Notes
49F 54%H, Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon which goes from Holdingford, MN to St. Joseph, MN on the Lake Wobegon trail.
Lake Wobegon Race Report
Got up at 0445 for a 0845 flight, with park and ride at FastTrack. Timing worked out fine.
Flew into Minneapolis on Friday and drove to St Cloud where I was staying. When the pilot came on the intercom in Atlanta to do the usual spiel he said the weather in Minneapolis was "sucky." It was -- rain, with 1 to 2 inches of snow forecast overnight and an anticipated marathon start temperature in the low 30s.
Anyway, attended the pasta dinner at St. Benedicts College which is the sister college to St. Johns University. It had an unusually low turnout. I think I counted only 15 people, even though last year there had been around 70. I assume the weather was to blame. I met Sharon Hobbs, the RD, who is really nice and competent even if she is a lawyer.
I got up at 0415 to eat some pretzels before my 0430 wakeup call. I should have gone right over when I was ready instead of intentionally wasting some time. I would rather have gotten to the finish line meeting place a bit earlier. Saturday morning we got on buses at the finish to be bused to the start. Sharon must have done her weather dance well because the sky was blue, with a bright sun coming up. It was windy enough that most stuff had dried out. The wind wasn't so noticeable after we huddled masses grouped together before the start. We talked about doing a group hug to keep out the wind. Temp was about 35. I was wearing a long sleeved running shirt with another long sleeved throw-away running shirt over it, compression shorts, hat, gloves and my trusty Nathan hand held containing a 700 ml water bottle. I had a belt with 3 e-Gels in it and another one in my hand held. I did take an e-Gel just before the start.
After the national anthem we were off. I had modest expectations for this race. My A goal was a BQ, which for this old guy (64) is only 4:15. My B goal was 4:20 and my C goal was to PR which meant anything less than 4:29:05. This was complicated by my having been diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (afib) last Monday. I told that doctor that I wouldn't start any medication just before a marathon and wouldn't let him talk me into not running. I was pretty sure I would be ok if I kept my max heart rate around 127. That should allow me to keep a pace of 9:44 which is what I needed to BQ. At least that is how it has been working on my training runs.
We start off and make about a mile loop before getting on the Lake Wobegon Trail. The wind is from the NW so it was coming at us from the right.
Mile Pace HR
1 9:47 126
2 9:50 127
3 9:45 127
4 9:48 126
5 9:48 126
I'm going slower that I should be and at first I don't know why. Then it dawns on me that it is probably the cold. It is probably stealing some energy to maintain body warmth. Oh well, I'll just go with it. I don't want to change anything by trying to push it harder when I don't know how this afib is going to work out anyway. I am playing leap frog with a couple who are doing a run/walk thing. They are doing some serious power walking during the walk segments and going pretty fast during the run segments. When they walk I pass them and ask what their target is. They say 4:30 to 5:00. I tell them that they are going a lot faster than that and they say they know. Each time they pass me they pass me by less and less distance before they start walking.
Mile Pace HR
6 09:51 125 At 6.5 I take my first e-Gel during the run.
7 10:00 124
8 09:52 124
9 09:51 125
10 9:55 127
Miles 6 through 9 are low points for me. The lifted spirits of the start are over and the drudgery of putting in the miles is starting. One is not far enough into the race to be thinking of the finish and one can't do anything but screw things up. So, I just chug along. Somewhere in here I lose the leap froggers.
Mile Pace HR
11 9:58 128
12 9:37 126
13 9:46 127 I take my second e-Gel and toss my throw away shirt.
14 9:42 126
15 9:56 127
It is so uplifting to be in the second half. Plus at about mile 11 we make a left turn in the town of Albany. That means the wind is now at our backs. Wish I could hoist a sail. I see this Old Guy way up ahead me me and I think I'm slowly gaining on him, but very slowly. (Hmmmm. I'm calling him old. Wonder if he is younger than me....) Also in here I start dealing with Invisible Woman. She keeps passing me, but I never pass her. I'm wondering how she does this. She must be creeping off into the bushes to do some stuff or something.
Since this is a trail run there aren't lots of spectators except at street crossing. But lots of cars driving on the street 150 yards or so away are always blowing their horns as a way of encouraging the runners. Also, it is starting to get warm. I'm wondering if I would have been better off with a short sleeved shirt.
Mile Pace HR
16 10:06 128
17 09:47 128
18 09:58 129 I take my third e-Gel
19 10:02 129
20 10:07 130
I see my time is slipping a bit. My quads have been bothering me just a little bit but they seem to be settling down. Miles 16 through 19 are the drudgery miles of the second half. They just don't have anything going for them. At least at mile 20 the traditional marathon second half begins and one can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I did graduate school in math, but I swear I can't do simple time arithmetic when I start getting tired. I think I am still doing sub 4:20. Also I've been getting Garmin creep. At home I can go on a 20 mile run and my Garmin (310xt) is exactly in agreement with the mile markers. But here, I'm getting an extra 0.01 on each mile. It is starting to add up so I get to mile marker 20 when my Garmin says 20.2. I am gonna be passing Old Guy soon I think. I've also started passing people who are not having a good day -- the walking wounded.
Mile Pace HR
21 10:20 129
22 09:48 130
23 09:49 130
I pass Old Guy at about mile 21. This is also where we lose the sun. The clouds move in and it starts feeling cold.
Mile Pace HR
24 10:10 129 Took 4th e-Gel. Forgot to take it at mile 23
25 10:11 129
26 10:14 129
At mile 24 my calves are starting to cramp. I want to pick it up and think I can, but each time I try to go faster I start to get calf cramps. My fuzzy math still thinks I am doing 4:20 so rather than risk doing a face plant by going fast and having my calves lock up, I just keep on chugging at about the same pace. It is really annoying because I feel that I have a lot of energy left. Also, a woman runs back and joins up with Old Guy behind me. It seems to me that she must have finished 3:30ish for her to be coming back this far now. She must have given Old Guy an injection of energy, because they both go zooming by me. I want to respond to keep up with them, but calves say no way.
Also, at mile 24 I start having hailstones bouncing off my head. Where did this come from? It hasn't been raining or anything. They aren't real big or anything. It just seems strange. It doesn't last for long.
Mile Pace HR
26.2 10:00 133
So there it is. Pretty lady with a big smile puts a medal around my neck and points me to the drop bags. I grab a bottle of water, a banana and head to my car for my suitcase. Then I head to the men's room to change. I almost forgot to get my race shirt. I would have been seriously pissed off. I got in my car and realized that I screwed up putting the Hertz coordinates into my Garmin, so I don't know how to get back to the Hertz location at the airport. I finally find a number on their paperwork that allowed me to get to a human who gives me the address. I stick it in my Garmin and make my way back to MSP and get home around 8:30 PM in Atlanta.
This race was just going to be a one-off, but I think I'll have to do this again. What a great course for a PR! It is small but very well organized and lots of nice people. The water station volunteers were all upbeat and encouraging and fun.
As best I can tell I ended up at 4:22:10, about a 7 minute PR. So, there you have it. Thanks for reading. Now it is time to start obsessing about Fargo in two weeks.
I'll update with the official results when they are posted.