Category Archives: Race Review

Race Review: Rochester Half Marathon

A picture perfect day for running led to a great performance by almost everyone on my team, including myself.  I’ll break the news early, now middle of the morning text messages here: I set a new PR, but about a minute and a half.  Finally, after 3 years of trying I had a record setting half-marathon race! I almost didn’t go down but I am glad I did.  My time for the 13.1 mile distance was 1:33:22 or 7:08 pace, good enough for 65th overall and 7th in my age group.  All of this took place at the Rochester Half Marathon, in Rochester MN (home of the Mayo Clinic).

Now for all (that I can remember) the details.

Pre-Race I had been up late the 2 nights prior thanks to something called the Olympics, so having to wake up at 4:30am wasn’t easy.  We were carpooling down so I couldn’t be too late.  We arrived in plenty of time and actually by being so early we were able to get registered and use the restrooms before the large crowd came rushing in.  Four of us rode down together and only one had pre-registered.  They didn’t have any t-shirts for race day registrants, but the total fee was only $20 so that is a pretty sweet deal.  We lounged around at the Holiday Inn Express which hosted the race and waited for the other cars to arrive before warming up.  The temperature was maybe 60 degrees at the start with no clouds in the sky and no noticable wind at the start.

Race Time We lined up in the middle of Broadway Ave in  downtown Rochester. I started a little farther forward than I should have, but I also know that sometimes in these smaller races (only 602 finished) that if you get to far back you’ll get stuck in the opening miles.  I also kept telling myself to take it easy at the start and go out slow.  After the race announcements off we went.  We turned down 4th Ave and then turned again into a residential area before hitting the first mile mark.  I felt comfortable and relaxed even as I tried to stay at the back of a small back, then I realized a teammate, Chris Taylor, was running in the pack and his goal was several minutes faster than mine.  So I let the pack go.  We hit the first mile mark in 4:41.  Oh wait that was a marathon later in the evening.  Seriously though I hit the first mile in 6:48.  A little faster than I had hoped but nothing to panic about.  My goal is to break 1:30 which is 6:54 pace.  We continued through the residential area and jumped onto the Bear Creek Trail, a paved bike path which aptly runs along Bear Creek. The trail meanders along the river bank at this point in an open park but soon gets into a great woodsy area.  This shade helps keep the pace moving and I went through mile 2 in 6:53.  Still feeling pretty good I wasn’t worried about the pace.  As we continued to twist through the woods we came to the first water stop around 2.5 miles.  A local Boy Scout Troop did an excellent job with the water and Gatorade.  They had a ton of cups lined up on the ground which would have made a great picture! As we came into the water stop I was at the back of a pack of 6 people, after the stop I was at the front of the pack.  As we continued to meander I made sure to cut the straightest line possible between the turns so as not to add any distance to the run that didn’t need to be there. We continued on the trail through mile 3 in 6:54. Our first 5K was in 21:33. My plan for the marathon is to take at least on Clif Shot Blok every 5K so I did that during this race as well.

In the 4th mile we sadly (?) left the bike path and turned onto Pinewood Rd, a large country road.  I said sadly, because the road had very little shade on it.  There was also very little traffic which was nice, especially considering the fact that we weaved across the road several times.  It seemed everyone was doing this as they were trying to “cut the tangents” but it was a little ridiculous. I lost track of how many times we actually criss-crossed the road. I doubt we saved much time and we came through mile 4 in 6:59. Along this long mostly straight stretch I was passed by several runners who were obviously starting out slow and picking people off.  It also started to feel a little lonely as I was kind of stuck between two groups of runners. The sun was also starting to warm up, though it never really felt hot.  I came through mile 5 in 6:59. The 5 mile mark was at the beginning of the next water stop so I almost missed it.  The group was doing a great job of passing out water and Gatorade and I continued moving along.  This was a pretty lonely stretch of road that was marked by a local radio station’s van blaring both country and rock songs and a lone porta-potty under a highway overpass. Around the porta-pot I started hearing footsteps and a guy caught up to me, we didn’t really chat – but did talk back and forth a little bit.  We were a little suprised we hadn’t seen the leaders yet, but soon enough they started coming back to us.  Right before mile 6 we turned onto a gravel road and started really enjoying the better parts of rural America (read: sweet smells of home – or pig farms!).  The mile marker was on the wrong side of the road and I almost missed it and hit the lap button a few seconds after we passed it.  Mile 6: 7:14.  I ran with this black shirted guy for a little while longer, but he kept a strong pace and I let him go.  I came through this 5K in 21:46 or 43:19 for the 10K.

