Mike and I ran the Kurz Memorial 10 Mile race this morning along with a couple of friends. This race is handicapped, so the idea is that everyone should finish at the exact same time if everyone runs as would be expected from their previous times. If you have a relatively “better” day than someone else, you finish ahead of them. If you have a relatively “worse” day, then you finish behind them. I was the first in our group to start. I was given a 5 minute head start over one friend, 11 minutes ahead of another, and finally 18 minutes ahead of Mike.

No iPods are allowed in this race, and it is kind of lonely because you can’t line up and run a few miles with your friends. Other than that, I really enjoyed it. The weather was absolutely beautiful for running and the course was an out and back along the perfectly flat Luce Line Trail. It was mentally challenging knowing that the bulk of the pack was behind me and that the race was designed so that they would run me down all the way to the finish. I had expected to start getting passed around mile 6 or 7 and continue to be passed through the end.

I started at the same time as 5 others. One guy took off right away and when I saw him on the turn around I joked with him that he was a sand bagger. I don’t know why he started with us and he seemed to know that he was in the wrong group. Two of the others ran together and stayed in front of me by two or three minutes the whole way. I talked a little bit with the other woman in our group and we started the first bit together. I told her to go ahead after the first half mile or so and she was 30-60 seconds in front of me throughout the whole race. It was nice to have someone to follow and keep me working hard.

By mile 2, two other people had passed me and honestly I was a little ticked about it. Theoretically, I should not have been passed that early and I wondered why they submitted times that were obviously slow. Well, by mile 5 I passed one of them back and she was sucking air. By mile 8, the other guy was walking and I felt sorry for him. They had obviously started out too fast and this race points that out in a very poignant way.

I didn’t pass anyone else, but I also didn’t get passed that much, either. After I passed the walking guy at mile 8, no one one was ahead of me that started behind me. Oh, I could feel everyone breathing down my neck. I went from assuming everyone would pass me and being okay with that to really not wanting to be passed by hordes of people in the last mile. I’m guessing that 10 to 15 people at the most passed me. It was hard to tell because it was a beautiful day and lots of people not associated with the race were out on the course. Since they were coming up from behind me, I couldn’t always tell if they had a number on or not. With about a quarter mile to go, Mike passed me and gave me lots of encouragement. My two friends were closing in on me but ran out of time to catch me. Everyone had a great race and it was fun to be able to cheer for them at the finish since they are always so nice about cheering me on at every other race.

The course ended up being a little long at 10.1 miles. My time was 1:36:57 which wasn’t a PR but not too shabby. For the 10.1 distance, that’s 9:35 per mile and it’s 9:42 per mile for 10 miles. I was hoping to average 10 minute miles so I was very happy with my time. I actually had a negative split by 20 seconds, so I’m very pleased about that. I’m getting better at pacing myself at this 10 mile/half marathon distance. I had a negative split at my last two half marathons by about the same margin. I was faster than my TC 10 Mile time by 1:50, but that course is a lot harder so it’s not fair comparison. Still, better to be faster on the easier course than slower.

I don’t have any more races on my schedule until the Minneapolis Half Marathon on June 6th. What?! Two whole months of the season with no races?! Please excuse me… I need to find another race to sign up for, preferably one with a neato t-shirt.

Mike and I have been planning all winter to do the Securian Frozen Half Marathon. Only a wicked wind and below zero temps would dissuade me, so I was surprised when it was over 30 degrees and it looked like we might decide against going. The forecast was for sleet and 25 mph winds, so when we went to bed we decided we would make the decision about going in the morning.

We peeked out the window and it didn’t look too bad. We got dressed and decided to give it a try. I stepped out on the driveway to see what it felt like outside. It had iced over night, and the pavement was so slippery that I couldn’t make it back into the garage. My feet kept slipping and Mike had to pull me back in. When we backed the car out, it just slid down the hill sideways and got stuck in the snow. When Mike stepped out of the car to assess the situation, he literally slid standing up all of the way down the driveway to the street, about 100 ft. He put on some cleats, and after digging us out twice we finally made it to the street and were on our way. The major roads were fine and we made it safely in plenty of time.

