Minnesota Half Marathon

Minnesota Half Marathon is in the books. It was an ok race. I was relieved when it was done. I wasn’t looking forward to this race at all just because I know how horrible Shepard Road can be. I was happy to be there for Juliette’s first half. Here is a mile-by-mile recap.

Mile 1 – It is only the start…I’m glad it isn’t hot.

Mile 2 – I lost my cooling rag and I was devastated. That means I have to use my sweat soaked tank to get sweat out of my eyes. Great!

Mile 3 – I ran in to an older guy running his second half. He has back issues but still likes running slow. He was doing intervals but I didn't ask what he was doing. Very nice guy. I saw him a couple more times on this out and back course. 

Mike 4 – Well it just sucked, there was a water stop early that slowed me down. And then I had to tie my shoe. Oh and the first turn around. I felt very lonely.

Mile 5.5 – A water stop with no water! What the fuck? They ran out of water. Thank god I had my water along. Next water stop is around 7. The last water stop was just after 3…4 miles without water was ridiculous.

Mile 6 - Up that damn hill! I ran down this hill at mile 3 and watched all the Rollerbladers stride up this hill. I really felt for them because that would suck…but I think running it sucks more!

Mile 7 – I met Lauren from Duluth. She was supposed to run the relay but her friend backed out and she ran the whole thing. She ran Grandma’s too but she hadn't train since. She was running to the end of mile 7 and then going to walk the rest from there.

Mile 8 – I ran into a women running her first half and she was doing 5 min. run, 1 min walk. She was surprised I could talk and run. Lol! I left her at the water stop but she caught up and passed me. She finished way ahead of me...way to go!

Mile 9 – I saw DJ so I smiled for my picture. We passed the finish line...It was so mean to see it but have to run 4 more miles to get to it! :( I saw Juliette and Eric during this mile as they came into the finish. Yay them!

Mile 10 – I caught up to Nathan. He looked at me and said, only 2.9 to go! He used to run marathons with his dad. His mom gave them homemade Rice Krispy bars at mile 15. He hadn't run in years and didn't train for this. All he wanted was a Cap’n Crunch donut. We had a nice talk, I walked with him for a while but I had to run again so I left him. 

Mile 10.6 – I was smart and stopped at medic tent for gauze to wipe my sweat out of my eyes, why didn't I think of this sooner????  I held on to those wonderful pieces of cloth all the way to the finish.

Mile 11 – The turnaround point. Around the 10-mile mark, a woman that was running towards the finish told us that it was cooler on the other side. She was right!!! It was much cooler. There was a breeze and it was just cooler. It felt great! 

Mile 12 – I caught a husband-wife duo. She had a running water vest like Eric but she drank it all..2 liters.. and her husband was carrying it. 

Mile 13 – I pretty much gave up running. I would do spurts here and there but it was very slow. I knew under 3 hours was not going to happen so I lost my willpower to race, now I just wanted to finish...bad attitude! It was also too hot!

Overall my time was 3 seconds faster than Grandma’s…three flipping seconds. 3:05:22.

I got my banana, we got some pictures with Juliette and stopped at Caribou. Overall the run was fine. I felt great for the first 8 miles. The last 5 sucked. I need to do more longer than 8 mile runs.