If you find a race small enough....

even I can have aspirations of actually winning a race.

On Saturday, Kris and I signed up for and ran in the Plymouth Firefighters 5K, a race put on in conjunction with their Plymouth on Parade festival. After doing our back and forth feed the pets routine we arrived with plenty of time to pickup our race numbers and shirts. I was pleasantly surprised on both accounts. I know that we were going to get a long sleeve shirt but I was impressed, a nice red long sleeve with a Firefighter hat logo on the front, one which I will wear again frequently as long as it does not shrink the first time I was it. And as a bonus, it was not a generic Runner’s World or similar number but a Firefighters 5K race specific number. We decided that since all of the number started in the high 200’s, they must have ordered a large batch last year, not year specific, and continue to just hand out the next highest number this year. This is the 5th annual race so they have had time to figure out organizing a race and it showed.


During check in, I was notified (paper clipped to my race number) that I “won” one of the random door prizes, a free “Love It” creation from Cold Stone. Not a bad start to the day. While we were checking in, I noticed the little wooden plaques for 1st-3rd place for both the men and women; more on those in a bit. In addition to Kris and me, our friend Steve was running as well, this would be his second race ever. Steve signed up for the Monster 10 mile and is trying to get a few races under his belt before then.

So after checking in and meeting up with Steve, Kris and I decided to warm up a bit with a quick jog, we headed about ½ out and back just to warm the legs up a bit and then stretched a bit. This is something new that I just started at Minneapolis Du, never really ran before a race to warm up, I am happy with the results so far.

So after our warm up and stretching, where I managed to tweak my back a bit, there was less than 10 minutes before the race so we walked over to the start and line up near the front. One of the unique things about this race is that Engine #21 leads the race through the course, it is kind of fun following a Fire truck. So the race starts and we head out under two ladder trucks with their baskets extended and American flags flying below. Very quickly I was out near the front with one other runner and a high school kid in a yellow top. It quickly became obvious that the high school kid was good, so I paced right behind him for a while and we managed to drop the third guy. At about the ½ mile point I was side by side with the kid and I was feeling good, by the 1st mile marker I was actually in the lead of a race, for the first time in my life. It was at this point that those little wooded plaques jumped back into my mind, could I actually win one?

By the halfway point the answer was clear, nope not today. Either I starting out two fast, the cold I had been fighting the past week was showing signs or the fact that this race course was constant hills, more likely a combination of all three, I was beginning to fade. Guess it was just not in me today. My heart and lungs were fine, did not feel like I was pushing too hard at all, but my legs were giving out on me quickly, quads were tired. When we got to the mile 2 marker, I had let about 5 other runners pass me, including the kid. Sigh…

If the 1st mile was all about being fast, and the second mile was losing momentum, then the third mile was more about avoiding the wall and just trying to finish strong. By this time the rolling hills of this course were really beginning to take their toll. Man that course was hard. I was still happy with my run though, I came out and put on a good show so far, I was still letting a few runner pass me but not to many, and I was still trying to be positive, “Perhaps this will be my first race that I finish better that the top female.” And just as I was having that thought with about ½ a mile to go, not only did the 1st female pass me, but on her heels was #2 as well. Oh well, it is still a good race. Crossing the mile 3 marker with .1 left to go I reached down and tried to grab some last energy for my final kick. If you have ever seen me finish a race you might know how strongly I can finish, perhaps it is not leaving enough on the course but I can normally sprint the last .1-.2 of any race at my 1 mile pace. Not today, as much as my body was screaming inside “GO FASTER” my body was gone, best I could manage was :32 for the last .1 which is an 8:34 pace. Even so, I was still very happy with my race today. I crossed the finish line at 21:02. Prior to Saturday, my best 5K stand alone race time was 22:35 so from that aspect and when I take into consideration how hilly and hard this race was, it was a success on so many levels. I have a new stand alone 5K PR that shattered my previous PR!!