The race continued on the dirt road and I was now seeing lots of runners who had turned around already.  The turn around was marked by 3 orange cones and a guy saying something like, “slow down and turn around.” I came through the half-way point around 46:44. This also marked the highest point on the course, but it wasn’t all downhill from there.  Now I was seeing large groups of people running towards me as I ran back out of the dirt road. Immediately after the turn around I was hit by a head-wind.  Nothing too hard, but enough to be noticable in your race pace.  I tried not to worry about it and to stay focused.  Two other guys caught up to me and we ran together for awhile. I start to cramp a little bit in here.  It felt like it went across my whole diaphram. I tried not to let it slow me down too much as we ran through mile 7 in 7:07.  As soon as we turned back onto the paved road it seemed to go away – weird.  Our small group continued running together, pushing each other along through mile 8 in 7:14. I think they guys were local because they were getting lots of cheers from the oncoming runners.  We went through the 3rd water stop, this time I took some Gatorade and tried grabbing a water.  The girl wasn’t looking at me and so we weren’t able to make the exchange, but that was fine. As we started heading West again the headwind picked back up and I tucked in behind guy #1 and guy #2 tucked in behind me.  This proved quite fruitful, I know the more proper etiquette would have been to arrange some type of sharing agreement where we’d trade back and forth for the wind breaking duties, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it – so I said nothing.  Meanwhile guy #1 broke wind in more than one sense of the word! Yes, he loudly farted not once, but 2x’s and they both reeked almost making puke.  At the first whiff I quickly pulled out from behind him for a few strides then tucked back in. I guess in some ways, that is justice for drafting! We came through mile 9 in 7:02! This 5K was 22:08 while the overall 15K was 1:05:27.

We continued along Pinewood Rd, this time not switching sides of the road very many times.  To point out how ridiculous it was, right before the turn back onto the bike trail a group in front of us crossed the road and almost immediately crossed back over to our side.  A little silly. I some how missed the 10 mile mark, but according the the mile splits that Garmin is able to reproduce we came through the 10th mile in 6:57. Almost as soon as we turned back onto the bike trail and I no longer needed the wind blocked – but maybe also due to have just run 2 miles at sub-7 min pace I couldn’t stay with guy #1 or #2 anymore and off they went. Now I was alone again meandering through the woods.  The winding trail also made it hard to see where people were in front of me to see how close I was.  I occasionaly caught a glimpse of someone up there.  At the final water stop I again took some Gatorade.  I came through mile 11 in 14:26 WHAT??? Oh yea I missed mile 10! I felt pretty good that I just ran 2 miles under 7:15 pace – not so good according to Garmin because mile 11 was 7:31. I guess I fell off pace quite a bit after the guys left me. At this point it was more of the same from the start, except now in reverse.  I don’t think anyone passed me, nor did I pass anyone during this stretch.  I tried to dig deep for motivation, not really sure where I was at overall pace-wise (I could have just looked at my Garmin and realized where I was, duh!). I came through mile 12 in 7:41. This 5K was 23:08 and through 20K in 1:28:36.

Ok, only a mile to go, suck it up.  You can do this.  We stayed on the bike trail instead of going back on the streets through the residential area.  This made for a few short ups and downs as we went from river level to street level a couple of times – nothing major at all but I felt them a little bit.  I got passed by a group of 3-5 runners which was a little frustrating, especially since I didn’t have enough energy to even try to go with them.  I did pass a guy who was stretching out his leg on the side of the trail.  I felt like I was picking up the pace, but in reality, I was probably just maintaing it. I was finally able to see the finish area! Wait, I started hearing footsteps.  This was the motivation I needed and I picked up the pace a little bit. We came up to the street level and crossed a bridge – there was the crowd and lots of balloons. I hit mile 13 in 7:33. A quick turn and a wide turn and there was the clock.  It said 1:31 something, I got excited and took off.  When I crossed it said 1:32:24, then I looked at my watch and saw 1:33:22.  A little disappointed but knowing either way it was a PR I was excited.  It turns out the clock had stopped earlier and they must have reset it wrong.  My Garmin time ended up being the same as my official chip time (full results).

