Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon - May 1, 2011

I need to laugh to avoid crying over the weather in Minnesota this year.  Winter was very cold, snowy and long.  Everyone here is looking forward to warmer weather, but it just doesn't want to come.  It feels like mid November with gloomy overcast skies and the trees have yet to leaf out.  Average temperatures should be around 65 degrees by now, however we were greeted with a race time temperature of 32 degrees, an overcast sky and strong 25-30 mph winds from the west.  As much as I tried to stay positive, I was mentally defeated before the race began.  To be honest, I was angry as I waited with other shivering runners for the gun to go off.  Angry, because I knew there was no way I could break the elusive 90 minute half marathon goal I set for myself 2 years ago.  Not in this wind.  The first 7 miles of the race took us west, directly into the teeth of this relentless wind - the main reason I was irritated as the race was about to begin. 

Trying to run the first 7 miles at goal pace would have been senseless, so I intentionally ran about 15 seconds per mile slower, hoping I might find my second wind (no pun intended) once the course turned south.  Ignoring the wind for a minute, the course itself was more challenging that I expected.  Many rolling hills along the way.  What would be a beautiful course on a sunny summer day, looked dreary and bleak with leafless trees and cloudy skies.  I said this before, but it looked and felt like November, not May.  This point to point race began in Wayzata on the north side of the lake and  ends in Excelsior on the south side of the lake. 

As the miles clicked by, I tried to ignore the headwind and strong gusts which seemed to knock me backwards.  The runners were now single file and spreading out.  I could see we were all trying to use each other to cut through the wind, but by mile 5, the gaps between runners were becoming too large to use each other for this purpose.  As mile 7 approached, I realized I was over halfway home and about to turn south where the wind would at least become a cross wind rather than a headwind.  

It was also at this point in the race where I had hoped to increase my pace if possible.  It didn't happen though.  Miles 7-10 were the slowest miles I ran all day, although the range between my fastest and slowest mile was only 15 seconds.  For the most part I locked into a 7 minute per mile pace and stuck with it the entire way.  I wasn't mentally geared up to push beyond my limits today.  There were 4 runners that passed me over the 2nd half of the race while I don't recall passing any.  This was discouraging.  Typically I'm the runner passing others as the race wears down, but today that wasn't happening.  I wasn't falling off my pace and slowing down but neither were the runners in front of me.  This is where I typically find an extra gear along with a mental lift if I can lock onto a runner, run them down and pass them.

With a little over a mile to go we turned east onto a regional trail before entering Excelsior.  The wind was at our backs now for one of the rare times all day.  I could hear the footsteps of a small group of runners gaining on me from behind.  I was tired of being passed and decided I was going to hold off any more challengers.  I pushed hard over the final mile as we entered the little town and made our way to the finish.  Like last race I took advantage of a short downhill section and by the time it leveled out I couldn't hear footsteps any more.

I finished with a time of 1:32:05, good for 64th place among 2,430 runners.  I also finished 8th in my age group among 112 runners.  My time was almost a minute slower than what I ran 2 weeks ago in St Cloud.  This was my 5th best half marathon time among 9 I have run so far.  Basically a middle of the road result for me.  Had I run 1:32 on a good weather day I would have been very disappointed, but today, it was what it was.  My next race is the Northern Lakes 10 mile run on May 14th, in White Bear Lake, MN. 

Race Results:
http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0018/1841/Overall.pdf