The City of Lakes Half Marathon is a prize money race that always draws some of the top talent in the state among all age groups. It is also the USATF Minnesota state half marathon championship. Thus, a very competitive race where it's not uncommon to see several new state age group records broken, which happened again today. The course consists of two full laps around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. This race truly lets you know where you stand among your peers and among the top distance runners in the state.
As for me, my season began to sputter in August. Various injuries and setbacks prevented me from ramping up my training mileage in August to prepare for October's Twin Cities Marathon. As a result, I reluctantly decided not to run the marathon this year. This is just the second time I've had to bypass a marathon in the 10 years I've been racing. 2012 was the other year when injuries also sidetracked marathon plans. Even today's race has been a big question mark for me. I'm running the race injured. Long story short, I'm dealing with four different injuries this past month that have made training and now racing very challenging. I know I need to ease up on my training and let my ailments heal properly. I thought if I bypassed the heavy training mileage needed for the marathon and simply trained for my other scheduled races, it would be fine. However, my injuries have actually escalated a bit. It's just so hard to do the right thing and rest during the racing season. You put so much time and energy into the training itself, that you feel like a "quitter" if you don't try to push through it. So against my better judgement, I'm running my fourth and last half marathon on my race schedule this year.
Woke up to a good race day for the most part. A bit warmer (upper 60's) and windier than I would prefer, but still relatively good racing weather. The parkway around the two lakes is a narrow road, making the start of the race a bit treacherous until runners begin to spread out along the course. Most of my injury issues center around on my feet. Planter Fasciitis, Achilles Tendon, with arthritis complications. These injuries are most painful after non-activity (simply walking around the house). But if I warm up properly, the pain is not as intense and I can usually manage through it on my runs.on training runs. However uptempo racing places more of a strain on these issues, so I began the race hoping to hold it all together to the finish line.
I went out today with a plan to run the early miles at a 7 minute/mile pace and see where it takes me. The first mile began slowly with so many runners in close proximity. The risk of tripping and getting trampled upon on the narrow parkway is definitely high until runners begin to spread out a bit. This took about a half mile before I was able to get back on a 7 minute goal pace. I maintained my goal pace over the first 7 miles of the race, but then my pace began to slip a bit as we made the counterclockwise turn around the north end of Calhoun and ran south into the wind. I was experiencing some discomfort related to my injuries, but was able to forge on as fatigue began to make itself known.
Miles 8-10 were my most difficult miles of the race with regard to pace. I slowed to a 7:20 pace across these miles. With just over 3 miles left, I was in a small group of runners and noticed one of them was a guy in my age group. I had no idea where I was place-wise in my age group in this race, but when I find myself running close to a fellow 60 year old, I become very aware of them and try not to lose touch with them. This turned out to be a good thing, as it gave me key motivation at a time when I was ready to just go through the motions and finish the race. Without this motivation, my best case scenario would maybe be maintaining a 7:20 pace to the finish, or likely see my pace deteriorate further. But now I had some motivation. A new goal to focus on.
My fellow age group runner began to push the pace a bit and I had to go with him. This helped improve my pace from 7:20 down to 7:08 over the next two miles. It also helped me stop thinking about the pain in my feet and focus on a new goal of staying with him. I began thinking about the finish - a slightly downhill 80 meters to the finish. The downhill finish provides a great opportunity to kick it into high gear if necessary. I still believe I have some speed for my age over short distances, although sprinting to the finish is something I try to avoid having to do if at all possible. Sprinting at the end of a half marathon is not much of a sprint of course due to fatigue. But I still believe I can outrun someone head to head over the final 75 to 100 meters. With about a half mile to go, I tried to break away from him, but he came with me and even passed me. The last quarter of a mile is an uphill stretch that connects Calhoun to Harriet. Uphills late in a race are really tough of course, but I had to stay with him. Once the hill had been climbed, we made the final turn and could see the finish line about 80 meters ahead. I threw it into high gear for one last surge which carried me across the finish line just ahead of him. I covered my last mile in 6:59 and the final sprint at a 6:02 pace. Goal accomplished.
I finished with a time of 1:33:28. My second fasted half marathon among the four I ran this year. Coincidentally, I finished 2 seconds faster than my time last year. Overall I finished 167 among 1,176 finishers and 4th among 29 in my age group. Speaking of my age group, my time would have been fast enough to win my 60-65 age group last year. But as I've mention before, there are a few fantastic runners my age who graduated into the 60's age group with me. In fact the guy who won my age group set a new state half marathon age group record, running 1:24:14. A fantastic time. Congrats to him on a new state record.
Overall Results:
http://www.raceberryjam.com/indexrr.html
Overall, I'm happy with my performance considering my injury status. Skipping the marathon means my next race (Monster Dash 10 Mile) wont be until late October. I'm going to immediately modify my training program to follow the book I've been reading "Train Smart Run Forever". The book is written by two runners who are now in their mid 60's. It's a 7 day workout program, but only 3 of the workouts involve actual running. Lot's of cross training, strength training and stretching. The philosophy is quality training vs. quantity. I know my "running only" approach is no longer working for me. It doesn't allow me to maintain the overall strength and health of my body. I want to believe that if I diligently apply myself to this training program, it will make me a stronger runner, a healthier runner injury wise and even a faster runner again. I'm not ready to completely give up the idea of running marathons in my 60's, although the book strongly recommends that once you reach your 60's, you should focus on races up to half marathon distance and ignore full marathons. We shall see!!!