We saw lots of friendly faces right away. We saw Jenny, Guy and Diane. Then I saw Julie and went over to say hello. It was great to see her and she is just as adorable in person as you would think she is from reading her blog. She was ready for her first half marathon. Here we are:

She said she was looking for Steve, who was now over chatting with Jenny and our other friends. After introducing Julie to the whole group, we took a photo:

This is a great race because you get to park in the parking garage that is connected to the Securian office building. All of the registration and packet pickup is inside, and the start line is 25 feet out the door. I waited inside until they said that we had 30 seconds until the start of the race, I stepped out the door and lined up right behind the 2:15 pace group. It was in the low 30’s and sleeting a bit.

Surprisingly, the pack moved pretty well in the back and we were able to hit our pace right from the start. Since we were moving right away, I was toasty warm and didn’t mind the sleet. Wearing a baseball cap kept my face dry which made me more comfortable. It stopped sleeting after a couple of miles, and I had enough layers on to keep the moisture out for the rest of the race. The windy conditions had worried me before the race. It turns out that the wind was coming out of the south and we were reasonably protected by bluffs. There were only a few sections that I noticed the wind and it didn’t effect me at all. What had looked like a nasty day turned out to be just fine.

The course is a out and back along the river, so around mile 4 I started to see the leaders heading back on the other side of the road. It was great to look for all of the friendly faces and cheer for them. I saw Steve first, then Mike, Guy, then another group of friends that included Helen, Bulent, and Kami. I saw Jenny and Julie running together and they looked awesome! I also saw Steve Quick out there giving moral support. Seeing everyone made the middle miles of the race pass quickly.

I ran pretty consistently, hitting the miles right around 10 minutes. The course had a few inclines and rolling hills, but the only challenging hill was right at the end. After the first few miles, I had left the 2:15 pace group and slowly caught up to the 2:10 pace group. I knew that they were running a little slow because I started after them and I knew I was on pace for 2:11. Sure enough, they picked it up during the last mile and left me behind. I came in at 2:10:55 which is right at a 10 minute pace. I felt great the whole race and felt like I ran the right pace to finish strong.

Honestly, being the slowest in a group stinks most of the time. The one time that it is the absolute best to be last is when all of your friends are waiting for you at the finish line. Thanks to everyone who waited out in the cold for me. I know they were freezing just standing around after running, but they were a welcome sight for me. It is also nice to have a speedy husband who is willing to run and get the camera and take everyone else’s finishing picture. Here is Kami, Helen, Bulent and Guy. Guy PR’ed by 5 minutes!

Here are Jenny, Julie and Diane celebrating their speedy race. These ladies are fast! This was Diane’s 10th consecutive Frozen Half.

Here I am, finally making it to the finish. Can you see that person behind me? Proof that I didn’t come in last.

The Securian Frozen Half Marathon is a lot more fun when you do it in person with everyone else instead of on the treadmill by yourself. When you do the official race, you also get a super cool coffee mug. Since I don’t drink coffee, I’ll just have to try it out with some hot chocolate.

It’s the New Year and I had a race on January 1st, so it looks that I have three jobs to do in today’s post: assess last year, set goals for this year, and recap the race. I thought blogs were supposed to be fun and that sounds like a lot of work. Let me see if I can get through the boring stuff and so I can talk about the race, which of course is the fun stuff.

Here are the girls showing off the very nifty medals. These medals are super cool and were worth braving the cold.

Both Mike and Josh PR’ed and I was very happy with my run, so it was a great day. The most important thing: my clothing choice was impeccable! I wasn’t cold at the start and I was comfortable for the entire race. Of course, I noted what I was wearing and the conditions so that I can use this information for future clothing decisions.

The Polar Dash is part of a 4 race series that I am doing this year. I hope that this race is a good indicator of what is to come because it was a lot of fun and was well coordinated. Having friends to run with is hard to beat, too. I didn’t get to see Julie or Amy out there. The sun was really bright and it was hard to spot the 5K’ers when they passed us on their way back. Hope to see both of them at a future race!

Welcome, 2010! So far it’s off to a good start.

