Lake Minnetonka (Non) Race Report

This morning was the second time I ran Minnetonka Half Marathon race. I ran it last year and loved it. It’s a scenic course that starts on familiar roads near my house and then skirts beautiful Lake Minnetonka. Being a sucker for a cool race t-shirt, I made sure to put this race on my schedule as it has one of the nicest race t-shirts around. The best thing is that, since it’s so close to home, lots of friends run this race as a warm up for their race season. Knowing so many people makes it feel more like a party than a competition. Another treat was having some friendly faces along the sidelines. My son’s cross country team was volunteering, so I would see him and his team along the course. I also have a great friend that lives right at mile 12, so I was looking forward to seeing her and her husband. So why is this a (non) race report? I think a race report requires actual racing. Earth Day Half two weeks ago + Fargo Half three weeks from now + intensifying triathlon training = the decision to use today as a training run. Luckily, my two friends and training partners have a similar schedule and wanted to take it easy, too. We planned for a 2:15-2:20 finish which would fit in perfectly with our training schedule. Great!

What’s not so great? Snow. At the beginning of the week, the forecast for today looked perfect. As the days went by, the predicted temperature kept going down. When we woke up, it was 34 degrees with 20 mph winds and clouds. What is up with that? Mike and I bundled up and drove the 10 minutes to the start line. Mike headed to the start line and I met up with my friends. It was freezing just walking the few hundred yards to the start area. There was a limited number of bathrooms inside as well as not enough porta potties outside. We opted for inside and waited in a very long line. It became evident that if we continued to wait inside that we were going to miss the start. We heard that there were also still lines at the porta potties outside, so it wasn’t clear what to do. In the end, we decided that it was just a training run for us and that the race was chip timed so it didn’t really matter when we started. Not using the restroom wasn’t an option so we waited it out and missed the start. By the time we got out there, the final wave was gone and we had the street to ourselves. We resisted the urge to play catch-up and settled into our 10:15-10:20 pace.

It was cold. And windy. And cloudy. And we occasionally saw snow flakes. I’m so glad I hadn’t planned this as my primary race for the spring because the gusty wind was not conducive to a fast race. We ran according to plan and slowly started passing people.  We saw my son and some of his coaches and team mates. We saw some snow flakes. We passed some more people. We saw my friend and her husband at mile 12, hugged and she ran with me for a bit which was wonderful. She wished me luck and we ran towards the finish. We saw some more snow flakes. We picked up the pace and finished right on schedule at 2:15:31. Mission accomplished. We had a great, supported training run and I felt great the whole way. Did I mention there were snow flakes? In May?

It’s been almost exactly 4 years since I ran my first half marathon, the Fargo Half in May, 2007. Ironically, I finished Fargo’s flat as a pancake course in 2:15:48 on what was also a windy and cold day. I remember how hard I ran that race as I struggled with IT Band issues and a stabbing side ache for the first 6 miles. After the finish, my legs throbbed for hours but I was so proud of myself. I was finally starting to feel like a runner and toying with the idea that I may have it in me to run a marathon. Now, just 4 years later, I’ve logged 11 half marathons, 3 marathons, and I beat my time just running at an easy training pace that I don’t even consider hard enough to call a race. Even more special is that I’ve met so many incredible people and friends in those 4 years, making the adventure rewarding and fun.

I’ll be hitting the triathlon training hard now and then will hope for a good race at Fargo which will hopefully be faster, sunnier, and snow flake free.