It sure is tough to write a race report after watching the women's Olympic marathon. What a performance by Constantina Tomescu, who took the gold in 2:26.44 after a stunning breakaway with ten miles left to go. But the real drama was Paula Radcliffe's race. The look of sheer determination and pain on her face running on an injured leg was enough to break your heart.
It makes 6.2 miles through the woods at my plodding clip seem like small 'taters!
I rode up with Kate Havelin, who has a new book coming out that is perfect for trail runners who might be feeling the pinch of high oil prices these days. It is about Twin Cities hiking trails and will likely be filled with little known great trails to run that are close enough to get to without breaking the bank.
The drive out to Maple Lake was a very pretty one (lots of tasty ducks around)!
We met Colin Gardner Springer at the registration table, and shortly after, some more of the MN Trail Series runners showed up, including Steve Quick, Jeff Allen, Kel Doyle, Wayne Nelson, Brooke Wheeler and Lisa Trainor. I'm probably missing people, but on 3 hours of sleep I'm just happy to recall what I do about this morning. Anyhoo, the field was definitely stacked!
The start was on a blacktop road under a quickly warming sun. I had a little time to chat with Colin Gardner Springer and Steve Quick before the race began. It felt way too low key to be a race. There was one dude who I think was trying to psyche me out by wondering out loud if a particular barefoot runner in the metro area hadn't "broken down" from running barefoot yet. Ha! Grr.
I stripped off my tee-shirt, knowing full well that I would be hating life if I left it on, and threw it on the side of the road. After a little pre-race instruction and a pretty informal start we were off. We went down the blacktop, then turned onto a dirt road with some pretty nice sized rocks on it - the kind of road I hate out at Afton because those sized rocks always hit the pee button. I started out going easy - or at least what felt easy. I just felt like I wasn't even really taxing myself at all, but when I looked down at my HRM the numbers told a different story.
Everyone up front looked like they were taking it pretty easy. I could see Steve and Colin and Jeff all hot on the heels of the eventual winner, a 35 year old guy who finished the race in around 34 minutes. Smokin' fast!
Just as I passed a stand of woods near a cornfield I could swear I heard a whitetail buck snort. It could have been the runner behind me. He was making odd noises the whole race.
Colin and I had some talk before the race about what data fields we like to see on our Garmins. He likes to see his lap pace and time of day. I like to see my real-time pace and my distance during races, but for some reason, my Garmin had cycled to a different view, and then about three miles into the race it went to some weird"Forced Shutdown" error screen.
I pressed a few buttons in vain, but couldn't get it to shut down or restart. I looked down at the ailing device at the wrong time and nearly pulled a Colin on a steep and dewey hairpin turn at the bottom of a hill. Best to focus on the trail, Keith!
So...no data after 3 miles. I just made it a goal not to be passed and to try and catch the two cross country runners and make up as much ground as I could on Lisa Trainor.
I heard footsteps and some heavy breathing behind me, but whenever I looked back, I could never see anyone. I made it a point to run like hell around corners and up and over hills to make sure I lost whoever it was back there. It felt really good to air it out and run fast. There were nothing but left turns in the woods. It was like a trail NASCAR race.
The trail was really whizzing by at this point and I was just marveling at how they had spray painted nearly every rock, rut or root on the course. Those were the places to step if you wanted some technical trail training!
Before I knew it I had completed my trail loop and was back out under the sun, grabbing water, splashing half of it in my right eye and the rest down the front of my chest, missing my parched throat completely and jogging back out onto the dirt road.
I could see Lisa and the two cross country dudes about two hundred yards ahead. I focused on the one who seemed to be slowing and tried like mad to catch him, but no dice. Lisa smoked them both and won the women's overall!
My groin and hip were tight again at the end - I really have to stretch these areas out in the next couple weeks! The last stretch of blacktop to the finish was a little more road than I cared for at that point, but it was nice to end so close to Kate's car!
I finished 11th overall in 45:14, cutting two minutes off of my previous 10K time and setting a PR, but I am still a little disappointed because my last 10K PR was done through vast stretches of standing water on a much more technical course. But then again, this run didn't feel really taxing, in fact it felt pretty easy. So I hope that means I ran it more conservatively than my HRM suggests.
I stuck around and chatted to a few people for a bit, got a recipe for a wonderful strained pea and vodka soup from Steve Quick and then Kate and I hit the road for home.
The race directors did a fantastic job and the volunteers at this race were great. I hope this race makes it on the Series schedule next year! I also hope to see Wayne and Kel do this race in THEIR FiveFingers next year, too!
It makes 6.2 miles through the woods at my plodding clip seem like small 'taters!
I rode up with Kate Havelin, who has a new book coming out that is perfect for trail runners who might be feeling the pinch of high oil prices these days. It is about Twin Cities hiking trails and will likely be filled with little known great trails to run that are close enough to get to without breaking the bank.
The drive out to Maple Lake was a very pretty one (lots of tasty ducks around)!
