It has been a long time since my last post. I’ve wanted to share my experience running the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon for some time, but my life has been so crazy lately. My work has been unusually busy, which is good to have during these hard economic times. My wife was recently in Mesa Arizona for three weeks taking care of her dad after he had a quadruple bypass surgery. I was Mr. Mom for my two teenage boys during those three weeks and did more laundry than I have done in the last 30 years. There was also a funeral for my uncle Butch, birthday parties, my parents deciding to sell their home of about 30 years and buying a downsized home, and a couple of business trips to boot. Last week I had another PET scan and yesterday I meet with my oncologist to find out the results. Most of the results are good news, but there was slight up-tick in metabolic activity in the area where I had hernia surgery and a tumor removed. Most likely it is inflammation of the scar tissue, which is typical and no big deal, but to play it safe I go back for another PET scan in 6 weeks rather than 4 months. Enough of that, this post is about my perfect day running the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon (LMHM).
The night before the race I was going over strategy in my mind. Should I let it all hang out from the start and go for my goal of placing in the top 10 of my age group, or should I pace myself to ensure a strong finish. I looked back at my past marathons. For most of the races I pushed too hard early in the race later to find myself exhausted at about mile 20. It’s not easy on the ego walking the last few miles and watching hundreds of runners pass by. Grandma’s Marathon in 2008 was the only time that I worked at pacing myself throughout the entire race. My self control over adrenaline paid off with a strong finish and my first marathon with no walking. When I look back, I think my most enjoyable race was Grandma’s.
I know I was not well prepared for getting into the top 10 at the LMHM. In January I posted these big bold plans of introducing speed training into my training regiment, running at least 30 miles a week, and loosing 15 pounds to help improve my speed. It didn’t work out that way, not exactly. I rarely got up to or more than 30 miles a week, I only lost about 5 pounds (I’m being generous to myself) and I didn’t do the speed training I intended. However, not all was lost.
After chemotherapy last year I’ve been having a dickens of a time getting back the physical stamina that I had before chemo. I know this with scientific accuracy because I have been recording my heart rate along with my running speed and distance since 2006. Up to recently I wore a Garmin Forerunner 205 training device that has GPS and a heart rate monitor. During chemotherapy I noticed for my most common training distance of 6 miles that my heart rate was higher than usual.. During chemo I had to slow my pace way down to about 11 minute miles to keep my heart rate in a reasonable range of about 160BPM. After chemo was over things improved a bit over the summer and fall, but it seemed my performance hit a plateau. I could run faster at about 9 minute miles, but my heart rate would quickly go to 160BPM and above. I was a little concerned that maybe the chemo caused some permanent damage. Then in about December my heart rate monitor broke and I stopped looking at my heart rate for about 4 months.
Even though I didn’t rack up all the miles I planned to do before the half marathon, I was very pleased where I was with my conditioning. However, based on my 6 and 8 mile training runs, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t in good enough shape to place in the top 10 of my age group. Based on last year LMHM results, I would have to run the race in about 1:39 to squeeze into the top ten. That is at a pace of 7:33 per mile. On my 50th Birthday a few weeks ago I let it all hang out for a 6 mile run and finished just under 48 minutes for a pace of 7:56. I gave it everything I had and that was just 6 miles. I did run some half marathons during my training, but my best finish time was just barely under 2 hours. It seemed very unlikely that I could finish in the top 10.
The day before the race my brother Cary asked me what I’m shooting for as a finish time. I considered my recent training runs and that I would get a boost from adrenaline on race day, so I blurted out 1:45 as a finish time. Later I thought that was a bit bold, especially considering what happened a few days before the race.
I think it was Wednesday night before the race I woke up in extreme pain with a Charlie Horse in my left calf muscle. I don’t get these too often, maybe two or three times a year. But when they come I often cannot run for a few days. The following day I was able to do an easy 8 mile run without pain, so I got lucky. However, from time to time I could feel a little twinge - a little reminder that not is all well with my left calf.
