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 Rundle mistake

On reflection, I really shouldn’t have done that. After the flat out exertion of the parkrun yesterday, a race pace 9.5 miles in 70 degree heat was a mistake.

It was a decision that was on my mind through breakfast as I got ready. Should I stick to the tree lined streets around town that afford a great deal of shelter for almost every step of my run. Or do I go out onto the Dakota Rail Trail, which though not tree covered all the way, has a great deal of shelter between Lester Prairie and New Germany. 

I opted for the trail, as the roads get pretty busy in town on a Sunday morn, with folks rushing to church, and our small town is short of sidewalks in places. It can get quite unnerving sharing the road with people intent on getting to Sunday worship. As I stepped into the street and started running in the shade, I thought to myself that this was the right decision. 

Now, I’ve not run at Sub 4 hour marathon pace for many years, I wasn’t sure what pace I should be running at (it turns out that 9:09 miles is correct) I aimed for 9 minute miles. I found it quite difficult to get there and was consistently running faster than that for the first 5 miles. When I got to the turnaround point in New Germany I was really feeling it. I was dripping with sweat and in a hydration deficit. I took a few moments to recover before heading back home. 

Some very welcome shade.

It’s mostly a very easy downhill on the return leg. Still, it was impossible to get back up to the high eight, low nine minute miles of the way out.  Once I got out of the shade and into fuller sun, I really wilted. I called it a day.

The data hides how tough this was

Initially, I was pretty disappointed with this. But I got five very strong miles out of this run, and two more that were pretty good, even though I had to really gut them out. I was certainly in hydration debt by the time I got home, drinking two pints of water straight down. 

On reflection, the better plan would have been to do a couple of four to five mile laps around town so that I could have had more shade and been able to pick up more hydration as I needed it. I could have also got out of the house 30 minutes earlier and that would have helped too. Hindsight is 20/20. 

I’m wise enough to know that not every run in the next 16 weeks is going to go my way. So it’s all good. 

Parkrun Saturday The first HOKA test

I was really looking forward to today’s Parkrun. I hadn’t been there for two weeks. What with Grandma’s Marathon and a week’s vacation with family. This was also going to be my first test of my new HOKA Carbon supershoes. So I was a little extra nervous. There was a lot riding on this run.

When we arrived nice and early, the event was being set up. The race director looked like he could do with a little help, so I offered my services. I wasn’t signed up to help, but parkrunners also get credit for the volunteering that they do. We all pitch in together to get the event going. I assembled the feather sign and worked on the start/finish area, and was really pleased with my work. Until…

Start and finish, including the funnel

All my own work…

Proud sign assembler

Oops. It’s tradition at the start here to list the number of the run in chalk on the trail. I think the official abbreviation for our run is CHL (CourtHouse Lake). I went on a totally different track and was trying to do Courthouse Lake Parkrun (CLP). But ended up with CPL - Courthouse Parkrun Lake… As I look at this now, I am reminded of a hilarious commercial for COMPAQ computers by John Cleese from the mid 1980’s. 

They probably won’t have me back to do the start-line again after this.

You only had one job Ian…

So to the run. As I had busied myself at the start-line for so long, I had cut short my warm up time. But I got half a mile in these new shoes. The first thing I noticed was how quiet they were. My wave riders give a nice firm slap as they hit the road. But because of the curve of the carbon plate inside these new shoes, your foot rolls and pushes you along the road. It’s a more efficient transference of energy. I felt it on the treadmill but this this was my first experience on the road.

There would be no new PB using these shoes today. It was too hot. It was in the 70’s at the start. When I set my PB for this course it was in the 50’s. I was under no illusions that these shoes could compensate for a 20 degree temperature differential.

Nine am arrived and we were given the order to start, and knowing that my training plan allows me to run flat out park runs, that’s what I did. I went off like a mad thing. The proper runners disappeared into the distance and I cruised along, not knowing when my marathon legs would kick in. 

My Garmin chirped at the first mile, it read 7:13. That’s fast. Is that the HOKA effect? (I checked my parkrun records. This is my fastest parkrun first mile split. Period.) 

I knew by the turn at 1.5 miles that I had gone off way too fast. I started to feel the heat and I think my marathon legs started to rebel a bit too. My splits of 8:08 and 8:24 weren’t unrespectable by themselves but I was flagging quite badly. I gutted the rest of the way out, being passed by a younger runner with better pace discipline than I about half a mile from the finish. 24:08 was a pretty good time.

The tale of the tape

Actually, 24:08 was a very good time. It was my second fastest parkrun time so far. I’d had one other parkrun in 70 degree temperatures and I was a full one minute and ten seconds faster than that. Is that the super shoe effect? It’s easy to get carried away and say “WOW! Amazing! But more quick times are needed. What I need to do is run the same course when the temperatures are in the 50’s and smash a new PB by a similar amount. Then I will be totally on board. 

Carbon plate shoes are definitely different. They feel different on your feet, they sound different on the road. I was definitely aware of  being faster through a couple of corners out there. Some people swear by Carbon shoes, I’ve met people who say don’t believe the hype. But for me, this first result is very, promising.  

Rundle 4 (and 5) Hometown trail.

 I live in a small town… I think that’s a song lyric from somewhere. Not sure, it certainly sounds familiar. No matter.

This weeks run route is pretty flat

This weeks Rundle is in my hometown. Small towns may seem a little limiting, and consequently boring in running routes. With such a limited selection of roads you’d think a runner would get bored quite quickly. 

Well, yes and no. It becomes a challenge. You start to set yourself rules. The one I use the most is you can never run the same direction on the same length of road twice in a run. You can run the road in opposite direction, but not the same way more than once. Crossing over your route is OK. Another one I use is to never do a direct U turn on the trail. If I’m on the trail and I need to turn and head home. I have to leave the trail, run on a road and rejoin the trail somewhere else, or run around a city block or two before heading back the way I came. You are allowed to double back and run a road previously run if you need an emergency stop for fluids for example.

Running around parking lots as well. Sometimes I use them, sometimes not. Circumnavigating one might add .25 of a mile or more depending on the size of the lot. 

Sometimes I’m working my route out beforehand, sometimes on the fly. It’s fun. It keeps your mind active. It turns the run into something that’s alive and evolving. I once managed a run of 15 miles around town following my rules.

You don’t always need to be obsessed with the minutiae of your run. Perhaps on a track session or a hill workout you should. But a recovery run or even a long slow run? Just be out there and relax and enjoy being out there.

So I did today. It was a bit hot out. 70 degrees apparently. This route is a simple one, not using too much brain power to create. I was on the wonderful Dakota Rail Trail for a couple of miles, and I’ll write more about that in another post. It’s just a great amenity to have. As per usual, I should have run slower. But this pace was feeling quite comfortable in the conditions. In fact I was quite shocked when I got home to find out my HR had slipped into zone 5. But that was probably down to the heat and is too much information.

Tomorrow it’s Parkrun and I’m already excited. I haven’t been for two weeks. I can’t wait.

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.