Things have been a little crazy this week, so I’m just now getting a chance write about the Vegas Half Marathon. Don’t mistake my delay as a lack of enthusiasm about the race. If you have heard anything about the Vegas Marathon from years past, it might not apply any longer. This was only the second year of the new course and date, and the first year for Vegas as part of the Rock ‘n Roll series.

With both the half and the full starting together at 6:15 a.m., Mike and I were up at before 4:00. My eye will still swollen from the Santa fluff incident from the day before, but I could at least see out of it and my nose wasn’t running. I looked terrible but it wouldn’t effect my race. Because I had broken my camera, there was no decision to make as to whether to bring it. I would just run with my race belt and some throw away clothes. We boarded the monorail at 4:45 and headed down the strip.

I’ll go ahead and get my only complaint about the race logistics out of the way at the beginning. This race was conducted with a minimum of volunteers. Organizers certainly planned for this situation. The bag drop was in the same location as the bag pick-up after the race. Large tables with cups stacked three levels high were at every water stop, but there were few people actually handing them to you. The GU’s at the GU stop were just sitting out on tables. After the race, you were handed a medal in the package instead of having a volunteer put it over your head. None of these things were incredibly inconvenient or effected my race, it was just something that I noticed.

The star of this race is the course. The race starts at the very south end of the strip outside of Mandalay Bay. After a short trip south, the course takes a u-turn and heads straight down Las Vegas Blvd. The strip is completely shut down for the race. Not only was it a heck of a lot of fun to run down the strip as the sun came up, but the road is completely flat. There is not a single rise of any kind for the complete 13.1 miles. After running past all of the casinos, all the way down to the Sahara and into a little residential area, a four point turn sends everyone back down the strip on the other side of the road. Marathoners turn off at 10.5 miles, but us lucky half marathoners continued back to Mandalay Bay. With few turns and no hills, this has to be one of the fastest half marathon courses out there.

The weather was perfect for running with temps in the mid thirties and virtually no wind. With 17,800 half marathoners and 5,800 marathoners, the start was very crowded. Everyone was assigned a corral and they tried to stagger the crowd out by pausing people at the start line. I decided not to try and weave around people and just take the first mile slow. After a 10:52 first mile, I was able to pick it up a little bit and get into a groove. By mile 4, I was running 9:35 pretty consistently and was feeling great.

This was my fourth half marathon and my time was my second fastest. I finished in 2:09:45 which was well under my goal of 2:15. This race was by far my favorite half marathon. My PR is from a race that I truly suffered the whole race and was sick at the finish. During the other two half marathons I was in pain from IT band issues. This race was completely different. I started easy and slowly picked it up. The course was easy and fun. I felt like I was truly running and not just shuffling along. I felt good throughout all 13.1 miles and was never in any pain. What a blast.

Since I signed up for this race just for fun, I didn’t have any expectations other than to just have a good time. I certainly didn’t plan on having any epiphanies, but that is kind of what happened. Having such a great day has redirected the way that I think about my body. Before I started running seriously a few years ago, I was pretty happy with my body. I don’t mean the physical attractiveness of it, I mean the actual functionality of it. I’ve always been active and played sports, and my body never let me down. I had skied, hiked, swam and pretty much done whatever I wanted.

With running more miles, my body started to fail me. I got injured. I looked around at my peers and realized that they were more gifted, that they had been given better functioning bodies to work with. I was perturbed that my mind and personality was that of a runner but that my body just couldn’t take me where I wanted to go. It didn’t seem fair that I could work as hard as someone else but that I was somehow stuck running a 10 minute mile.

Running down Las Vegas Boulevard with the sun rising, I felt like I was flying. I know that others saw a middle aged, shuffling woman, but to me it felt like my legs were striding out and I was moving gracefully. I was truly thankful for this body and what it has allowed me to do. It may not be perfect, but I should appreciate it and treat it with more respect than I have in the last couple of years. So at the end, when I crossed the finish line with a big smile and in no pain, I was thankful and I will try to remain thankful for what I have, flaws and all.

Okay, folks, this weekend report is long enough that I need to divide it up into two posts. For those of you with a short attention span or that just can’t stand the suspense, here is the Reader’s Digest version: I ran a Santa Race on Saturday and I beat my time goal on Sunday. Now, for those of you that are still reading, here we go.

