Race report - Delano 4th July 5K

The Fourth of July is a great day for a 5K. All over the country, people turn out to run three miles as a part of the holiday celebrations. They'll then watch a parade and have a barbecue. Ending the day watching fireworks. 

We have several 5K’s close to us and my wife and I decided to run in Delano, MN. The celebrations there are the oldest and largest in Minnesota. We have watched the parade before, and it certainly is a large one. 

The 5K acts as a warm up to the parade, running through the town centre. There are thousands of people lining the streets watching, awaiting the parade coming about an hour behind.

I dressed the part to respect my adopted nation. I thought the singlet was pretty cool.

The race route around town. A 5K loop

As the race start time approached, my wife and I were conscious of the grey clouds looming. My wife, ever the optimist, was sure that things would be OK. I was more concerned. But that might have been the darkening effect of my sunglasses. They always make the grey clouds look more threatening. 

After a short performance and rendition of the National Anthem by the Delano High School Band we were on our way. (I'd just like to say that their performance of the old Lipps Inc. tune "Funkytown" was excellent).

With the start comes the first black mark of the event. The race started on a 20'+ wide road. Yet we were all compressed into a 8' start chute. Very cramped and a little annoying as at the start of a race, everyone wants to get moving. The timing was done by Anderson Race Management, probably Minnesota's premier race timers. So they must have had a reason. It just was odd, especially when you consider that 20 yards or so away was a finish line the same width. Why didn't they split the difference and have a start and finish line that was twice the width at a point between the two?

The run headed out through some residential roads, All the roads on the route were closed off to traffic, which was very nice and much appreciated. I was drawn along to a sub-eight minute opening mile.

"Jeez. I won't keep this up." I thought to myself, remembering my parkrun the previous Saturday. The route then headed downhill. It was a long downhill and with gravity being what it is, drew me down into the town centre in another sub-eight mile. 

Running through the town centre was pretty cool. There were definitely a lot of people there. More people than I've seen at some marathons that I've run in. I did slow down a bit here, because it was just cool to see so many people out there. it was about now when the rains started.  

With the town centre navigated it was back up a hill to the finish. A flat finish would have been nicer, and things began to be hard work. But I still posted yet another sub-eight mile for an official finish time of 24:19. 

Once I had finished, the heavens opened. I felt sorry for anyone out on the course, they were going to get rather wet. Even my wife. 

It was from then on that things took a turn for the worse, organisationally.

I walked down the course to cheer my wife in, (I was already looking like a drowned rat, and I couldn't get much wetter), and I was amazed to see that on a closed course, there were masses of people walking, cyclists and even golf carts heading along the course against the direction of the race. 

That is just plain wrong. If the course is closed, then it's closed. No-one other than participants and event services should be on it. Certainly not bikes and vehicles. If you're past a cut-off time then OK. But as no cut-off time was posted, all entrants were entitled to a clear course and not have to fight against the tide of people coming the other way. 

To have vehicles and bikes on the road at the same time as the runners is just plain dangerous. These were not official vehicles. These were the general public, probably in search of a good place to watch the parade. Suppose one of those vehicles coming down the course overtook some of the many people walking in the same direction, and into the path of a race entrant? 

From what I saw, the pedestrians started walking against the tide of the race after about 40 minutes. So to be sure of having a clear route on the course you had to be faster than that. This then is not a race for a person out for a fun walk. My wife was so stressed by fighting against the tide of people that she told me she will never do this event again.

Add to this, the reports I heard of boorish people on the route shouting phrases like "Yay that's the last runner, let's get this parade started". I won't recommend this event to anyone but the fastest runners.

 

The week in training

I think you can get the feel for how this blog is proceeding. It's about the experience of running. There won't be a great deal about the minutiae of training. If you want to read about lactic acid thresholds, go to a professional. I'll report on my training of course. My training runs will always be on my Strava page but for the purposes of the blog. I'll put together a weekly report.

Starting Now. 

Mon. Jun 26th - Sun. Jul. 2nd

Monday. I'm easing into the Best Athletics Sub 4 training plan ready for the Twin Cities Marathon. (My third TCM). The first workout was a strength and conditioning workout that worked me quite hard. Never having done an S&C workout before, I was quite surprised.