Post Race As I caught my breath – got the chip removed – and received my finisher’s medal I made my way towards the food and drink.  I took a Gatorade, Water, Orange, and Banana. I would have taken some of the rolls, but my hands were already full.  I caught up with some of my teammates and we chatted and waited for everyone else to come in.  After eating some of the food and stretching I hit up the Kemps Ice Cream truck.  Nothing like a free Orange Cream Bar to help with recovery!  We waited and waited quite awhile for the awards ceremony as several of my teammates got awards.  I also finally met Chad Austin having read his blog for awhile.

Team Round-up: (If I screw this up guys, just remember I’m the New Guy)

  • Kirk Walztoni – 1:15:45 3rd overall and 2nd in his age group plus a PR
  • Paul Lamere – 1:27:06 1st in his age group
  • Chris Taylor – 1:28:11
  • Marty Humphrey – 1:34:31
  • Anne Walztoni – 1:34:43 2nd in her age group (8th overall woman)
  • Deb Humphrey – 1:36:44 3rd in her age group
  • Carolyn Fletcher – 1:42:40 3rd in her age group
  • Ann Choiroloff – 1:43:12

Race pictures are available here.

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Race Review: MDRA 15K

Sunday was an excellent, pretty much perfect day for a race. I woke up a little tired from seeing the in-laws off last night and slowly worked out some of the kinks on the warm-up.  The temps were right around 60 – which almost felt cold! It was great.

The MDRA 15K is the state masters and open 15K championship as well as being part of the USATF-MN Team Circuit.  So needless to say there was some competition at the front! It otherwise would be a fairly small race which included a 5K.  The 15K saw 9 new records this year! According to the final results the winning time was 48:00 a little bit off my official time of 63:24 which is a 15K PR.  This is also my first road 15K, the rest were all part of the DINO Series in Indiana.  I finished 4th on our team this week.

It was a good race – we started about 400m in front of the 5K start, so each loop was a little over 5K. I’m very pleased with my race, I finished approximately on the same pace as last week’s 10K. The race started towards the top of one of the major hills along the course and finished behind the start at the bottom of the hill, ensuring an overall elevation loss.  The course while on the road was fairly scenic winding through Braemar Park, a residential area, and along I-494 and US 169. The first mile was mostly downhill winding past the indoor driving range and parts of the golf course.  The road actually went through the golf course where mile 1 was located. I decided today to hit the split button on my Garmin so I could actually read my mile splits and not have to do the math in my head! This produced a little discrepency since the mile markers were a little off according to Garmin.  I’ll list the split times I clicked.  6:24 for mile 1. I felt pretty good with that split but thought it would be best to slow down a little so that I wasn’t totally wiped out at the end of the race. It was a little hard to let a pack go, but I new it was the smart thing to do.  I continued cruising along as we went through the residential section hit a couple small hills and grabbed some water along the way.  I remained comfortable and ran mostly by myself coming through mile 2 in 6:38. We have left the scenic portion and ran the next mile mostly on frontage roads alongside the interstate so not too exciting.  We also hit the first major hill of the course along this stretch.  The hill wasn’t steep enough to make you winded but it was a fairly long steady uphill. The downhill felt good as we came back by the parking area, crowds, and water stops.  I came through mile 3 in 6:54. The first 5K was 20:29.

Up the hill we go passing the starting line.  I got a couple people on this long steady hill, even though I was trying to keep the pace under wraps. We wound back down the hill and two guys came by at a decent pace.  I decided to go with them for awhile thinking they would help pull me up to the next big pack.  We never caught the pack and I stayed with them for a mile or so.  Mile 4 was 6:50. They didn’t really help my overall pace too much as I’d let them go a little bit and then surge to catch back up. This got a little tiring and finally they just pulled away as we went back into the residential area and hit the small hills. I grabbed some water again and went through mile 5 in 6:49. Back up the long frontage road hill, still feeling pretty solid along the way. I caught a few people on the hill even though I remained at a steady pace.  i came through mile 6 in 6:56. And through the 10K in 41:36 (that 5K was 21:07). That split was actually faster than last week’s 10K and only 8 seconds off my 10K PR. Wow!!