In the end, there were 8,000 people dressed up as Santa and ready to run or walk. I was a little worried that I would lose Mike and that we would have trouble finding each other because everyone looked exactly the same. I convinced him to run with me, even though he didn’t look thrilled that running my pace would bring down his 5K racing average on Athlinks. He didn’t need to worry. This race was purely for charity purposes. There was no attempt at timing, and the 5K course was only 2.5 miles long. He was a good sport about shuffling along with me and it was kind of surreal to be running in a sea of red Santas.

Here is a short video of the start that will give you a little idea of what it was like:

Apparently, all of you have not been paying attention to the strategy here at Running My Own Race. See, while all of you set goals for yourselves that you stretch and push to achieve, over here, I promote the low bar strategy. Training hard is a must, but when it comes to goals, I generally shoot for an average performance. After all, average is in the middle between the best and worst possible results, so there is nothing wrong with planning on an average performance.

Since we had just talked to Josh about strategy, did I listen to my own advice? No way. You guys gave me some really tough times to match, so I ran as fast as I could from the start. Mile 1- 8:19, Mile 2- 8:30. After mile 2, I was really struggling. I was truly running as hard as I could and it was all I could do to hold on to the finish. Mercifully, the course was a little short. I think it was .05 miles short. Sure, .05 miles isn’t very far, but I was so tired and hey, for me .05 miles is probably 15 or 20 seconds. My total time 25:39! Overall pace 8:16 for 3.1 miles.

The moral of the story is that your strategy of setting a stretch goal really works, because it really motivated me to try and live up to your expectations. There was one guess that was faster, but I ran faster than all of the rest of the guesses. I am taking note that a little pressure is a good thing and will keep it in mind when I set my goals for future races.

Brian Flash had the winning guess! He guessed 25:40 and I’m so excited to tell you about his blog, Team Flash. Brian lives in the west suburbs of St. Louis, MO, only a few miles from where I grew up. I love that although we never met when I lived there, we have “met” through the blogger world. This is a great time to start following him because he and his brother just signed up for Comrades, an Ultra in South Africa on May 10, 2010. He has a great sense of humor and I can’t wait to follow his training and ultimately his journey. His wife, Kathy, and the rest of the family runs and they just look like they are having a blast. Thank you Brian and everyone else for your motivating goals!

I love running a Thanksgiving Day run. In my running life, I’m thankful for everyone who listens to my boring stories about training, races, and injuries. I’m thankful for everyone who shares their boring stories with me because, honestly, I don’t find them boring. I’m thankful for my husband who is always the first one to tell me I can do something. I’m thankful for my friends who run my pokey pace with me and enrich my life by sharing their lives with me. Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and the smiles all of you give me by sharing your stories in your blogs and comments. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Shhh… Don’t tell anyone about the TC 10 Mile Race. Since entries for the race are sold in a lottery system, the more people that know about it and try to get in, the harder it will be for me to get in next year. I think I’m screwed.

Have you seen Men In Black 2? Will Smith tells Tommy Lee Jones that he is “New Hotness” and that Tommy Lee Jones is “Old and Busted”. Mike put these shirts together at 10 p.m. the night before the race. He and I thought they were really funny, but I’m not so sure what the 14 year old thought. He humored his dad and they ran the whole way together. They finished in 1:18:53 which is a 7:54 mile. At the beginning of the race I told my husband to not hurt the child, but I think the next race I will be telling the child to not hurt his dad.

Okay, okay. What was my time? It was 1:38:47 for an average pace of 9:53. Yeah! The weather was a huge factor in me beating my time goal for this race. My legs felt strong the whole way and the cool temps helped me keep my heart rate under control. The last mile was my fastest at 9:25 and I finished feeling good. I had a little trouble bending my legs enough to get my sweatpants on afterward, but I felt great during the race.

So I beat my time goal, but what about not frying my hamstrings? Well, they certainly didn’t bother me during the race. After the race, we had just enough time to hobble to the car, get home, shower and go to a wedding. All of the sitting was causing my hamstrings to tighten up. I didn’t worry too much because I had planned to go to yoga on Monday and that would really help to loosen them up.

