Another HM PR for me. I joined the sub 1:50 club! (Read 608 times)

Race Report (long one, sorry.):

I ran the Team Ortho Monster Dash on Halloween and joined the sub 1:50 club!  What a fun event.  The cold wind was not ideal but it is a nice course and a great event.  They throw a great race.  The whole crew from my running group was there running or cheering, and it had to be cold to cheer out there. 35 degrees with 22 MPH NW winds at the start.

My goals and plan were:

"C" goal-  sub 1:50.  I was very confident of this and felt I would have to blow up to not get there.
"B" goal-  sub 1:49.  This was what I felt was very realistic, but not easy.  I needed to be aggressive for this.
"A" goal-  sub 1:48.  Now we are talking pretty ideal race in terms of conditions and my performance.  Doable, but probably not likely.

My strategy was to go out at 8:20-8:25 pace for a few miles to see how I felt and get into the race.  Then I wanted to settle in at about 8:15, depending on the terrain through the 10 mile mark.  I figured if I had it in me to drop it to near 8:00 pace for the last 10K, then it would get me under 1:48.  The splits below are Garmin splits, so not exact course splits. 

Mile 1-  (8:23)  This mile left the pavillion and headed north to Lake Calhoun and started around the east side so the wind beat us up right from the start.. Slightly rolling until the lake, then flat. 

Mile 2 &3-  (8:23, 8:21)  Almost finish looping the lake around the north end and back to the parkway.  Into the wind mile 2 and sheltered mile 3.  I'm right on plan and feeling good.

Mile 4,5&6-  (8:15, 8:17, 8:22)  Backtracked the parkway to Lake Harriett by the start/finish area.  This is where I saw the first cheering section from MN Running Wild (MRW from now on).  It's a nice boost to have people on the course cheering.  I dropped my throwaway shirt here with hopes of maybe grabbing it after the race.  This was a sheltered section on the west and south side of the lake and then turned onto Minnehaha parkway, which I soon discovered is much hillier on the road than on the trail, which I have run many times. I was on plan for miles 4 and 5, but slowed on some uphills in mile 6, plus a water / gel station. Still looking and feeling good, though.

Miles 7,8&9-  (8:16, 8:09, 8:24)  This was all along the parkway heading East with the wind either from our left or at our backs.  Saw a big MRW group with signs and cheering at about 7 mile mark.  Another big boost.  Back on plan for mile 7, made up some time on downhill sections during mile 8, and mile 9 had the turnaround which went around a hilly residential block to get to the other side of the parkway.  The turnaround, water station, and uohill cost me some seconds to drop me back.  Still feeling strong, but now we turn into the wind.

Miles 10,11,12  (8:08, 8:18, 8:12)  Back along the other side of the parkway.  Got a better look at some of the costumes and outfits people were running in.  My favorite was a clinically insane (obviously) man dressed as Michael Phelps.  35 degrees with windchills in the low 20's and he ran a HM in a speedo shoes, and medals around his neck.  Nothing else.  Mile 10 felt great.  It was sheltered here from the wind and I had some distraction watching for friends coming the other way.  Mile 11 I had to go back up that downhill section I mentioned earlier.  The one big climb definitely slowed mile 11, as did being exposed to that headwind.  Mile 12 was me settling in at what felt like all I could maintain to the end.  I dropped any thoughts of getting under 1:48 when I tried to pick it up and it just was not there. 8:12 was all I had.

Mile 13 & the 0.1  (8:08, 6:58 pace for the kick)   We left the parkway and came out on the south end of the lake right at 12 miles.  You can see the finish pavillion at the end.  The wind is like a wall as we turn the corner.  As we round the lake it is at our left side.  The actual finish was directly into it, but the trees and crowds blocked it.  Seeing the finish gave me a small boost and I was able to take a few more seconds off the pace.  The final 0.1 (Garmin showed 0.16 which was to be expected on this winding a course and crowded race.  It was tough to run tangents in places) I was running with another person from the group.  She picked it up a little, and I picked up to catch her.  Then one of our speedsters who was not really racing today but running it for fun came up behind us yelling at us to finish hard.  I found enough juice to run 6:58 pace for the last .1 plus and then staggered through the chute.  My garmin showed 1:48:37.  "B" goal made and took a pretty good run at 1:48.  I was very happy about the race and knew I left it all out there.

The final official results were 1:48:36 which was 459th out of 2644 overall.  It was good for 334th out of 1120 for men and 75th out of 217 in my age group.  I'm slowly climbing the charts.

Congratulations and nice job having a strategy and sticking to it!

 

Enjoyed reading the report.  Our HM PRs are very close so reading it took me back through my race. 

 

1:45 here we come!

Congratulations!  That had been my goal this year as well.  Nice accomplishment!

That's a very well paced race you ran there.  Congratulations.