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PR for Half Marathon at Twin Cities Marathon

I was just looking over the race results again from the Twin Cities Marathon and despite not running the race that I had hoped for it turns out that I ran a 6 second PR for the half-marathon!

I think I may need to race a half-marathon soon so I can put the idea of a PR for the half out of the realm of possibility in my next marathon. It's been a couple of years since I raced a half, it was the Rock'n'Roll Half in VA beach 2007.

First Cold Run of the Season

Last night we had the first snow of the season! Today the temperature reached a balmy 35 and there was a 15mph wind blowing from the west creating a wind chill of 25. Brrr, this was serious winter running in Virginia but only the tip of the iceberg for Minnesota (pun intended).

I thought about taking the day off, heck I ran a marathon a week ago. Then I realized that if I start making excuses today I'll be making them all winter. So I donned my tights and jacket, hat and gloves and went for a 5 mile run.

It was amazing! Having spent the last few months training for the marathon I was now free to run how I wanted to. I'm not bound to a training schedule and it felt fabulous to be outside running free. I'm really looking forward to the next few months of running before the build up for my next marathon, but for now I'm running free!

Running Again

It's been five days now since the marathon and the soreness has left the muscles, that means its time to start running again!

Four easy miles on the road. It's so nice to be able to get out and run without being in training for any particular event, just running for running's sake. It was a perfect day to start back, temperatures in the upper 40's, sun shining brightly and a light breeze. I have no idea what my pace was today as I plodded along on the first of my recovery runs, I just focused on keeping a comfortable pace all the way.

It won't be long now before I have to do some winter running. That'll be new to be me as I haven't had a "real" winter in five years.

Twin Cities Marathon 2009

It was a perfect morning for a long run, overcast and cool. Having taken the shuttle from Saint Paul to Minneapolis we waited in the Metrodome staying warm until 7:40 when we made our way to the start. I headed into Corral 1 and Jenny into Corral 2.Pushing my way near to the front I hooked up with the 3:20 pace team and hoped to hang with them until the end securing a Boston qualifying time.

As the race got underway I felt great until about mile three when I realized that I was going to have to pee soon! By the time we hit mile 5 I had to stop, it only took about 20 seconds but it put me 20 seconds off pace, I took the next half mile to catch up with the pace team, I should have taken longer to do this as it meant I ran a 7:20 mile but probably closer to 7:10 for the half mile, way too fast, burning a lot of energy. I soon settled back into the pack.

One of the other miles (don't recall which) in the first ten was also a little fast as we hit a 7:25 mile but I seemed to be doing OK. It was great to see my kids just past mile 10 and then a couple of friends between 11 and 12.

We were through the half in just over 1:39 so we right on pace for our 3:20 finish. At mile 14 my back started to tighten and the lower left part of my back felt like a rock. By mile 15 I started to fall off my pace a little as the back tightening eased and transferred into my hip flexor which ached for the rest of the race. I continued to race through about mile 18 as I could still see the 3:20 group a few hundred yards ahead of me. By the time I hit mile 19 they were gone and so was my desire to push hard for a BQ.

I had a choice to make, chose my next goal... push hard and maybe get a PR or relax, have fun and enjoy the rest of the race. I selected the latter and treated the rest of the race like an ultra, steady and slow, walk the hills. I took time to stop and say "Hi" to Brian, Barb, Darrell, and then stopped to hug and high five my kids. I took time to thank volunteers at the water stops for giving of their time to make the race possible. I was glad to be able to take in all that Summit Avenue has to offer in crowd support.

I crossed the finish line in 3:39:50. Not a bad time considering how much fun I had over the last 7 or 8 miles!

So what went wrong? Why no BQ? Well the answer is simple... relationships and life! I took a trip to Viriginia to catch up with friends and see U2 in concert last week. Not the smartest way to prepare for a marathon. Wednesday night I was up until 2:00 am enjoying time with a good friend. Thursday night I spent a litlte over 5 hours standing at the U2 concert and didn't get back to the hotel until 2:00 am. I woke up with a serious calf cramp the next morning. Of course there is no guarantee of a BQ in any race and I while the timing was bad I wouldn't have done anything differently. There's always another race but only so much time with friends.