Somewhere in here a woman came into the picture – I can’t remember if she passed me or if I caught up to her.  But going back up the hill I was able to put some distance on her even though I remained at a steady pace.  She caught back up to me heading back down the hill though and we continued battling the rest of the race.  It was nice to have a little motivation to keep pushing hard. I came through mile 7 in 6:58. I remained in front but she was right there and I could here her breathing and footsteps as we hit some of the small hills in the neighborhood.  I figured if I could keep her behind me I would be fine, but didn’t want to get into a kicking match too far out.  I was finally starting to feel the pain of the miles and some pain in my right buttocks.  I came through mile 8 in 7:01. I skipped the final water stop and focused on pushing through – there was a pack a few hundred yards ahead of me.  I started trying to focus on them but also kept an ear out for the woman behind me.  She did pass me coming out onto the frontage road and I stayed right with her.  As we started climbing the hill I started picking up the pace a little bit and was able to go by her pretty easily.  Along the way I caught a Slab City runner and kept picking up the pace or at least the intensity. I came through mile 9 in 6:53. 3/10ths of a mile is a pretty long way to kick and I had no idea what she might try to do so as soon as I saw the 9 mile marker I started picking up the pace and steadily increasing it.  I came through the last 0.3 miles in 1:55 (5:57 pace).  The final time was 1:03:23 (1:03:24 officially) with the last 5K at 21:46. Not even splits but not too much of a spread either, in my opinion.

I felt good and felt like I recovered pretty quickly.  The woman I was racing, Laurie Hanscom finished 9 seconds behind me, so I waited and thanked her for a good race and told her she did a good job. I joined some of the other guys on the team to cheer our female teammates on to the finish.  I finished 58th overall and Laurie finished 4th overall for the women.  I can’t complain too much about the day.

I finished it off with a chiropractic treatment, chiropractors in Franklin.  At first I thought it was a massage which would have felt great on my tight lower back.  I decided to go ahead and give it a try since it was free! It was my first time and was a different feeling.  I think I will stick to massages for now!

All in all a good day!

[tags] MDRA, 15K, Race Review, Edina, USATF [/tags]


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Race Review: Hennepin Lakes Classic 10K

This is the pack at the end of the first lap. Our faces are a little grainy but you can see the lake and skyline which makes it cool!

This is the pack at the end of the first lap. Our faces are a little grainy but you can see the lake and skyline which makes it cool!

It has been awhile since I raced so I was glad to get out there and do it again.  The 31st Annual Hennepin Lakes Classic 10K, 5K, Doubleheader had a decent day for racing.  It was about 72 at the start with humidity about the same, with a slight breeze.  To top it off it was overcast… until the start! Located at beautiful Lake Calhoun on Minneapolis’ west side this could have been a good race.

If you read my weekly training update you pretty much know how I felt going into the race, but I woke up feeling pretty good and thought it’d be a good day for racing.  After warming up and hitting the porta-potty it was time to line and get this thing started.

I wanted to take it out slow and build the pace throughout the race.  I discovered that MDRA Teammate Colin had the same plan in mind for about the same finish time so I stayed back with him at the start.  It is frustrating because we definitely weren’t that far back from the front – maybe 6-10ft or so and we got boxed in pretty much from the buzzer.  We settled into what felt like a good pace and dodged people for awhile coming through the first mile in 6:33. Maybe a touch faster than we expected but a good start.  A quick little hill with about 50ft elevation gain at about 1.25 wasn’t too bad.  It was really enough to make you push up it. They had water available at the 1.5 mark which was good.  Up until this point the race had been along East Calhoun Parkway, now we headed out onto Lake Street for the last half of the second mile.  We came through the 2 mile in 6:45. I really need to figure out how to setup the Garmin so it gives me the mile time and overall (anyone know how to do that?) so I don’t have to do math in my head while running! Finishing up on Lake St we turned onto West Calhoun Parkway where we were quickly hit hard with a headwind. By now the race had pretty much strung out and there were just little clumps of runners and a lot of individual runners.  Colin and I were still together and looking at the picutres my wife took, there was actually 6 of us in the picture for maybe a pack of 4 or 5 ( I think we were passing some of them). Up to this point all the miles had been marked perfectly, Mile 3 was setup pretty early. But actually it was the 3 mile mark for the 5K race later – but it was blown around by the wind and a “helpful” spectator put it back up (but the wrong way)! The 3 mile mark was in the right spot and we ran it in 6:51. There was a waterstop setup as we passed the finish chute – I drank a little and tossed the rest on my head. We hit the first 5K in 20:55.

