Earth Day Half Marathon - April 16, 2011

This was my second trip to the Earth Day Half Marathon in St Cloud, MN.  I ran this race back in 2008 as my first ever half marathon.  I remember how inexperienced I was racing 3 years ago.  I had no clue what pace to run or what I was capable of.  With 3 miles to go I realized I still had too much left in the tank and could have run faster, but it was all brand new to me back then. 

One of my goals in 2011 is to break 90 minutes in the half marathon. I cam close last year running 1:30:15 in New Prague. I'm planning to run 5 half marathons this year and feel very confident I can do it this year...like right here in St Cloud. Well, my wonderful friend "The Weather" had other ideas. As race day approached, the weather took a turn for the worse. Cold temps, high winds and even a coating of snow greeted us in the morning. Weather changes fast in Minnesota. We had a beautiful 70 degree day earlier in the week, but not today.

The race temperature (32 degrees) was cold, but if winds had been calm I would have run in shorts and a long sleeve shirt.  However strong 20mph winds have been pelting us the past few days making it too dangerous to take a chance with hypothermia in a race of this distance.  I ran in tights, arm warmers, gloves, a hat and several layers of technical shirts.  Of course more gear adds more weight to carry around the 13.1 mile course.  It's probably a bit psychological, but I feel much faster in your basic shorts, shirt and shoes.  However even if the temperature was warmer, the strong winds would make it very difficult to break 1:30 today.  So I approached the race with the idea that I would run hard, but not expect miracles, or get discouraged by my time.  Breaking 1:30 would have to wait for another day.

The marathon course has been slightly modified since 2008 but still covers the same basic route. The changes have improved the race - particularly the finish which ends inside Husky Stadium (St Cloud State's football facility). I was surprised by an odd off-road stretch in mile 3 which took us across a grassy park for a quarter mile before connecting to a river trail. Fortunately St Cloud received less than an inch of overnight snow, or this section could have been a real problem for the runners. I also was surprised with the number of rolling hills on the course. I remembered a few of them, but the course was more challenging than I remembered. I knew the final 3 miles were going to be the toughest, heading almost directly into the strong northwest winds which were relentless and bone chilling.

As the race progressed I was happy with my pace.  I was maintaining a 6:55/mile pace through the first half of the course - the easiest half of the race as winds were at our back in 5 of the first 8 miles.  I've been dealing with a chronic muscle injury in my right groin since last November.  Nothing major, but it flairs up from time to time and doesn't want to heal completely like other minor injuries I've been able to work through.  It was bothering me the week before the race and I was hoping it would not act up during the race.  I felt it twinge from time to time but it had no real impact on my race which was my biggest concern.

By the 8 mile mark the field of 1,500 runners had thinned out considerably, although there was some good competition around me that kept me going through the difficult miles.  Mile 10 is where we turned north into the wind and headed back to the university campus and the finish.  The wind reminded my very quickly that it was still in control.  I could feel my momentum slow every time a strong gust hit me directly in my chest, but I knew my time was still pretty good, just not good enough to break 1:30.  I tried to get my mind off of the wind by focusing more on challenging the runners around and in front of me.   I traded places back and forth with a few as the miles clicked by.  With just under 1 mile to go we turned right on 16th heading back toward the river.  This stretch gave me renewed motivation as the wind was no longer directly in our face and we were about to hit a very nice quarter mile downhill section as we got closer to the river.  I used this section to push the pace and pass a handful of runners in front of me.  Now there were just a few turns left before entering Husky Stadium and the finish line.

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=76831&BIB=312

I finished with a time of 1:31:19, my 2nd fasted half marathon so far.  I finished 48th overall among 1,471 finishers and 1st among 49 in my age group.  My next race is the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon in two weeks on May 1st.  I keep saying the same thing after every race, but my next race should bring nicer racing weather...I hope.             

Race results:

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=18349#racetop