We met Colin Gardner Springer at the registration table, and shortly after, some more of the MN Trail Series runners showed up, including Steve Quick, Jeff Allen, Kel Doyle, Wayne Nelson, Brooke Wheeler and Lisa Trainor. I'm probably missing people, but on 3 hours of sleep I'm just happy to recall what I do about this morning. Anyhoo, the field was definitely stacked!
The start was on a blacktop road under a quickly warming sun. I had a little time to chat with Colin Gardner Springer and Steve Quick before the race began. It felt way too low key to be a race. There was one dude who I think was trying to psyche me out by wondering out loud if a particular barefoot runner in the metro area hadn't "broken down" from running barefoot yet. Ha! Grr.
I stripped off my tee-shirt, knowing full well that I would be hating life if I left it on, and threw it on the side of the road. After a little pre-race instruction and a pretty informal start we were off. We went down the blacktop, then turned onto a dirt road with some pretty nice sized rocks on it - the kind of road I hate out at Afton because those sized rocks always hit the pee button. I started out going easy - or at least what felt easy. I just felt like I wasn't even really taxing myself at all, but when I looked down at my HRM the numbers told a different story.
Everyone up front looked like they were taking it pretty easy. I could see Steve and Colin and Jeff all hot on the heels of the eventual winner, a 35 year old guy who finished the race in around 34 minutes. Smokin' fast!
Just as I passed a stand of woods near a cornfield I could swear I heard a whitetail buck snort. It could have been the runner behind me. He was making odd noises the whole race.
Colin and I had some talk before the race about what data fields we like to see on our Garmins. He likes to see his lap pace and time of day. I like to see my real-time pace and my distance during races, but for some reason, my Garmin had cycled to a different view, and then about three miles into the race it went to some weird"Forced Shutdown" error screen.
I pressed a few buttons in vain, but couldn't get it to shut down or restart. I looked down at the ailing device at the wrong time and nearly pulled a Colin on a steep and dewey hairpin turn at the bottom of a hill. Best to focus on the trail, Keith!
So...no data after 3 miles. I just made it a goal not to be passed and to try and catch the two cross country runners and make up as much ground as I could on Lisa Trainor.
I heard footsteps and some heavy breathing behind me, but whenever I looked back, I could never see anyone. I made it a point to run like hell around corners and up and over hills to make sure I lost whoever it was back there. It felt really good to air it out and run fast. There were nothing but left turns in the woods. It was like a trail NASCAR race.
The trail was really whizzing by at this point and I was just marveling at how they had spray painted nearly every rock, rut or root on the course. Those were the places to step if you wanted some technical trail training!
Before I knew it I had completed my trail loop and was back out under the sun, grabbing water, splashing half of it in my right eye and the rest down the front of my chest, missing my parched throat completely and jogging back out onto the dirt road.
I could see Lisa and the two cross country dudes about two hundred yards ahead. I focused on the one who seemed to be slowing and tried like mad to catch him, but no dice. Lisa smoked them both and won the women's overall!
My groin and hip were tight again at the end - I really have to stretch these areas out in the next couple weeks! The last stretch of blacktop to the finish was a little more road than I cared for at that point, but it was nice to end so close to Kate's car!
I finished 11th overall in 45:14, cutting two minutes off of my previous 10K time and setting a PR, but I am still a little disappointed because my last 10K PR was done through vast stretches of standing water on a much more technical course. But then again, this run didn't feel really taxing, in fact it felt pretty easy. So I hope that means I ran it more conservatively than my HRM suggests.
I stuck around and chatted to a few people for a bit, got a recipe for a wonderful strained pea and vodka soup from Steve Quick and then Kate and I hit the road for home.
The race directors did a fantastic job and the volunteers at this race were great. I hope this race makes it on the Series schedule next year! I also hope to see Wayne and Kel do this race in THEIR FiveFingers next year, too!
7 comments:
Great job on your 10K!
I almost started crying at the end of that marathon. Wow. Did you notice on the overhead views of them running the stride difference between Tomescu and the others in the pack. Hers was about twice the length, and she was really using her whole body to propel herself forward. My obliques hurt just watching her, but it worked for her. I'm glad Paula finished. It would have been great to see her win, but it's one thing I love about distance running. You just never know from race to race who it's going to be!
Congrats! Sounds like it was a great day. One of these years I'm gonna try this race, since it's right in my backyard!
You should try the liver puree and vodka smoothie! Nice job on the PR. I checked to see if this was a PW (personal worst) for me, but I missed that by a few seconds.
Fun little race, wasn't it? I wish more of it was on the trail rather than the road though...
Actually, for races I wear by Garmin but don't refer to it (I leave it showing time of day and distance elapsed). During faster training, I like to see lap pace and distance (with it set to auto-lap every quarter mile). The instantaneous pace is too variable for my tastes.
When I wear mine, it's so I can review the data afterwards, to cross-reference with how I was feeling.
Good race Keith, it was nice to connect again!
Great race report. I definitely need to get me a pair of Five Fingers. I've been thinking about getting some for a while. I haven't wanted to try anything new while I am training for an important race. If I do OK this weekend (ie finish), and don't feel a need to redeem a DNF by attempting another ultra this fall, it probably would be a good time for me to finally get a pair and try them out on the trails here.
Post a Comment