At this point I knew we were off pace and that’d I’d have to run a 20:30 to PR and 19:05 to hit my goal of breaking 40.  The headwind took a lot out of us.  As we rounded a curve female teammate Carly made herself known as she pulled up beside me.  So here we were 3 teammates running 3 abreast down the street, if only for a few strides. The 4th mile was pretty unremarkable as we all struggled along,except that there was a headwind here too. I think the larger pack at the start mitigated much of the wind’s force but now in smaller groups we could feel it. We came through 4 in 6:47. I’m not sure when Colin dropped back but Carly was right with me until we hit the hill.  Part of me wanted to beat her and part of me wanted to help her.  I decided that I needed to focus on my race and try and encourage her as much as I could.  So as we went up the hill at about 4.5 and I started to pull away I yelled some encouragement to her as I passed some other runners.  Grabbed some water at about 4.75 and came through the 5 mile in 6:48. As I approached the mile mark I knew that I needed to be around 32 minutes to hit my goal time so I was a little discouraged to see my Garmin click over to 34 minutes.  But I still put in a quick surge and tried to pick-up the pace (although my effort felt a lot harder than my times showed) and actually examining the 1/4 mile segment my pace slowed by a few seconds.  Nevertheless I did pull away from the small group I was in and continued passing people for the whole race.  Turning back onto West Calhoun I again got hit with the strong headwinds. I kept pushing myself knowing that the only way I could PR was going to be pushing the last mile HARD.  I came through mile 6 in 6:52. Still struggling to run as hard as possible I finished the last 0.2 miles in 1:19 (which is 5:45 pace).  Final 5K time 20:58 pretty much an even split race.  Overall time was 41:59.

Post race they had lots of water, some healthy fruit bar, fruit strips, and Naked Juice. They were also giving away Clif Bars.  Nothing too fancy but still a pretty nice setup.  This is my second event hosted by The Sporting Life (TSL) Events (the other was Human Race 8K).  They put on a good race.

5K Start

5K Start

I recovered a little bit and cooled down with some of the guys who were warming up for the 5K.  I was very glad not to be doing the double header! We stuck around for the start of the 5K and then took a quick dip in Lake Calhoun before heading home!

Were you there? What did you think of the event?  Several of my teammates doubled!

[tags] Hennepin Lakes Classic, 10K, Lake Calhoun, Race Review [/tags]

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Race Review: Karate Kickin’ Cancer 5K

Low key races can be a lot of fun. I have run some low-key races before but this was definitely the most low key. Actually, unwittingly I raced in the t-shirt from the CdLS race linked above!

I received an e-mail mid-week inviting me to run a 13-14 mile loop with some of the guys that would be followed by this 5K. The 5K was in memory of one of Mark’s Uncle who passed away earlier this year due to brain cancer. The training schedule called for 5 miles on Saturday and 11 on Sunday so I knew that either way the early morning run was out of the question, but with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning while my wife recovered from pulling a double at work I opted to go to North St Paul and do the Karate Kickin’ Cancer 5K.

I arrived really early on accident and took a leisurely stroll along the Gateway Trail where the race would be held. The race was sponsored by the Unified Martial Arts Academy. Owner Cory is the son of Roger who passed away on April 20. This was the third annual event with previous years being more of a fun event for the kids and families of the Academy. This year’s focus was on remembering Roger and raising money for cancer research (we now have mesothelioma explained thanks to the same kind of research done). They did that part exceptionally well raising $9,640 for the HealthEast Foundation in Saint Paul.

It was an interesting approach with no set entry fee, t-shirts only if you pre-registered, no race numbers, no official timing, but water available at the turn around and finish line. The course left the Academy parking lot and went to the Gateway Trail then proceeded out about 1.5 miles before turning around and coming back to the parking lot. The start/finish lines were in the same place.

The first mile had some turns and narrow pathways at the beginning. There were a lot of kids at the start doing their all out sprint and then petering out. They quickly faded after we hit the trail in the first tenth of a mile or so. The walkers were allowed to start walking any time that they wanted so there were already a lot of walkers on the course when we started and we had to wind our way through them. We had two road crossings in the first 1/4 or so without anyone stopping traffic, luckily it wasn’t a problem for me. The pack quickly split apart with a group of 3 then another guy and then me. It pretty much stayed this way the whole race! I came through the mile in a comfortable 6:29.

