Tag Archives: Road Running

Race Review: 2009 TC 1 Mile

The mile is an interesting race for a post-collegiate, non-elite runner. You don’t really do much “race specific” training for that distance. Training for a 5k doesn’t even compare for training for a mile, let along half-marathon training! Yet, on May 7th I lined up with about 2,100 other runners and raced 1 mile down Nicollett Mall in downtown Minneapolis.

The multi-wave start meant that there were probably closer to 20-50 runners in my wave – the USATF-MN Team and Open Wave which went off at 7:53pm. Over an hour after the mass wave. I probably should have raced with my age-group so I would have had more competition around me and wouldn’t have gotten passed by a swarm of almost sub-elite women!

This year’s TC 1 Mile also served as the US 1 Mile Championship, featuring runners like Shannon Rowbury, Sara Hall, Jon Rankin and David Torrence.Torrence actually broke 4:00, winning $10,000 and Rowbury missed her money mark by 2 second running a 4:30. Both were great races to watch. I did see Ryan Hall right after the elite women ran by, but he was on his way to see Sara so I didn’t stop him. This also means Flotrack was there so be sure to check out their coverage.

My official finish time of 5:26 is a 1 second PR over last year’s performance so for that I should be happy. I am pleased with that. Asked about my expectations I said “I’m not as fresh as I was last year, but I’ve done more speed work. So somewhere between 5:15 and 5:30.” I hit that pretty well.

I began feeling by quads about a 1/4 into the race – maybe at the top of the initial incline, and maybe because of my 1:17 split. A little aggressive but I was trying to take it out a little easy! My body quickly reacted to the pain of moving so fast and then my mouth became really dry and my throat started to burn. It was 74, dry, with a slight cross-breeze. I came through the 1/2 mile in 2:39 having run a 1:22 second 1/4. I really struggled to keep myself together passing through a ton of cheer zones and cheering people. Half-way through and feeling it. The third 1/4 was 1:26 and the flow of passing women had stopped except for this one wearing green. We ran past 3 guys wearing full green suits who let out a huge cheer and screamed for her. We fought back and forth for most of the rest of the race until I dropped the hammer (albeit a small one) for a final surge into the finish. My last 1/4 was 1:19. For a 5:26 official time.

My throat continued to hurt until mid-day on Friday. We were all coughing and hacking for the rest of the evening we spent relaxing downtown.

Here is a map of the course which is mostly downhill but as you can tell with the below elevation chart it isn’t exactly all downhill. According to my Garmin it does have a net elevation loss of 6ft!

Updated: In the comments Nathan disputed the elevation data from my Garmin. So I looked at MapMyRun.com’s data for the mile stretch and it looks pretty similar. Here is a chart I created from their information.

tc1mile09mapmyrunelevation

Check out the Twitter tag #tc1mile for more fun. And @tcmarathon for more information about TC Marathon related events.

[tags] TC1Mile, TC 1 Mile, Mile, Hall, Rowbury, Road Mile, Torrence, Minneapolis, Nicollett Mall [/tags]

Course Preview: Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon

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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]

Race Review: Fred Kurz 10 Mile

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Almost another perfect day for a spring race made for a pretty good race for me. According to my race plan I was hoping to finish in 1:08 which would have been quite excellent. I actually passed the halfway mark in 34 minutes (and change) but knew I was struggling so it was going to be tough.

I arrived pretty early and got my bib number and start time. The first runners left the starting line at 8:30 and then every one else’s time was handicapped off of it in 1 minute intervals. Based on their projections I started at 9:30 with the last runner starting before 9:40. This gave me WAY too much time to sit around before the race started. It is a low-key race but I still got pre-race nerves. Not an ideal race if you have alot of anxiety. I “gave” my wife the morning off so I didn’t really have anyone to talk with or to take wonderful pictures of me!

As I mentioned due to a bridge being redone on the Luce Line trail the traditional out and back course was modified. They made up all of the missing miles at the beginning which was appreciated. Though they added 3 180 degree turns which wasn’t cool. They are planning on this only being a 1 year diversion so let’s hope that the construction stays on pace!

The Luce Line is a great place for a race because it is a limestone covered dirt trail (according to the DNR). There is some shade off and on along the course and it is more scenic than many road races. The course included 2 water stations which made for a total of 4 potential water stops (although the 4th was about 1/2 mile from the finish). I took water 2x’s. I maybe should have taken some more since it was sunny and a little warmer than we were used to mid-40’s. The weather actually made for some difficult clothing decisions. I didn’t pack 9 different choices like Joe but I had 3 shirt options to wear – long sleeve, short sleeve, or singlet. I had trouble deciding and ended up wearing the short sleeve over the singlet. This was a decent choice given some slight winds.