But… about a half hour after we got home from the wedding I got a terrible headache and chills. I was running a fever of 102 and immediately had to go to bed. My son got the same thing a couple hours later and he and I are home sick today. This is not helping with my post race recovery. I’m pretty stiff and sore from lying down all the time, but I don’t have much choice. Of course, I medicated myself enough that I could tell you all about it, but when I’m done I’m going back to bed.

Now, I know everyone else out there is a serious runner. You don’t need to be messing around with some piddly 10 mile race. You should sign up for the full marathon. That will be great for both of us, because then there will be a better chance that I will get in the 10 mile next year and then I’ll cheer for you during the marathon. See? Now I have to go to bed so that I can get well enough to run again soon.

One thing I’ve grown to love about Minnesota is all of the summer festivals. Although we are only 20 minutes west downtown Minneapolis, we are on the edge of the suburbs. Just a few miles to the west of us is rural, Midwest America. Just about every weekend during the summer you can jump in the car and within an hour find yourself in a town center packed with locals enjoying the fruits of the season. My husband, Mike, and our son have ventured to a few of these to run their 5k races. They have a lot of fun collecting t-shirts and have even brought home a medal or two since the races tend to be small.

This weekend our local festival, Corn Days, was held at a church just a mile or two from our house. This morning, Mike, our son, and myself headed over for the Corn Days 4 Mile Run. With the exception of a few days in June, most of this summer has been cool and breezy. This weekend, though, has been hot and humid. Having not acclimated at all, I just struggle in these conditions. I completed the 4 mile, hilly course but that is the only good thing I have to report about my performance. My time was pitiful even though I ran my best. The worst part, though, was when Mike and two other people later in the day asked why I was limping. Hey! I’m an athlete! People are supposed to say, “Wow, you look so strong and agile!” not, “Are you in pain?” I guess some ART therapy or some deep tissue massage is in my future.

After the race we filled up on pancakes in the church hall. A t-shirt and a pancake breakfast, now this is my kind of race! After a quick trip home to shower, we rode our bikes to the Corn Days Parade. Our daughter was on one of the “floats”, which consisted of people walking behind a flat bed truck. This was comparable to the other floats in the procession. The most professional entertainment was the high school band. Mostly it was local businesses, the fire department, and kids organizations throwing candy on the street. It was adorable. We had a great time and saw lots of familiar faces. I gathered our daughter after the parade and we went to the festival. We ate lots of junk food, listened to a local band, visited with friends and then walked home.

What a great day. The icing on the cake was when I got a call this evening that a running vest that I had bid on in the silent auction was mine for a great price. I even fit shopping in somehow! Thank goodness small town, middle America is alive and well.

A few months ago, my husband I agreed to run as a team in the Running All Over Addiction event held this last Saturday. The run was created and hosted by a friend of ours to raise awareness and money for organizations that help people along the path to beat addictions. This is such a great cause that we didn’t hesitate to commit ourselves to it. In the spirit of the cause, the run was 28 miles. The 28 signifies the number of days in many recovery programs.

The race schedule on the right says I was supposed to run a 10k this weekend. A last minute tournament came up for my daughter, but I was hopeful all week that I could still make the race. The tournament was actually closer to the race course than my house and the race started at 7:30 a.m., so I kept my fingers crossed that I could get the race in before the day full of games started.

It didn’t happen. She had an 8 a.m. game, so the race was out. The race volunteers were nice enough to switch the registration at the last minute to my son and he run with my husband. I was sorry to miss the race. I’m also sorry that I don’t get to wear the super cool t-shirt that my son will be proudly sporting.

Since the tournament was special, the team stayed at a hotel for a couple nights even though it was only 45 minutes away from home. I still needed to get my run in, so I woke up at 5 a.m. on Saturday to get 5 miles in before we had to get ready for the day. While I hate having to get up so early, once I’m up I love running on the quiet streets all alone. It was just getting light as I headed out. We were near the airport, so the planes were coming in low with all their lights shining. It was quite a sight. While I wished I would have been racing, running with the planes over head and the sun rising was enough to put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. I didn’t get a cool t-shirt, but I did get some quality time with my daughter and that’s pretty cool.