Race Report: Get Lucky 21K

On Friday M. and I headed to the Cities for a weekend of half-marathon and birthday fun. We also had a an expensive meeting with an attorney because we have to file a petition for his continued permanent residency. After our meeting, we headed to the Mall of America to scout some tops that aren't covered in stains for me to wear this summer and to have dinner with my running and blogging friend Lisa and an academic friend in the area, who brought a friend of hers who was visiting from Boston. We ate at Tucci Bennuch in the MoA. I was actually quite impressed with the food. I had a delicious risotto and between that and the bread I felt sufficiently carbed up for my race the next day.

Lisa and Me

After a night of relatively fitful sleep, I woke up a little after 6am, downed some water, coffee, and toast, got dressed, brushed my teeth, got the plumbing going, pinned on my bib, checked the FB birthday greetings that were starting to come in, and woke up my wonderful spouse who drove me down to the race start sight. Once we arrived, I got in line for the port-a-potties. By the time I came out, the race was just about to start. I gave M. my hoodie and joined the crowd funneling into the start line.

At the start

I ran the first few miles with the 2:25 pace group. The pacer was a great guy named Tom who said he was pacing 36 events this year and had run something like 212 marathons. Incredible. I always love chatting with the pacers. At a water stop around mile 5 I lost the group. I was struggling a little bit with the humidity and my lack of conditioning. 65F felt hot after months of running in temps in the teens and 20s. I slowed my pace down a little bit and tried to find a comfortable zone. This and the fact that a lot of the faster runners had reached the turn around point and there was a lot of cheering on both sides kept me pepped up until I had reached the turnaround myself just after mile 6.5.

The mile or so after I turned around went well. I was feeling pretty good. At the next water stop, I walked for a couple of minutes to take a GU and drink some water with it so that it would settle. I felt pretty good for the next mile or so. The GU had given me some calories and was helping me to deal with the fatigue that was starting to set in. However, at mile 10 I could definitely feel the difference between my current conditioning and my conditioning this past autumn even as I was dealing with injury. My chest was hurting a little bit and part of me just wanted to lay down and take a nap. I pressed on, though, mostly running and occasionally walking. At the last water stop, I noticed that the 2:30 pacer wasn't behind me anymore. I was irritated with myself about that a little bit. I had wanted to stay ahead of that group, but I hadn't even noticed them passing me. Clearly, that was a sign that I was just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

I was really happy when I hit the last mile. I knew I was a little bit off my time goal, but I was glad to be out there on a beautiful day with lots of other runners. I thought a little bit about some of the other races I'd run and how much I love running. I finished with a time of 2:31:25.

Finishing. Yay!

All in all, I'm glad that I did the race. It was a festive atmosphere among the runners at least. For the most part things like crowd support and music on the course were pretty minimal. I do think Team Ortho could have put a couple more water stops along the course. It seemed like other than at the start/finish line, there were only a couple of biffies at each of the water stops. The course itself was an out and back and consisted of mostly sort of gently rolling hills. There was a nice view of the skyline for a couple of miles. However, it wasn't the most scenic of races. The St. Paddy's day madness was pretty much what carried this off as an event.

After the race, M. met me, while I stretched and downed a bottle of water. I ran into a couple of running friends and chatted with them for a few minutes. Then I was off to shower, have a birthday brunch, and enjoy a day in the Cities which included a stroll around Lake Calhoun and a delicious Coo Coo for Coconut birthday cupcake from Sweet Retreat.

Cupcake Porn

I have 7 weeks between now and the time that I toe the line at the Capital City Half-Marathon in Columbus. This week will be a low mileage week, as I'm recovering and headed to Boston for a conference and other academic activities. Post-recovery, though, I'm looking forward to some speed work outs and some more double digit long runs. I aim to be in better shape that first weekend in May and to run a faster race than I did on Saturday.