In the afternoon, I went over to a local TCRunning store to try out for a pair of supershoes. That painful experience was also documented on the blog. 

Tuesday. My bruised backside from falling on the dreadmill is very, very sore, and my scabbed over knee doesn't like to flex much. A comfy chair was the place to be today, and I did some work on one of my other hobbies Model Railways.

Wednesday. Less sore than the previous day, I set out on a very easy 5 mile run. It wasn't too painful.

The run route this week

Thursday. Back at the gym for another S&C workout. Those exercises that involved me flexing my scabby left knee were a tad uncomfortable. The workout worked me harder than on Monday. Which must be good.

Friday. Another easy five miles around town

Saturday. PARKRUN! Saturdays are parkrun day. If you’re a runner and you haven’t tried parkrun and you happen to have one close to you. I urge you to sign up and take part. 

Sunday. This longer run was probably a mistake after the flat out exertion of yesterdays parkrun and the heat this morning. But you can always take something from a run. There were five very good, strong miles in there. All I have to do is build up the strength and endurance to add 21 more by Grandma’s next year.

All in all, a good week to start things going.

The best laid plans of mice...

Once upon a time (2004), I discovered marathon running. I trained hard, and even though I bonked from running too hard, too soon, I finished my first 26.2 mile race. I was in agony and could hardly walk for a couple of days. But I was really happy with 4:33:36. My first marathon. How could I not be happy? So few people take part in and complete one. I experienced my first runner's high.

That first time

If you've finished a marathon, then you've had that runners high. That feeling that you can achieve anything. In that rush of blood to the head, I resolved to beat that time the following year, and thus began my addiction.

The following year, 2005, I trained harder, determined to smash that time. I did. Boy oh boy, did I smash it. By almost 40 minutes! 

My best ever marathon time

The runners high was something else. I thought I was superhuman and indestructible. In 2006 I posted another sub four hour time.

Another sub-4 time

It wasn't a better time, but it was under four hours again. I figured that I was ready to try for a Boston marathon qualifier time. I dug out training plans, and researched hard. As the training progressed I was pretty much on the ball, following workouts to the letter. Mid-length midweek runs were tough but I got nearly all of them in. I did a lot of research into race nutrition. As a convinced Hammer nutrition user I found something called Perpetuem. This was a specially formulated long-distance fuel. Not terribly nice tasting by itself, but you could mix Hammer Gels in for taste. Long runs went well with it. I began to feel that a BQ time of three hours 20 minutes was within my grasp. Race weekend arrived and we headed up to our friends in Ashland. 

When we got there it was chilly. The weather forecast for race day was cold. It would be below freezing at race start time. People were buying cold weather running gear from the traders at the expo. I didn’t have anything myself so I was amongst those rushing to buy new clothing. 

The temperatures on race day

It was cold at start time. Below freezing. This was the first time I had experienced a truly cold race. I’ve had a few cold Whistlestop marathons since then. But this first one was a shock to the system. However, my Mizuno Breath Thermo clothing was keeping me warm. The starter gave the order and we were on our way. I set off at the required 7:38 mile pace. It felt really comfortable. About 40 minutes in, I had my first refuel. I reached for a flask, raised it to my mouth and squeezed.

Nothing.

I squeezed harder.

Still nothing. I checked that the top was open. It was. What was the matter?

The flask was almost solid. It wasn’t frozen, but it had thickened so much in the cold that it was almost impossible to squeeze the substance out of the flask. I took what I could, which wasn’t much.

Realization set in. What was I going to do? Five miles into the race and I had no fuel. I was exactly on pace. I could have pulled out but I decided to keep going for as long as I could. Ten miles in and I was still on pace. Then at about 12 miles, with no fueling. I hit the wall. I made it the rest of the way on Powerade and any snacks that I could get from spectators on the route. It was getting warmer as the race progressed. Perhaps the perpetuem was thinning. I never thought to check. I don’t recall much else, I made it home in 4:06:51

4:06:51 is not a bad time.

