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.
Dozier, Perkins, Pelfrey and Pressly and
a few others were there too. I got some signatures on my bib and pictures. See:
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| Fifteen's 5K Medal |
 |
| 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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