The trail is pretty flat but there was one bridge in this part that had a pretty noticeable hill but then had a downhill which is nice too! The first half of this mile was downhill to the turn around. The turn around was a water stop and a clown standing in the middle of the road. The guy in front of me took water, so I opted not to – gaining a few seconds on him! So the second half mile was uphill but it was pretty gradual, except for the bridge crossing. I slowed down, despite trying to catch the guy in front of me, running a 6:47 mile.

The last mile was nothing exceptional. I still managed to get by both road crossings without having to stop for traffic. At some point I started hearing footsteps behind me and was pretty determined not to get passed at this point in the race. I tried to keep picking up the pace and slowly drew the other guy in. When we got off the trail the guy in front of me decided to take some shortcuts through a parking lot back to Frontage Rd. I made the quick decision to follow him, I was more eager to beat him instead of getting the “accurate” course. I did catch him as we leaped a gravel median and sprinted to the finish. My GPS said it was 0.91 miles in 5:54 which is 6:28 pace.

So my total run of 2.91 was in 19:11. This was slower than last week but it wasn’t a track and I still trained hard all week!

Overall this was fun. I got 4th place overall, but there aren’t any awards or anything. There was a picture taker at the finish line so we’ll see if I can find the pictures later!

[tags] 5K, Race Review, Karate, Cancer [/tags]

Race Review: USATF-MN 5000m Championships

This Sunday race is part of the USATF-MN Team Circuit and was also part of a bigger USATF-MN Championship track meet. This would be the first time I’ve raced on a track since I graduated from college in 2003. It brought back a flood of memories from the tons of track meets that I competed in during junior high, high school, and college. It was in the low 60’s but with pretty high humidity the weather wasn’t exactly perfect for a race. The race was held at Hamline University’s Klas Field. The 9-lane mondo track was well used the weekend as the MSHSL Championships (Minnesota State High School League) were held there over the weekend.

We did a warm-up and then sat around and waited. The officials weren’t really in too much of a hurry and the meet was behind schedule pretty much from the beginning. It opened with a 5K race walk with 2 competitors before the women’s 5K and then the Men’s Master’s 5k. The Men’s Open 5K was next followed by a 3 person heat of the 100m hurdles and then the 1500.

One highlight of the meet was that Carrie Tollefson competed in the 1500 trying to get her Olympic “A” standard. She need a 4:10 but ran a 4:19 – still an impressive showing. She had a rabbit pull her through 800 meters and then was left to finish by herself. There was a slight headwind on the homestretch. It was fun to watch her run and then to see her wait around to congratulate the rest of the runners! A couple of her Team USA – Minnesota teammates were there to cheer her on.

Back to my race! I went in with no expectations having done no speed work in a long time and having done a 10-miler the day before. I knew I was going to get lapped several times since my PR is 18 and change. But my team needed me to compete so that we could score – so I took one for the team!

I did some math and decided that I would try and run 90 second quarters which is a 6:02 pace and would translate to a 18:44 5K. So I thought I would try that and hopefully break 19 minutes. Sadly that didn’t happen. I was proud of myself for showing great restraint and not pushing the first quarter too hard. I was pretty much on pace through the first half of the race so that was good. A runner from the Slab City racing team came by and asked what I was hoping to run and said that is what he was planning. He offered to trade laps which sounded good with the slight headwind. It was 2 laps in when he went by so I sat behind him for 2 laps and then went around him, but he came back by after another lap and pulled away. I had started to drop the pace slightly by that point but only a second or two a lap!

Here are my 400 splits:

  1. 1:23
  2. 1:31
  3. 1:31
  4. 1:32 – 5:58 mile
  5. 1:32
  6. 1:34
  7. 1:39
  8. 1:42 – 12:27 through 2 miles (6:29 mile)
  9. 1:39
  10. 1:42
  11. 1:42
  12. 1:35 – 19:08 through 3 miles (6:38 mile)
  13. 0:43 – last 200

If you aren’t familiar with a 5K on the track you start at the 200 meter mark and then run 12.5 laps. Each person/team or coach does the counting differently. Some people take the 200 off the beginning so that each mile is calculated at the finish line, while others do it the way I did and count it at the end. It was a little easier that way since they were calling out the time at the 200 mark.

Not a lot to report since it was round and round ya go! They didn’t have any water available which didn’t surprise me too much. It was an $8 entry and all I have to show for it is a plain bib! Some of the other guys got awards and some of the women’s team did too.

It was a good day all in all. Don’t think I would do it again unless I had done more specific training.

[tags] USATF-MN, 5000m Championships, Hamline [/tags]