Fifteen’s 5K

Monday, August 18, 2014

What an awesome day. Best race ever!

The Start
An 8am start is great, better than those 7am or 6am starts. We started by Gold Medal Park by Guthrie Theater. Some of the area mascots were there including TC Bear. He was taking pictures with people before the start. Here is our before race picture (I love my tank):

The race was pretty straight with only a few turns (see route below). There was a bit of a hill before mile 1 so my time was a little slower than usually. But that is ok, I actually run up the hill! Progress! The key with this race was pacing. I didn’t start too fast to make sure I had enough in the tank for later. I’m learning! The weather wasn’t perfect, about 70 degrees but with 90% humidity it was stick and thick air to breathe.Yuck! Give me -5 degrees anyday! I thought this was going to be a problem but I felt fine almost the whole way. 

The Middle
Not much to say for the middle. We ran around the North Loop which has really been built up with new condos and restaurants all over. It is kind of a cool area now. With the humidity, I’m so glad I wore my tank top though; I think I would have overheated in a t-shirt by mile 1. Mile 2 was faster than mile 1 so that made me happy. We kept a consistent 11:15-11:20 pace for most of the race until we hit the big hill up the overpass. Now it really wasn’t big, but it was a bit long and I had to stop half way and walk a bit mostly because I wanted to finish strong. By the time I got to the top of the hill my pace had jumped to 11:30. I thought my 35 minute finish time was out of reach but I keep trucking on.

The End
After the overpass hill there was a nice looping downhill all the way to the stadium which was awesome because I really cruised down it and under the overpass I just walked up. At this point I switch my watch to total time so I wasn’t sure what my pace was but when I entered the stadium and my time was still under 35 minutes I knew that I could finally achieve that 35 minute mark. We came into the stadium in the left field wall and ran down the third base line and finished near home plate. I came in with my strongest finished yet (check my pace line below). I sprinted to the finish and came in at 35:13. That is almost a minute faster than my previous PR. Whoop, Whoop! I was so overheated but it was awesome!

The Medal (And Twins Players)
We exited out the stadium onto the plaza where we were greeted by some Twins players. I got my medal from Brian Duensing.
Fifteen's 5K Medal
Dozier, Perkins, Pelfrey and Pressly and a few others were there too. I got some signatures on my bib and pictures. See:
Dozier :)
Dozier is a hottie!
Duensing isn't bad either!
Perkins...Goldy photo bombed us!
No bananas…that was a bummer. Plenty of water, chips, peanuts and such but nothing really sweet. :( We wondered around the stadium plaza before heading back to the car. It was a great day!

Here is the route and pace information, look at my strong finish...almost a 9:20 pace for a bit!



I didn't get a mile split under 11 minutes but that is ok because I got my total time under 36!

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