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My goal heading into this race was to run 37:30-38:00. After thinking about it some more I thought sub-37:45 would be more appropriate and I even had thoughts that I was being conservative. Race morning, I awoke to temps around 40 with a slight breeze. At 7 I took the dog for a quick walk/jog and my legs felt really good. I picked up my friend Deb and we drove to the start. Actually, since I thought it’d be too difficult to find a parking space near the start, we parked across the river and walked. It ended up taking us nearly 15 minutes, which was a little longer than I had hoped for. The nice thing was that we both already picked up our race numbers and chips, so we didn’t have to check in at all. We still had 45 minutes till the start when we met up with Eric and Jim. Eric immediately proved my parking theory wrong, as he was able to park a block from the start.

I went to the baggage drop with plans on leaving my bag, going out for a warm-up, then getting my bag and changing into my race gear. The lady taking my bag was shocked that I’d want to get it back before the race started. She said something like “it’s going to be to chaotic for that.” So I went to plan “B” – throwing my stuff in Eric’s car. To make a long story short, I was kind of scrambling before the start. I ended up only getting in about 15 minutes of running with some strides.

When the race started, Eric somehow put about 5 seconds on me just by snaking his way through the crowd. That was alright because history has shown that Eric goes out too quick for my taste. With the downhill first mile, I knew it would be a quick opening mile. However, I went out a little quicker than I would have liked – going through the first mile with Deb in 5:46. Eric was already about 10 seconds in front of me. Deb and I ran together for the 2nd mile (6:01) too. We had a little cross wind, so we tried to tuck behind the people in front of us. Somehow I ended up with no one to block the wind for me, so when a guy came by soon after the 2nd mile, I jump behind him. This is also the last time I saw Deb.

About 2.5 miles in, we have our first uphill that leads over the Lake Street Bridge into St. Paul. While I’ve been running a lot of hills in practice, I still don’t consider myself a strong hill runner. I can usually maintain my effort and get up them okay, however, there always seems to be a few people that pass me. With the hill, I knew this mile would be slower (6:07). Right after the 5k (18:36) the toughest hill on the course appears. I’m able to hold my position on this hill and pass a guy on the downhill afterwards. The up hill was enough to slow my 4th mile to 6:08.

I should mention that Eric has this BRIGHT BLAZE-ORANGE shirt that he races in, so it was very easy to see him up ahead of me. When we raced in March he jumped out to a huge lead of 30+ seconds during the first 3 miles. At mile 4 I closed the gap to 11 seconds before he kicked it in to beat me by 23 seconds. The closest I got today was probably around 4 miles, when I was about 20 seconds back. I ran the 5th mile in 6:07 but it wasn’t enough to close the gap. The last 1.2 miles (7:33) included another bridge climb and a headwind crossing the bridge. I held on to finish 110th in 37:43, which was 29 seconds behind Eric’s 37:14. Deb crossed the line as the 10th woman in 38:02. Jim finished in 39:15 and was disappointed because the winner of his 60-64 age-group was only 5 seconds in front of him. Jenna, from my training group, ran an awesome race. She was the 3rd woman overall (1st American) in 35:53, which I believe is about a 16 second PR.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this race. On Memorial Day last year I ran a flat, fast 5k in 18:44. Today I ran 8 seconds faster than that, then followed it up with at 19:07. Also, last summer I did a lot of road races and speed workouts and I peaked with a 37:32 10k on Labor Day. Finishing only 11 seconds behind that time, on a tougher course, without any speed work is a step in the right direction.

Complete results can be found here.