I was a little surprised by the elevation chart that my Garmin produced. It resulted in a net elevation loss and most of the “hills” seemed like long slow grades not the sharper grades on the chart. But it is close enough! You can tell there are some inaccuracies because the elevation chart should be like a mirror. This year’s turnaround point was at mile 6 so it should be a mirror on either side and it obviously isn’t. Hmmm.

In some sense the slow grades are harder than short quick hills. They wear more on the quads. I was impressed by the overall accuracy of the course measurement – especially given the changes this year. My Garmin produced a 10.03 mile race which may be one of the closest measurements I’ve seen.

A few things of note during the race. Three of us started at my time and we went out a little quick but I stayed with them for the first 2 miles and never saw either of them again. I “caught” the first runner between 4 and 5 miles and got passed for the first time at 6 miles. I cramped up a little bit around mile 5 and it eventually went away. I don’t really remember where the water stops were mileage wise but it seemed pretty reasonable. By miles 7 and 8 I was starting to pass more participants which was a pretty nice feeling. I tried to keep pushing the pace in the late miles – but wasn’t overly successful with that endeavor.

Here are my splits according to the marked miles:
6:48
6:42
6:44
6:59
7:10
7:07
7:20
7:07
7:22
7:06

Based on the results posted at Raceberry Jam I was 15th overall, 12th male, 2nd in my age division and an official finish time of 1:10:31.

For $5 you couldn’t have asked for a much better race. I would be willing to pay a few bucks extra to use a timing chip and potentially save the race director some post-race headaches, including faster post-race awards.

[tags] Fred Kurz, 10 mile, Race Review, Wayzata [/tags]

Race Review: 2009 Human Race 8K

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It was a gorgeous morning to go for a run, the afternoon was excellent as well. 54 and sunny are pretty nice conditions for a race. The Human Race 8k is excellently managed by The Sporting Life (TSL) Events, a local race management company. This year’s event featured biodegradable water cups and lots of compost trash receptacles. The University of St Thomas makes a pretty nice staging area as well, headquarters are in the fieldhouse and the campus is pretty to walk through.

The starting line is on Summit Ave, home of the famous Twin Cities Marathon hills. The Human Race starts around the 22 mile mark and goes out about 2 miles makes a square around the William Mitchell College of Law and heads back down Summit. Summit Ave is split on two sides of a grass boulevard for much of the race. The start is split with the male and female on two different sides of the boulevard joining together about 1/2 mile or so into the race.

I started a few rows back and planned to take it fairly easy out of the start, especially given that the whole first mile is uphill. My pace seemed pretty solid without being overly fast. Blogger Chad Austin ran by me and for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to try and pace off him – he’s definitely faster than me, even coming off ski season! I came through the first mile in 6:35.

The second mile is pretty much all downhill. It doesn’t really feel like it though. I was just trying to stay relaxed and using people to help block the wind. Nothing too exciting happened during this mile. I was still passing people and getting passed. Was pleasantly pleased to see an even split time of 6:35.

The third mile includes the little square part around the Law school. It is a one block square with a water stop on the Summit Ave side. This square is an easy way to make a fast turn-around on an out and back course. Much preferred to the traditional cone in the road method, especially with this sized event! I saw the leaders coming back by at this point too. This is an up and down mile and I was starting to feel pretty tired. Somewhere in the last half of the race my upper body got really tight and I kept dropping my hands to try and relax it. I went through mile 3 in 6:49.

The fourth mile is all uphill again, but knowing that the final mile is all downhill makes it a little better! I really started struggling and was getting passed a lot more. Thinking back though I recall that my breathing wasn’t labored but that my legs really hurt and I just felt bad overall. Somewhere around here I got a cramp on my right side. I came through in 6:53. Glad to keep it under 7.

The last mile is all downhill with 80 feet of elevation loss at a -4% grade (see chart below). Before the race started I thought downhill with the wind at your back you can fly to the finish. I tried turning it on, but that didn’t work too well. Some people passed me and I tried to stay with them and they pulled away a little bit. It is a little deceiving because the road makes a quick little jog and so you can’t see the finish line, but then you see it for a really long time. You also run past the starting line. Finally with about 1/4 mile left I realized that I had to pass all these people and dropped the gears down. My final 1/4 was 1:21 (which was almost 10 seconds faster than the previous). The Garmin records your fastest pace (you only have to hit it for a second) and today’s fastest was a 4:24 pace! The final mile was 6:07.

Overall race pace was 6:35 for a 33:02 overall time. Which was a little disappointing. Everyone was pretty encouraging and reminded me that this is the first race of the year, so not too put much weight on it.

You can see the 2008 review here.

Comparison Chart	2008	2009
1	6:20	6:35
2	6:12	6:35
3	6:25	6:49
4	6:34	6:53
5	5:51	6:07
Final	31:27	33:02

[tags] Human Race, 8k, Race Review, The Sporting Life [/tags]

Race Plan: Human Race 8K (teamcrossworld.com)

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