We woke up bright and early Sunday morning, ready to take the shortcut from Minneapolis to St. Paul. I looked out the window to see the rain falling and the busses lined up to take us to the start! We got ready and left our hotel around 5:45am to make our way to the start. Bus selfie was necessary.
When we were dropped off, we weren't really sure where we were heading, so we just kept following random herds of people until volunteers with megaphones directed us where to go. We found our bag drop area, but decided we didn't want to drop our stuff quite yet. We found a little spot under an awning to block us from the rain, and in no time at all, it was time to start!
I had looked at the course profile, elevation map, and previous year's splits, to give myself an idea of what to expect on the course and an idea of where I should be with my paces. I ended up ignoring all of that and just running hard. I thought I could run comfortably hard for 5 miles, and then move to uncomfortably hard for the latter 5 miles. It was going to be warmer than I wanted, so running by effort vs. a specific pace goal made a lot more sense.
The gun sounded, the corral lurched forward, and within a couple of minutes we were on our way. I yelled to Toni to run hard and we were off! There were a ton of downhills in the first couple of miles. None that I remembered or expected. I had thought it was going to be flat. Hmm... I was really nervous about thundering down the downhills and having my quads lock up, so I took it really easy. So much for comfortably hard, I guess! There were some insane downpours in the first three miles, but honestly they were welcomed. It was mid to upper 50s at the start of the race, and it would've gotten hot FAST if it hadn't been for the cooling rain. We ran into a nice breeze which really made a difference!
1. 9:20
2. 9:23
Mile three had a decent incline followed by a big ol' downhill. I took my only GU at mile 3 because I was feeling a little hungry. Finally I felt like things had leveled out, so I started to work hard. I really loved these few middle miles of the race, because I loved how easy a 9 minute pace felt on the flat portions! Shockingly enough, looking back at the data, mile 4 was actually uphill, it just felt flat compared to the monster up and downs of the first three miles. Ha.
3. 9:37
4. 9:00
5. 9:05
I noted my time at the halfway point (47:01, 9:25 pace), and realized I would REALLY need to speed up the second half to come in under 1:30. I also was already running way over distance-wise on my watch. Mile 6 is the big climb in the race, with another hill in mile 7. I remember these hills being NEVER ENDING when I did it in 2010. Seriously. I thought I was going to die. But this time around, they didn't feel terrible. Interesting.
6. 9:21
7. 9:01
I was feeling really strong with a 5k to go, and tried to calculate my finishing time based on a sub 9 pace. I thought to myself, self, it'd be really cool if you could run the 5k pace of the bummer-of-a-race a couple of weeks ago at the END of a 10 mile race. Challenge accepted, self. Except I didn't really remember what that pace was... I thought it was 8:40, but it was actually 8:25 hah. Oops.
8. 8:43
Mile 8 I felt like I was taking over the race. Like my legs weren't my own and I was flyyyyyyyying. Until, my watch beeped 8 miles and I was no where near an 8 mile flag. This messed with me mentally more than I'd like to admit. I had been about .05-.07 over at each mile marker, and typically expect to be about .1 over on most 10 mile to half marathon races, especially bigger races like this one. But my watch was at 8.27 when the 8 mile plume finally showed up. UFF DA. I had calculated that I could dig deep for a 5k not 3.37 miles!!! PANIC!
Luckily at this time, I also saw my HS bestie Nikki, and her whole crew cheering loud for me. They gave me such a burst of energy and love that I flew by totally re-energized! And wouldn't you know it, that when I saw the mile 9 flag, it was roughly where it was supposed to be. I suspect that the 8 mile plume either got set up in the wrong spot, or blew away with the crazy winds and that's just where it ended up. I would've bet my life that there was a tiny incline in this mile, but I guess I would've been wrong, because my Garmin says, nope, pancake flat! I guess mile 8 had a nice little downhill so it felt uphill by comparison. That's quite rude.
9. 9:03
We made our way toward the finish line and the crowds of people were already lining the course the final mile. The 10 mile started at 7am and the marathon not until 8am, so we don't get nearly as many spectators, but I was shocked at how many were out there to cheer us in! The final mile has a steep little downhill halfway through the mile, and I normally take downhills easy, but we were so close that I thundered down it.
As I was approaching it, I saw Nikki and her fam once again, her son Miles sprinting up to me to cheer me on. YES!! I tried to pick it up the best I could that final mile and when I saw the finishing time at 1:27 I thought, hmmm maybe that's right and my watch is wrong. Ha.
10. 8:18
With about 3 strides to the finish line, I had a huge dry heave, I crossed the finish line and had quite a few more. Some guy came to check on me after I crossed and was leaning over, and I tried to wave him away to save his shoes. Luckily for me, but mostly him, that my stomach was pretty empty and once I focused on my breath I was able to let it pass.
.11 :45 (6:50 pace, 6:23 max pace)
I ran 10.11 miles in 1:31:42 for an average pace of 9:05. First 5 mile pace 9:25, second 5 mile pace 8:57!
It took forever for me to find Toni after the race, but eventually we were reunited.
And Nikki and her clan stuck around for a bit too!
We hung out for so long that all of my sweat started to freeze, so we opted to skip the beer tent (*gasp*) that at this point had a monstrously long line to get in to, and headed back to our hotel to shower. When we arrived, there was a sign advertising race day specials, so luckily I was able to get my post-race beer anyway!
After some quick warm showers we headed back out in the rain to cheer in all the rest of our SFWR!!
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