That’s not a bad time either. But when it should have been 46 minutes faster than that. It was terrible. I was very disappointed. Psychologically, I think that it had a big effect on me. I had planned and trained so very hard for that race, only to have everything upset by the cold weather. I haven’t run faster than 3:56:47 since. Only twice have I been below four hours. I went through a long, long phase of not being bothered with my finish times. I enjoyed running and enjoyed marathons. I loved being out there in the fresh air, being cheered on by spectators, and I knew that if I just did the training I could get home.  

It’s taken a long time to get that enthusiasm and desire for better times back. I’m over 15 years older and wiser. There’s still some good times left in these legs yet. Let’s see if I can find them.

To cut a long route short

I'll be honest with you. I think I'm a little neurodivergent. I certainly have dyscalculia and might have a tiny streak of OCD in me. The OCD manifests itself when out running. There was a time when I had to absolutely finish a run on a whole mile. I've since expanded it to accept .25, .5 and .75 of a mile, as well as whole kilometres - 5K being 3.1 miles etc:

I have to live with race distances as they are officially measured. But I get a little annoyed when my Garmin reads 26.43 miles on a measured 26.2 route. That's almost a quarter of a mile difference.

I know why it's out. The measured route is recorded with the shortest routes around the corners. The shortest is the fastest. The "racing line" as motor racing drivers call it.

When you're in a big pack of everyday runners, most of the time you're not taking the "racing line". You can't in a mass of people. You have to accept that. 

So I wondered. Just how much can running the racing line affect your distance?

I'm working on an experiment.

A typical American "city block".

This is section of the streets of my home town. I'm going to run the two routes marked. The red around the inside of the block. The blue around the outside, and a longer route. But how much longer is it?

The inside line .35 mile

The outside line .41 mile

The exact rules of such an experiment need ironing out The Garmin should be have some kind of official calibration and I should probably experiment with other GPS's too. It's just an idle idea off the top of my head. But already you can see that my Garmin records that the outside route is .06 of a mile further than the inside. Two laps would equate to a tenth of a mile difference. You can see how you can easily pick up some extra distance if you don't run the official measured route of a race exactly. 

Any thoughts on how to properly conduct such an experiment gratefully received. 
 

Easing back on track

Put those running shoes on again.

I awoke feeling pretty good this morning, at our secret recovery location (lake place in Northern Minnesota). So I decided to go for a run. Usually, I don’t run so soon after a race. Perhaps it’s the protein recovery drink I took after the race. But my legs have been feeling quite good since Monday. I had already walked 7 miles in the previous days and didn’t feel bad. 

So a run it was. 

I started off very easily thinking if my joints and muscles complained then I could stop and walk again like the other days. But they didn’t so I eased up the pace slowly, and dialled it down if necessary. Quicker started to feel better and better. Each mile felt better than the first. Mile three was an utter delight. The joy of running started to course through my legs. With the early morning sun on my face, all was right with the world. I crushed the last tenth of a mile because I wanted to. 

Bring on Twin Cities Marathon!

 https://strava.app.link/Y91daM0mOAb

Sweet Dreams are made of this.

Big events like a marathon create a lot of nervous energy. Different people channel it different ways. Some people have trouble sleeping. Some get all excitable. You can see that sort of person on Internet forums posting ALL IN CAPS WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS AT THE END OF THEIR POSTS!!!!!!!

Me, I’m a much quieter person. My nervous energy gets channeled in different ways. 

I have odd dreams. Not necessarily bad dreams. Just plain odd.

It has been that for as long as I can recall. Right from my days of acting on the amateur stage. I used to have a recurring dream where I woke up in bed, on the stage just before the curtain was about to rise.

When I was taking part in triathlon, I used it dream about swimming in circles and not getting anywhere. 

When I was co-driving a rally car, I would have all kinds of weird and wonderful dreams. The one I remember the most was when I was co-driving and my driver was pop singer Ariana Grande. I know nothing at all about her. But I knew it was her in the dream because her long pony tail was sticking out of the top of her crash helmet.

I came to depend on the dreams. I see them as a positive way of channeling my nervous energy. Some kind of good luck charm if you like. If I had the bad dream, things were going to be OK, and I was going to do well. 

So where has my bad dream been for Grandmas Marathon? It has been noticeably absent so far. Until last night.

