part there was decent footing.

Sunday we met at the falls again.  We ran west on the Minnehaha Parkway and ran around Nokomis.  The paths were pretty clear except for a few parts that had drifted back onto the trail.  Mike even brought Poncho along, who did quite well for the 6.25 mile run. The temp was 2 and the wind chill was back down to -12 which wasn’t too pleasant, but it was a good run at a relaxed pace.  We finished in 54:44.

Weekly Total:

Running -36 miles

Biking – 9 miles

Last Year

Run: 28.8 Miles
Bike: 12.5 Miles

Week 3 of Half Marathon training last year included supersets as part of the Running Planet training program.  The plan also included hill repeats, much like I did last week.   Foto Friday was a caution sign posted on the hill at Fort Snelling.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

USATF-MN Team/Championship Schedule

Leave a reply

The 2009 USATF-MN Team Circuit and Championship Race Schedule was voted on awhile back.  Here is the schedule:

I recognize at least two races are missing from the schedule which is good! Last year I ran the 5000m championship on the track and that wasn’t very exciting. The Earth Day Half Marathon was also on last year’s circuit.  It was the weekend before Boston last year and I imagine that is why it got left out of the schedule this year. It is a little odd that there isn’t a half-marathon on the schedule at all though.

Here is an interview with USATF Minnesota Long Distance Running Competition Chairman Ed Whetham from Down the Backstretch about the 2009 circuit.

[tags] USATF-MN, USATF, Championship [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Race Review: Frozen Half Marathon

5 Replies

You know the race will be interesting when the website offers this warning:

Extreme Weather

This is a cold weather race! Temperatures have been at or below zero for this race in the past. Hypothermia could be a definite concern. Make certain that you are dressed properly for conditions on the day of the race. In case of extreme weather conditions this race could be canceled or shortened. All entry fees are nonrefundable. An accurately measured 1/4 marathon course may be used as a short course option. Check with active.com for up-to-date weather information and changes in the race schedule.

The Securian Frozen 5K and Half Marathon is a part of St Paul’s Annual Winter Carnival.  Well sadly, we had those “extreme” weather conditions and the 1,200 pre-registrants got the following e-mail from Mary Anderson, race director.

Hi All,Just a note to let you know that the half marathon course has been shortened to approximately 6.5 miles (or half of the marathon distance) for tomorrow. The start time will remain the same at 9:00am.

The 5K race will go on as scheduled and start at 9:15.

The half marathon turnaround is just East of 35E on Sheppard Road and will be at the break in the median there so that runners can go westbound on the way out and eastbound (or with traffic ) on their way back.  We will move the water stop to this point and will be serving individual bottles to the runners. This should make it easier for volunteers.

Thank you participating in the 2009 Securian Frozen 5K and Half Marathon!

A wise decision given the fact that the actual temp was officially -15 with a wind chill in the -20’s. The morning broke with a clear blue sky and lots of shining sun, so that helped make the race bearable!  There was some confusion about the actual course distance.  The e-mail clearly says 6.5 (6.55 would actually be a half of a half) but the announcements coming over the PA system in the registration area kept calling it a 10k (which is obviously 0.35 miles shorter than half of a half).  My Garmin called it 6.46.

Attire? Yes how in the world do you dress to race at those temps? Well ultimately the same as you would to run in those temps!  Unlike warmer weather where you could wear less layers, it was vital to keep everything nice and warm. I actually wore the attire mentioned here, minus the silk balaclava and adding a pair of goggles.  I wore mid-weight smart wool socks, duct-taped shoes, tights, wind breaker pants, a singlet, long-sleeve dry-fit, long-sleeve cotton, under a wind breaker jacket, gloves, an ear band, and fleece balaclava.  I got a new pair of “fog-proof” goggles, but I steamed them up within the first mile.

Pre-Race We were able to park in the Securian building’s parking lot for $2 in downtown St Paul, which was great.  Take the skyway over to another building for packet pickup and then stand around and wait. Unfortunately all of the indoor restroom facilities were closed to the public so you had to venture out to the porta-potties lined up on the street.  We did a little warm-up jog and then waited for the race to start.  The directors were nice to wait until all the runners lined up, but it was a chip race so they should have just started instead of punishing those of us who followed directions!

The Race Almost immediately you go down a hill (about 200 feet in 1/4 mile) from downtown to the river. The race is an out and back along the Mississippi River on Shepherd Road.  The first mile came up pretty quickly and I came through in 6:35.  I tried keeping my goggles on because the wind was extremely bitey at this point and hurt my face, but I couldn’t really see out of them so I shoved them up on my face.  I tried to settle into a pace that would work for the whole race and picked some people to try to stay with.  A guy was reading splits at the 5k turn around, which was a little weird but I came through mile 2 at 7:08.  The course was a little hillier than I had expected since it was on the river flat.  They weren’t anything monstrous, but definitely steep enough to tire you out a bit.  I wasn’t really cold anymore at this point although the layers were making it hard to keep up a fast pace.  I came through mile 3 at 7:23.  The turn around point came pretty quickly after mile 3 and there was the race’s only aid station.  Dedicated volunteers passed out bottles of water – caps already off.  People were taking them, I did not.  Maybe I should have, but I didn’t feel like messing with my balaclava or spilling on myself! 22:34 at the turnaround.