Race times/splits with pace:

Mile 1 – 6:14
Mile 2 – 6:58 - 13:12 Total - 6:36 Pace
Mile 3 – 7:17 - 20:30 Total - 6:50 Pace
Finish – 21:02 - 6:46 Pace

Results can be found here:

I finished in 13th pace. 13/296 – Top 4.4%

Unfortunately since this race was small enough there were no Division or Age Group results. I can tell you that I was:

11th in my Division
2nd in my Age Group (35-39) or 3rd in my Age Group (30-39)

4 weeks ago, during the Minneapolis Duathlon, I ran the first 5K in 20:47 which is my fastest 5K ever, almost 2 minutes faster then my previous 5K PR. I think it was just one of those mornings when you wake up and you body is just in the right place to turn out a great performance. That race is responsible for my new goal, I want a sub 20 5K, and I think I can do it. Saturday was slower that the Minneapolis Du but I think it is a good start to break the 20 minute barrier.

Finally! A Track!!

Just a quick note.

For weeks I have been trying to find a better option for Track workouts, my NYC Marathon ramp up starts in 2 week and I have scheduled a few Yasso 800's in the training plan. The problem is that even though I like the St Thomas track, it is a bit out of the way for a Tuesday morning/evening workout. We have been trying to find a nice track on the west side of the cities but most of the time the high school tracks are fenced off and locked and there are no college tracks on this side of the cities. During a moment of inspiration today I decided to call around to several of the local running stores to see if they had any ideas. My phone calls turned up some good information; did you know that in the winter there is a domed track in Plymouth? My second call hit pay dirt; they suggested that I take a look at the track located at the Edina Community Center, just off of Highway 100 and Benton. So this afternoon I decided to stretch my legs a bit and check it out. This is the track and field used by Edina High School, in fact the football team was practicing while of was there but I found a couple very informative signs.



Yea!! A track, a nice track, open to the public, on the west side on the cities, and as a bonus, it is about halfway between my house and Kris's place. So tonight we met at the track for her track work out and it was great!! Kris is not fond of tracks as she gets bored with the round and round, but being a former track athlete it feels like home to me. Now I I could just get them to setup the pole vault.

Splash & Dash 2.0 and Masters

OK, so I need to write updates as soon as I can and work on catching up on older events when I get a chance. The Madison Ride/Chicago Rock & Roll Half Marathon blog is in the works but it is getting a bit long at this point so I will finish that up when I can and get the most current events posted.

Two topics for this blog; Gear West Splash & Dash and Master Swim:

On Tuesday night I participated in the second Gear West Splash & Dash. For those of you unfamiliar with this event it is structure like this.

The swim is 200 meters consisting of 2x50 meter out and back swims. You will swim out and around a buoy and back then run out on the beach around a cone and then back in for another out and back swim. You will transition to a 1 mile out and back run north on Brown Rd. Rest then repeat. (200M 2 lap swim/1 mile run, short rest, 200M 2 lap swim/1 mile run)

At the first Splash & Dash, seven of us competed under questionable weather conditions and for me it was more of a learning curve. Results:

I am happy to report that Splash & Dash 2.0 was a much better performance for me. My swims and runs improved considerably and in the first run I posted the 3rd fastest (out of 15) run time of 6:33. My runs were very consistent at 6:33 & 6:34. I guess race number 13 really is lucky! Results:


Everyone had a good time, 5 of the 7 original Splash & Dash participants returned for version 2.0 and it was fun chatting with everyone during the event. It was good to see Steve Stenzel of Steve in a Speedo fame again and his wife Pharmie joined us as well. I would highly recommend this event to anyone as it is a nice break during the week and it might not seem like much but it is defiantly a challenge. How often do you get out of the water and transition right into a run? Tougher then you think!

One more shout out to my own personal rockstar, Kris “rounded out the “podium”” with third place in her division. It must be your addition to coffee that makes you faster!! ;)

Masters Swim – Since March I have been swimming with the Hopkins Masters swim group, at least once a week sometime I get my butt out of bed twice a week. When I started, I could not even keep up with the rest of the swimmers in Lane 1, for those of you who don’t know Lane 1 is the slowest lane. After 4+ months I feel I have made a lot of progress, I still might not be the fastest swimmer, nor will I ever be “fast”, no matter what Kris thinks; but in the past two weeks I have been able to make all of my times and intervals at two very challenging speed workouts. I typically am very tired after these speed workouts but I feel great, so I am very happy with my progress.

So what is next? Race the Lake – 90 Mile bike race around Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin on Sunday.