I had this bizarre dream where I was taking part in a race where the route was so twisty and tortuous that we could only walk it. In single file. No-one could run. Only walk around this lush garden. A very odd situation indeed.

But it makes me feel good and ready for Grandmas Marathon.

BRING IT ON!!!!!   

 

Worms of Wisdy

As we get closer to race day. I’d like to share some words of wisdom. Things I have picked up over the years. Some serious, some fun. Some you will have heard before, some you may not. Hopefully you’ll be able to take something from them to help you through your race. 

1. Your first goal is to finish. You may want to set a PB or a BQ time or something. You never know what might happen on race day. The weather might not co-operate in some way. Perhaps you wake up feeling a little off-colour and extra nervous, and you just can’t do it. It’s happened to many of us. You’ve trained a long time for this. You should get to the finish first.

2. Always smile for the race photographer. Look like you’re enjoying yourself. No-one needs to know if you’re in any pain. If you can, save a little something and sprint in. Do you know how amazing that’s going to look if the photographer catches you with both feet off the ground? Your friends will see that picture and say.”Oh My God! Look at YOU! Running like that for 26 miles? You’re amazing!”

3. Enjoy the crowd. By the end, they are playing a huge part in keeping you going. There will invariably be young children offering high fives to runners. Take them. Take as many of them as you can. Give back.

4. Thank the volunteers. Seriously. This goes without saying. Over any distance, from 5K to Ultramarathon. We can’t run without volunteers. Manning water stations, road junctions, whatever. Thank as many as you can. It doesn’t take much. Maybe have a witty comment lined up. I used to thank volunteers at road crossings with “Thanks for making sure I don’t get run over”. A traffic cop in Duluth once laughed at that. A little thanks goes a long way.

5. Don’t wear your finisher/participants shirt until you’ve finished the race, It’s bad luck. OK, I just made that one up. BUT

6. You should wear as many t-shirts from previous years as you can in the days before. If you have them of course. It marks you as a veteran and a loyal supporter of the event. MIND YOU

7. If it’s your first time, it’s OK to wear other event finisher shirts.  You’re a runner. Be proud.

8.  The .2 effect (.1 for half marathoners) This is very real. You’ve run all the complete miles of the race, and you now have that last fraction of a mile to go. Crowds line the streets, cheering like you’re a superstar even though they don’t know you. From somewhere will come a burst of energy. Your aches and pains will subside and you will be able to dig in for a spectacular finish. (See number 2)

9. Savor the moment. Listen for your name being called by the race announcer as you approach the finish line. This is your moment. You’ve worked hard for this. Drink it in. Remember it. If its your first marathon remember it for the rest of your life.

10. The .05% factor Never forget that you are a part of an extremely small group of the population. Only .05% of the population have run a marathon. Be special. Have a great time.

Lights, Camera, Action!

GoPro, battery charger, and handy, dandy handle

A couple of weeks ago, I thought that it would be a fun idea to video my 25th marathon for the memories. I've seen some great POV videos of marathons online and some really capture the spirit and excitement of being there. You're right in amongst the runners, hearing the crowd and feeling the excitement. 

I recommend that you search out coach Nick Bester on YouTube and watch his London Marathon 2022 and 2023 videos. The crowds at London are really special, and Nick’s ebullience puts you right at the heart of the runners and all the energy. 

My 25th marathon, The Twin Cities marathon, is a whole summer away. Thinking ahead, I wondered how feasible it would be to carry my GoPro Hero 7 Black for 26.2 miles to record the event, and how much training I would have to do running with the small camera to get used to the extra weight. 

It turns out not much really. I ran with it for 10 miles and really didn’t have a problem. The big lesson learned was to power down the camera after I filmed something. Putting it to sleep still drained the battery. When I tried it out again on a 20 mile run I had no problems at all. No arm fatigue from carrying and no drained battery. 

“I guess I might as well use it on Grandmas too.” I thought to myself. 

Here we are then. On a petty annoyance level, it’s something extra to remember. Something more to put on the packing list. But the memories I should get from it outweigh that disadvantage.

This will be the sixth time I’ve run from Two Harbors to Duluth. As a result I’m quite familiar with what there is to see on the course. So it’s quite easy to put together a list of what the film should contain.