Saturday I went to Wayzata to pick up my race packet. The race officials told me I wasn’t in their system. I had registered online way back in January, but they couldn’t find me anywhere in their system. They sent me home with no race number; I was devastated. Just when I had given up any hope of running in the race I got an email from the race officials to come back in and they would give me a race number. Since so much had not gone to plan, I actually made up my mind that I wasn’t going to do it. I was on my way to Le Sueur to visit my folks; then suddenly found myself making a U-turn and heading to Wayzata.
The morning of the race I thought hard about what I really wanted to accomplish with this race. It boiled down to one thing – fun. Of all things I wanted to have fun. But for me fun is not just lying around and enjoying the sun. I like adventure and I enjoy accomplishing physically challenging things. So I decided I would not go for the top 10 but rather set an early pace that was challenging, but would also allow a strong finish.
The weather that Sunday was absolutely fabulous for running. No one could pick a better day. The temperature was about 45 degF at the beginning of the race and the sun was out. That’s a bit cool when standing in running shorts and short sleeve shirt, but it doesn’t take long to warm up after the race starts. I’m guessing that it got up to about 55 degF by the time I completed the race.
The race started in downtown Wayzata at 8AM. There were about 2000 runners. This was the first time my wife wasn’t at the starting line. She was out of town taking care of her dad. I thought I was going to be alone that day, but shortly after the race started one of my former neighbors, Jon, pulled up beside me. Jon also ran Grandma’s last year (I think it was like his 9th year running Grandma’s) and we were going to connect up at the starting line but I was unable to find him. It was a nice surprise to see him at the LMHM. He recently had heart surgery to have a stint installed. We ran together for most of the race. Since I had company I didn’t pay much attention to my GPS unit during most of the race and didn’t know my pace or heart rate. All I did was press my lap button every time I crossed a mile marker. This time I went completely by feel, which was new territory for this techno-geek.
The course mostly went through small roads in neighborhoods around Lake Minnetonka. The scenery was absolutely spellbinding. I’ve lived in this area for almost 14 years and never realized all the beautiful places there were just in my back yard. Besides the lake, there large expanses of wetlands with hundreds of acres of flowing wild grasses. Expect to seem some pictures sometime in the near future.
At about mile 9 Jon was wondering about our pace. I thought it was a strong pace, but I wasn’t expecting anything fantastic. When I checked my GPS unit I was amazed to see we were nearly on track to finish at 1:45, the goal I blurted out early to my brother, then later thought that was a bit bold. To finish in 1:45 would require an increase in pace during the last two miles, and I wasn’t sure I had enough in me to speed up, but it no longer looked impossible.
At about mile 10 I felt a strong twinge in my left calf. “Oh no”, I said to myself, I thought I was going to get a crippling muscle cramp and maybe not even finish the race. I slowed down every so slightly for maybe a minute or two, the twinge went away and I was back to full speed.
At mile 11 I was near my home and on familiar territory. The remaining 2.1 miles is part of my daily training course. Thinking that I may have a chance to finish near 1:45, I started to increase my pace slightly. Just before mile 12 the course leaves the paved road and follows a packed limestone trail into Excelsior. I was now passing up most runners, even the young bucks. All my training and planning, which was wrought with imperfection, was culminating in a perfect finish. I knew I was at the edge of collapse, but that’s the way I wanted to finish. A voice inside said, “slow down”, but I didn’t listen. When the finish line was in sight, I poured it on in a sprint. I finished with a chip time of 1:45:56.
I finished in 297th place, not bad for a 50 year old. I didn’t make the top 10 in my age group of 50 to 59, in fact I was about 28th, but I was in the toughest age group. The top finisher in the 50 something bracket finished 5th overall, and the second place 50 something finished in 13th overall. The top two in the 50 something bracket also beat the top two in the 40 something bracket. At the 2009 Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon, the 50 something year olds rock!
Because things leading up to the race were just not going my way I almost decided to quit. Even on race day my expectations were mediocre. During most of the race I didn’t even consciously try for my goal of 1:45. I just ran and everything fell into place for a perfect day.