I was actually starting to get tired at this point.  I was also getting really hot and raised up the balaclava and un-zipped my jacket a little.  This helped regulate the temps as the wind was solidly at my back.  Sadly I don’t think the added push of the wind helped my times too much and I came through mile 4 at 7:03.  Now I was beginning to get really tired and couldn’t wait for the finish line to arrive.  I was a little disappointed when I looked at my watch and saw that we were only at 4.5, yuck 2 miles to go.  Around the 5 mile mark we saw the 5k runners.  Fortunately we were on a divided road so they weren’t in our way yet (this usually isn’t a problem due to the half-marathon being farther and the 5k starting 15 minutes after us).  I came through mile 5 at 6:58.  I tried to pick up the pace because I was tired of getting passed, but I was also plain tired!  One of the 5k runners was wearing capri tights and the bottoms of her legs were bright red, looked painful.  I actually took my gloves off because my hands were sweating, my feet too but nothing you can do about that! I came through mile 6 at 7:25.  The last bit was straight back up the hill.  We joined the 5k runners.  I stayed way off to the side so as to not get stuck behind them and passed a lot of people up the hill which was a nice feeling! I may have passed a couple of half-marathoners on the way too and finished hard into the biting wind for the finish. 3:02 for the last 0.46 miles.

My official time was 45:31 (7:02 pace) [the website said 7:21 pace, but my Garmin and weblog both said 7:02] and good enough for 96th out of 661.  (Official results)  Evidently the 5k isn’t scored so I don’t know what the total turnout was.

Post-Race I hadn’t heard my teammates cheering me into the finish and I didn’t immediately see them so I wandered back into the buildings to get my post-race food and finisher’s mug! Then I wandered back out and got some pictures of people, including this great one of Mark Deters! I finally caught up with Nathan and we headed home.

A pretty crazy race day!!  Did you run it, what were your thoughts?

Local  News pieces:

Pioneer Press

[tags] Half Marathon, Race Review, Securian, Winter Carnival, St Paul, Frozen 5k [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Week in Review

2 Replies

Another week in the book.  It seemed to go by super-fast, without a lot happening either…

I didn’t run on Monday and belted out my Week 4 push ups. I completed a total of 97 push ups.  My core workout for today included Prehab: Core, Hip, and Elasticity.

Tuesday I ran about 4.25 miles from my house downtown and back.  It was a little cold (20) and windy.  Running into the wind wasn’t exactly pleasant but not unbearable either! Since I’m not doing all of the Core Performance workouts, I didn’t have any core work to do today!

On Wednesday though it was even colder with a wind chill of 3, which I didn’t realize until I got home.  The weather app on my phone said it was in the 20’s, but didn’t show a wind chill.  Learned the hard way! I ran 3.25 miles around a snow covered Powderhorn Park. The required 113 push ups really started hurting by the last 2 sets.  It was painful but I also don’t want to fail! Today was a physioball workout.  I also bike commuted to work which takes a bit longer when there is snow on the ground, not only riding but also the whole layering system takes time.  I didn’t slip or get too cold so that was good!

By Thursday I was exhausted and didn’t run.  I almost ran in the evening to blow off some stress but opted to just relax at home.  I did my Prehab:Core, Hip, and Elasticity core workouts though.

Friday morning was the coldest yet with a wind chill of 0.  I wore 4 layers on my upper body and felt comfortable, except for not wearing my face mask! It was a very uneventful 3.1 mile run.  On days like this it is hard to keep the body temp comfortable, when I was running into the wind my body was on the cold side and with my back to the wind it was on the warm side.  The joys of winter running! I also completed the required push ups – 140 to be exact. I almost couldn’t get the last set of 33 out – I had to pause a few times, but I made it!

Saturday was the weekly Polar Bear runs and it finally lived up to its name! We woke up with an inch or two of fresh snow on the ground and the temp was in the mid-teens with a harsh -3 windchill.  We ran a loop around the Mississippi River from Lake Street to Plymouth Ave which is just under 11 miles total.  The run out was brutal because of the wind and the River Road’s trails hadn’t been plowed yet for most of the run.  That made for a tough workout, between the poor footing and losing some of the normal return it required more energy to complete the same workout from 2 weeks ago.  We finished right at 1:26:00 for about 11.78 10.78 miles.  I did my push-up exhaustion test, completing 36, which keeps me in the middle column going into Week 5.

It was bitter cold on Sunday for the 7.25 miles that we put in.  It was an interesting morning though – Rob and I were followed by a weird stalker guy while driving to Fort Snelling.  He started tailgating us and honking his horn, matching our every turn and then passing us on the right when we entered the parking lot.  Rob called 911 to report him and we followed him around the parking lot before parking.  Then he pulled into the spot right next to us (on my side) and just sat there with a weird look staring at us.  He would also randomly just honk his horn. Rob got out and talked to some of the guys to tell them what was up and then when the whole group showed up we got out.  Nathan tried talking to him, but I don’t even think he rolled down his window.  Paul told him we had already called the cops and he finally left – we thought maybe he’d try and run us over but everything seemed fine once he left.   After that adventure the run was really good.  We ran on the snow covered trails of Pike Island.  Down on the island the windchill doesn’t feel as fierce but the temp was about 4 degrees with a -3 wind chill.  We didn’t see any deer until we got into the middle of the island and then they were everywhere.  It was a good run!

Weekly Mileage

Running – 28.6 miles

Biking – 7 miles

This Week Last Year

I posted a guest review of the Monster Mash Dash in Indianapolis and completed the third part of my training analysis which was for my Mid-South Half-Marathon.  And of course Foto Friday!  Last year’s mileage was 9.5 miles on the (indoor) bike, 1.2 miles on the elliptical, and 15 minutes on the rower.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]