Start line scenes of course. The massed throng as it crosses the start line. Cliché shots of feet pounding the ground, that sort of thing. Crowd shots are a must when I get to Duluth. Then there’s the little things that I always see, like the phone box in someone’s garden. Then end the film with the finish line and the medal.

Hopefully the battery lasts to get all the things I want. 

Watch for the premiere of the video a week or so after the race.  

*Plan your race. Race your plan.

*All plans are subject to change every step of the 26.2 miles

Finishing in 2022 4:39:27 not what I wanted

What’s your plan for race day?

Are you going to head out fast and hold on to the bitter end? Perhaps you’re planning on running negative splits.

Maybe you’re going to do what I’m planning on doing and following a pace runner. You’ve had 16 weeks of training to work it out. Perhaps you’ve been adjusting your goals up or down as your training has progressed.

My plan was set in stone before I started training. It might even have been outlined at the end of last years event when I didn’t reach my goal time. 

This is my 19th year marathon running and Grandmas is my 24th race. Except after last year’s event I thought the 2023 race was going to be my 25th time over 26.2 miles. I wanted to mark my 25th marathon in some way. It took a lot of recounts on Athlinks and medal counting to confirm that it would actually be number 24. 

I remembered that first marathon. Whistlestop 2004. It was a great achievement. But I was absolutely spent at the end. I bonked and it was an absolutely agonizing struggle to finish. My time that day was 4:33:35. I decided that I wanted to run my 25th marathon faster than my first.

Given that all marathon courses are different and that I was planning on running two marathons in 2023 (now I’m running three) I would aim to run one of them faster than that first one. Three bites of the cherry if you like. 

Four and a half hours would be fine for me. But 10 minute miles would be about 4:22:00. Nice and easy to work out. Six miles an hour,

So that’s what I’ve trained for. An approximately four hour 20 minute marathon. I’m pretty certain I’m capable of finishing quicker than that. The Jeff Galloway magic mile calculator says I could do 4:11:39. If I could do that, I’d be ecstatic.

So my goals are:

1: Finish. This should always be everyone’s first goal.

2: Achieve goal time of 4:22:00. Though any time between 4:20:00 and 4:33:00 fits the bill.

3: Beat 4:20:00 

As the race has a 4:20:00 pace runner this should in theory be quite easy. I’m just going to sit there with the pace runner. Pace runners are trained to get you home in the time you want. 

Pace runners are great. They run well within their capabilities to get you home in your goal time. They have covered the marathon distance hundreds of times in their running careers. If you’ve never run with one before, you should expect lots of encouragement, instruction, and tactical advice. I’ve run with pace runners many times, and although I have sometimes been dropped by them because my plans were too grand for my level of fitness. I have also dropped them and gone on to a good finish time because they set me up well. I hope for the same this year.

Decision point.

My plan is to stick with the 4:20 pace runner to approximately 20 miles. There’s an English telephone box in someone’s front yard there. (The owner tried to sell it to me last year). If I’m feeling strong at that point, then I’ll up my pace to try to beat the 4:20 time. The infamous Lemon drop Hill comes at 21 miles so I may wait until I crest that before starting the final push. After that we have less than 10K to the finish. Cheering crowds line the route, and I’ll be carried along on a wave of enthusiasm to Canal Park and glory.* 

Long Run day.

It’s all relative.

Today my long run is eight miles. Two weeks ago it was twenty. Training is now a finely tuned science, and even though I feel like I could run 20 miles or more at the drop of the hat, training plans say NO! Even for professionals. Compare this to the interview with Dick Beardsley at the end of the London Marathon in 1981, that I blogged about the other day, he had run three competitive marathons in three months. That would be frowned upon in serious marathon circles today.

 I chose to run in Norwood Young America today, not because I had run there nearly all week and enjoyed the change of scenery. But because my favourite coffee truck was in the town. I would be able to treat myself to a coffee after the run. If you follow this fledgling blog for a while, you will notice that long runs to the coffee shop are an important part of my training plans.

