Today was Lola's Lake Waconia Half Marathon. The third race in this year's Minnesota Running Series. A new race for me, but one I was expecting to be similar to the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon I ran last month, with rolling hills throughout the course. This race course starts with a three mile jaunt through the town of Waconia, followed by a counterclockwise loop around Lake Waconia, before finishing back where we started in downtown Waconia. Race morning greeted us with thunderstorms which lingered throughout the morning hours. Lightning in the area forced race officials to delay the start of the race for 30 minutes. It was an unpleasant morning generally speaking, with air temps in the mid 50's and a strong north wind. Mid 50's is warmer than many of my races, but the strong winds and wet conditions made it very unpleasant.
I arrived early as usual and gained a prime parking spot just one block from the starting line. I stayed in the car to keep dry, waiting for word on the start of the race. I reluctantly decided to forgo my pre-race warm-up routine to stay dry and warm. Reluctant because I was sacrificing the chance to run my normal race pace from the start. My warm-up would now be the first coupe miles of the race at a slower than normal pace. I also brought a cheap rain slicker to keep me as dry as possible once called to the starting line. You can see me in a few of the pictures below. I'm the one wearing the fashionable red hooded slicker. My plan was to keep it on for a mile or two and then toss it once my body began to perspire. With no warm-up and weather conditions as they were, I realized this was not going to be one of my better half marathon times. I have a bigger race just two weeks away and I didn't want to injure myself going out too fast and cold.
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The heavy thunderstorm passed by the time the race began, but it was still raining as I waited for the start. The rain persisted throughout the race. I didn't like wearing the slicker in the early going, but it did help warm my body faster than if I were wet, cold, and exposed to the wind. I tossed it in the second mile. My early race pace was about 40-45 seconds/mile slower than normal as we wound through the small town of Waconia. I was hoping to ease into a faster pace over the last half of the race. What I wasn't expecting though, were several stretches that took us off-road onto soft dirt trails. The first one in mile four was only a few hundred yards, but the second one in mile five was over a half mile long. The heavy rain turned the off-road sections into a muddy mess. I could feel the ground trying to suck the shoes off my feet with each stride. When we hit the paved road again in mile six, my legs were a bit "spaghetti like." Way too early in the race for that.
I said earlier that I was expecting the course to have some rolling hills, similar to the Lake Minnetonka course. I was partially right. There were hills, but these hills were much longer than Minnetonka's. As the race went on I realized this course was the most difficult half marathon course I've run so far. Yes, the weather made it even more difficult in the off-road sections, but weather conditions or not, some of these hills were killers. As we began making our way around the lake, I became aware of a young female runner nearby. She would pass me, then I would pass her. I also noticed the local spectators were all cheering her by name, even the firemen on the rescue vehicles. I later learned she was a local runner from Waconia. Runner traffic thinned out as we got deeper into the race, but we continued to run side by side. Then it happened. Her friends began noticing we were side by side each time they saw us and started cheering against me, or so it felt. "Don't let that older guy beat you!" That did it. My competitive juices were now ignited and the race was officially on in my mind.
After running the first nine miles around a 7:15 pace, I began to push the pace. I improved to a 6:45/mile pace in miles 10, 11 and 12. I was in front of her, but just barely in miles 10 and 11, then in mile 12 I thought I lost her. I could no longer hear her footsteps behind me. There was just one mile to go, but it was a tough mile. The town of Waconia greeted us with a nice hill coming back into town where the race finished. My legs were burning as I struggled up the last hill. Suddenly and much to my chagrin, she passed me once again! Now there were only about six blocks to go. I caught her again on one of the final turns and managed to cross the finish line about one second ahead of her. The race was chip timed of course and although I crossed the finish line ahead of her, I also crossed the starting line five seconds ahead of her. So my net time was four seconds slower than hers, meaning she did officially beat me. But it was a moral victory just crossing the finish line ahead of her! We congratulated each other after the race and she thanked me for pacing her the whole way. I thought, great, so when I retire I can become a pacer for younger runners!
Race results:
http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-8786?lc=en
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