Medtronic TC 1 Mile - May 11, 2017

This is just my second visit to the Medtronic TC 1 Mile event.  I originally ran it back in 2010, posting a time of 5:48.  I was planning to run it last year until calf cramping issues forced me to bypass the race completely.  These short one mile races seem to be just as scary as the longer races.  Sure, it's only one mile and takes less than 6 minutes to run it compared to 3+ hours for a marathon.  But the fatigue impact of a one mile race is very different from a marathon.  It hits you immediately in the first hundred yards.  It's also a bit scary trying to run a sub 6 minute pace at 60 years of age, when in high school you thought nothing of it.  It literally feels like an all out sprint from start to finish and you just hope you don't fall flat on your face from exhaustion in the last quarter mile.

This is another well organized and well run event by Twin Cities in Motion.  Their premier event being the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon of course.  The race is broken down into seven different heats of varying abilities, so you can run in a heat that best fits the time you expect to run.  There is also a professional heat that featured Ben Blankenship, who represented the U.S. in the 1500 Meter Finals at the Rio Olympics last year.  He set the TC 1 Mile record last year, running 3:56 and won it again this year posting a time of 4:01.

The course is in downtown Minneapolis near Gold Medal Park along the river.  It's a relatively flat course with only three turns.  So good times can be had if the weather cooperates.  Today's weather was fairly good.  62 degrees and sunny.  A 10mph wind was the only drawback, as the final one-third of the race finished directly into the wind.

At my age, the only goal I have for a one mile race is to run under 6 minutes for as long as I can.  I'm at a point now where running a sub 6 minute mile will be coming to an end in the not too distant future.  In preparing for this race I did no speed training whatsoever.  To prepare for shorter, faster races, I normally add two 7 minute tempo miles, along with quarter mile repeats to my weekly training.  But this is the only speed race on my calendar this year and I didn't want to risk injury.

At least for today, I can still call myself a sub 6 minute miler, finishing with a time of 5:53:3.  Just 5 seconds slower than I ran 7 years ago.  I did run a 5:38 mile two years ago in a different race, but I'm happy to finish under 6 minutes - particularly having done no speed training in preparation.  Overall I finished 302 among 1,972 finishers and 3rd among 42 in my age group.  Last year my time would have won my age group, but I'm surrounded by some speedy runners who are also joining the 60-65 age group with me this year.

My next race is the Med City Half Marathon on May 28th in Rochester MN.  I've always wanted to get down to Rochester for this race, but until this year, it's never worked out with my schedule.  So this should be fun running it for the first time later this month.        

Race Results:
http://www.mtecresults.com/runner/show?race=5255&rid=1108