Running through both Norwood and Young America would give me the chance to get some pictures of the neat old ballpark I saw on Tuesday. The Norwood loop is four miles, the Young America one, three. As I needed to run eight miles today, I needed to find a mile out there. If I find I need to do this on a run, I’ll run around the perimeter of parking lots, or run a crenellated pattern through city blocks. Even running the long way around a corner can add up. Races are measured on the shortest distance around a corner. If you run the longest route around a curve, you may only add a few hundredths of a mile. But if you do that round 20 corners, then you’re well in the way to adding a quarter of a mile to your run.

As usual I started with a quick warm up at the gym before heading out. It was very breezy out there and the temperatures were only in the upper 50’s compared to the low 70’s earlier in the week. There was a positive chill in the air.

Perhaps that made me run a little quicker, just to get warm. I circumnavigated a parking lot or two to get some extra distance in the bank straight away and headed up to the old ballpark.

It’s called “Willkommen Park”. It’s from another era.

The view from the right field fence

Welcome to Willkommen Park

Wonderful message on the outer wall of the grandstand

A last look at the ballpark

I said goodbye to the park and the wind blew me down the hill. Then as I passed one of the towns many churches, I spied Elephant Joe’s truck hidden in the trees.

I can see the coffee truck. Can you?

However, I still had 5 miles to go before I could get the days caffeine fix. I carried on under the highway and became fascinated with the sound of my feet striking the tarmac echoing around the tunnel walls. So soft. Quite the surprise. I expected a harder sound. 

I ran on. 

At one point I bemoaned the lack of garbage cans on the trail as I had to carry my sticky, used Hammer Gel packet for almost a mile. 

It was an unremarkable run, which is the way you want a “long” run. Pretty quickly, I was back in the parking lot where I started. I had found enough car parks to run around to get that extra mile in.

I cooled down and headed over to the coffee truck to get my reward.

The reward

That’s it. I’m shutting down until Friday and the William A Irvin 5K. I’m going to rest a few twinges and niggles I have. They don’t bother me when running. But I’ll rest them all the same. See you at the start line of Grandmas Marathon.

Parkrun Day.

I really do enjoy Parkrun. 

It has given me back some enthusiasm for running. I am approaching my 25th marathon in 20 years, and lately I have been feeling a lack of interest and was looking for another challenge. To that end, I took up cross country ski-ing, and was going to train for the American Birkebiner in Hayward, WI. over the coming years. 

Then I discovered Harry Morgan and his “Jog On” podcast and videos. He’s completed many a parkrun in the UK. His enthusiasm is infectious and the material he puts out is very entertaining. In one video I watched he stated that parkrun was a global phenomenon.
“Rubbish” I said to myself. “It’s a British thing, there aren’t any in America.” So I Googled parkrun and was taken straight to the Parkrun.us website.
“Oh, that’s interesting.” I thought. “I bet there aren’t any Parkruns in Minnesota though”. I was wrong again. There are three of them. 

“I bet there isn’t one near me”. My streak of being proved wrong extended to three as I found one just 35 minutes away in Chaska. Chaska Courthouse Lake Parkrun. I vowed to go to the next one on the coming Saturday. Parkruns are always on a Saturday, and almost always at 9am. I went. I had a great time.

If you don’t know about Parkrun. Here’s a quick history lesson. Parkrun began in the UK in 2004, when a gentleman called Paul Sinton-Hewitt, gathered a bunch of friends together to run a 5K course at Bushy Park in London. There were no medals or t-shirts. Just a time for your run. Those friends and a few more came back the next week to try to better their times, and the following week, and so on. Things grew and grew. Other Parkrun venues were added, and now you have the global running juggernaut that it is today. Over six million parkrunners are registered around the world. Parkrun is free, all you do is register online and print off your membership barcode. You then turn up at your Parkrun and, well, run. At the end of the race, your barcode and finishing token are scanned and your finish time is recorded. It’s that simple. 

My local parkrun in Chaska is a relatively new one that started in September 2021, and already they are up to 80 of them. That means they run in the winter. I’m reliably informed that the trail is kept clear in the snowy months. It’s only during the heaviest snows or the coldest cold weather that the event doesn’t take place. Minnesotans are a hardy bunch. The course is a simple out and back, very flat, aside from a steep hill before and after the turn around point.

