13.1 Minneapolis Half Marathon - Agust 21, 2011

I came into this race struggling with ongoing injury issues related to my right IT band as well as other nerve related issues in my leg.  As a result, my confidence was not very high.  Although I've continued to train, my mileage has been reduced as well as critical tempo/speed work.  I've not been able to run up-tempo without pain.  So this race will be another test of where I sit at this stage of the game.

The race itself was one of the more expensive half marathons, but I give the race organizers credit for doing a great job keeping runners informed and aware.  It was very well organized and efficiently run.  The 13.1 is an 8 city half marathon series across the U.S. with a stop in Minneapolis.  The race is a point to point format beginning at St Anthony Main just north of downtown Minneapolis, following a scenic course highlighting downtown, the Mississippi River, Minnehaha Parkway and Lake Nokomis.

It was almost perfect racing weather with temps in the mid 60's and little to no wind.  I felt pain in my IT Band during my warm up but as the race began I put it out of my mind for as long as I could.  I ran the first half of the race just under a 7 minute/mile pace but began to feel fatigued around mile seven.  Occasional numbness in my right leg as well as IT pain caused me to shorten my stride and lose efficiency.  My pace slowed about 10 seconds/mile through the remainder of the race.  I had no reserve energy to push the last couple miles as a result of my injuries.

I finished with a time of 1:32:46 good for 75th out of 1,679 runners and 5th out of 60 in my age group.  I ran 1:13 faster than the half marathon three weeks ago, but still 3:30 off my best time run less than 3 months ago.  I need to make solid progress with my injury management over the next 30 days if I'm going to run a competitive marathon in Chicago in October.  Time will tell. 

Race Results:
http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?posted_p=t&numPerPage=100&rsID=115264&eventClass=13.1-MARATHON&queryType=division