I returned from my first parkrun excited, and told my wife that she should join in. Runners, walkers, run walkers, dog walkers, stroller runners. All are welcome. Even partially sighted walkers have taken part at CPL.

Parkrun here we come!

We like to get to the run site a bit early, Lorrie likes to socialize, and I like to get a warm up run in. Such is the nature of the people at parkrun, I’ve already picked up a running buddy for my warm up. Paul Barnard and I get in a mile to mile and a half warm up on the trail before the start. 

I never used to warm up before a run, I used it think I was wasting energy. Now I’m older, I really feel the benefit. Loosening up and getting my legs used to race usage. 

This week I had to be on my best behavior with Grandmas Marathon next weekend. No PB attempts. Just a comfortable run. 

Following the race briefing from Race Director Cynthia Smith-Strack, the race start command was given by Annabella, our visiting parkrun volunteer from Florida, a volunteer with almost 50 events as race director under her belt.

I knew that if I started running at the start command then I would just want to keep up with the head of the course. I waited for the start to clear, (there were only 30 runners) before heading out. I dropped into a comfortable 5K pace and enjoyed the morning. Easing past the other runners along the levee.

Runners stretched out on the levee.

The course takes a turn into some trees for some welcome shelter

The turn around is at the top of this steep hill

I met my cheerful wife as I was heading back to the finish line

Running back on the levee the runners were well stretched out.
Much respect to the three runners with strollers, they must have quads of steel.

The runners all kicked for home hard

I cruised through the field. Eight minute miles were feeling quite comfortable for a 5K for me. I was feeling strong. A mile from the finish I passed a pair of runners.

“You latch on to him” said the older guy. “He’s running strong”

“Someone need a pace runner?” I asked. There was some kind of affirmative gasp from behind me. I eased my pace slightly, checking my pace, it was 8:05 minute miles. I checked the runner. He was still there. He stayed there. I stayed at that constant pace. The young lad stayed there with me. With the finish in sight I kicked harder, he stayed there. We finished within seconds of each other. I’m proud to say I helped Xen Westie to a new parkrun PB.

The tale of the tape

Once finished, the fun part of parkrun starts. People socialize, compare times, discuss runs and things. I chatted a while with Dennis Amundson, one of the volunteers who is running Grandma’s Marathon like me. Then once his wife and mine got chatting, phone numbers were exchanged, and now both ladies are planning to watch the end of Grandmas marathon together. 

With all the race accoutrements all packed away, a group of us retired to Caribou Coffee for more socializing. Sometimes we take up one table at the coffee shop, sometimes two. Today three tables,  inside and out filled with runners and volunteers.

It’s during this time that one of the things that really amazes me about the whole parkrun thing takes place. Race director Cynthia gets her iPad out, uploads the results, and just like that, the whole parkrun database is updated. Within moments all participants get their race result email, with all their details. Pretty amazing.

Parkrun result email: Delivered moments after the results are uploaded

Another fun day. I behaved myself (pace wise) and helped someone to a PB. Things don’t get much better than that. 

Thanks to all the volunteers, this can’t be done without you. I’ll see you when we get back from Grandmas Marathon.

Rundle (2) Norwood

Norwood Young America or NYA, depending on your point of view, is one, or two places. Historically speaking, Young America came first, being platted in 1856. Norwood in 1872. The two settlements merged in 1972. Depending on which you live in, the settlement can be known as Norwood, or Young America. Divided by Highway 212, I think of Young America as north of the highway and Norwood south. Having run in Young America on Tuesday, and spied the highway underpass as I finished, I thought that as today was Global Running Day. I would discover Norwood.

Whats down here?

As with the previous day, I warmed up on the exercise bike in the gym for 20 minutes. Setting out, I looped around the public trail through the school grounds before hitting the underpass on my voyage of discovery. 

NYA appears to have a good selection of new trails and sidewalks, judging by those that I ran on. It was nice to have a good trail away from the highway as heavy semis and cars sped by.  
I had planned out a route of 4 miles on Google Earth. I find it a quite handy tool to use for plotting routes. The measurement of distances is accurate, and you can always take a look in Streetview to see if there are any notable features on the route, should you think you’ll get lost running in a new locale.

Is that a train I see?

As I’m a bit of a railroad enthusiast, turning onto Railroad Avenue filled me with hope that I’d see a train. But it wasn’t until I had done a loop around the strip mall and was heading back the way I came, that I spied a couple of locomotives at the head of a train on the Minnesota Prairie Line spur. It was hidden by trees, if the motors had been running, I would have for sure heard and seen it the first time!

Running on more good sidewalks I soon found myself at the ballpark fields, a very nice community facility. My Garmin had chirped at three miles, so I was pretty confident that the Google Earth prediction of 4 miles would be correct. I slalomed through the trees for good measure. 

The Karmann Ghia is the Orange/Red car in the middle

Crossing over the railroad. I hoped to hear the horn of an approaching train in the distance, but no such luck. However, on the other side of the road, I saw a small industrial unit signed as “Dune Buggy Supply”. Outside were parked a couple of VW Beetles, a pair of Microbuses, and a Karmann Ghia. I secretly covet a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. So it was pretty sweet to see one. 
That was it really. Back to the underpass, under 212, and just as I entered the gym parking lot, my Garmin chirped four miles. Excellent.
Once again, the run could be said to be a bit on the fast side, but I was having fun exploring, and I hadn’t worked too hard, despite the humidity feeling higher than the previous day.

Global Running Day.

“Global Running Day is a worldwide celebration of running that encourages people of all ages and abilities to get moving. This day plays an important role, reminding us of the positives that running can offer to our physical and mental health and the power of unification. This year, let’s run together on Global Running Day to celebrate our love of running and as we take strides towards leading healthier and more active lives.”

https://globalrunningday.org/

Go for a Run today.

How did I get here?

Twenty years ago, I didn’t even have an idea of running one marathon. Let alone coming up on 25 of them. It was 2004, I had entered my forties, and like everyone approaching their mid-life crisis, I started to evaluate my life. Things I’d done. More accurately the things I hadn’t.  I remembered seeing something about the first Ironman triathlon on TV growing up. I thought that was pretty amazing. Perhaps I could work towards that. I’d improve my fitness that’s for sure. That would please my family physician. 

I decided I would start small to see if I liked it, and go from there. I signed up for the first Buffalo, MN sprint triathlon, found an online training plan and started training. 

Everything was going well until two weeks before the start. Out on a training ride, I got too close to a crumbling road shoulder, fell and broke my collarbone.

Two weeks from race day!

I was pretty upset. All that hard work and training was for nothing. On top of that I was signed off work for six weeks. All I could do was sit at home and feel sorry for myself.

A few weeks later, my brother-in-law, Jeff, was running Grandma’s marathon. He had started training for marathons at the same time as I started on triathlons. He then gravitated to triathlon, completing a dozen Ironman, including Kona, while I switched to running from doing triathlons.

My wife and I went up to Duluth to cheer him on. I sat on a lawn chair on the finishing straight, my arm in a sling, still feeling sorry for myself. 

That was until I saw a young woman run past with her arm in a sling! She was running the half marathon.

She was running with her arm in a sling! 

I immediately stopped feeling sorry for myself. After the race, we went home. Pretty much as soon as we got back, I changed, strapped up my arm tightly and went for a run. Just a couple of miles, but there was no pain. I could run again! 

Naturally, the next thing to do was find a marathon to run. The Twin Cities marathon was already full, but there was a marathon in Ashland, Wisconsin in the fall. The Whistlestop. 

We have friends that live in Ashland. We had a marathon. We had accommodation. 

For a few years, I ran various triathlons and the Whistlestop marathon. That was until I got to the half Ironman distance. It was then I discovered I would never be a strong enough or confident enough swimmer to do an Ironman. I switched to marathons and never looked back.

Marathon has given me so many memorable experiences. Good and not so good. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve listened to experienced marathoners, I’ve ignored what experienced runners have told me and paid the price. 

I’m 60 now and retired. I’ve matured as a runner. I’ve left my best years and PB’s behind me, so there’s no pressure. It’s all about the joy of running now. 

I think about the woman with her arm in a sling sometimes. Is she still running?