Earth Day Half-Marathon

I ran the Earth Day Half-Marathon (13.1miles) in St. Cloud, MN today. My goal was sub 2:40 and to use it as a training run for the Fargo Marathon.

Woke up at 5am for a 9am race start. Started with some whole-wheat bagels and bananas. Watched the weather channel and saw the temps were already 60*, so I pinned my race number on a short-sleeve top and laid out my shorts. Then read/dozed until it was time to get to the race.

Got to race and I was very nervous. Warmed up some and also paced and tried to visualize. Then moved out to the course for the start. About 5 minutes before the start, the rain started and the temp started falling. It was a cold first half-mile, but then the rain stopped and we ran on.

The course had some great views and had lots of places where it doubled back on itself. This let the slower pack see the front runners. Of course, most of the view (along the river) that looked great in 75* sun on Friday when I drove the course, was now lost in overcast, wind, and clouds.

Course management, volunteers, and crowd support were all great. Made the first 9 to 10 miles fly by.

I worked on walking through rest stops and getting a good drink of gatoraide swallowed rather than on my shoes. Worked well for the first few stops. At mile 9.5, the "mix" was pretty thick. Within a quarter-mile, I had stomach cramps that forced me to slow to a walk. I walked about 0.10 of a mile, had four large burps, and I was back running. I switched to water from that point forward, but had trouble at the last two stops swallowing the water; I really could not get any down.

I also had trouble with my "Shot Blocks". They are easy to chew at my easy pace, but running at race pace made them hard to chew, swallow, and breathe at the same time. So, I am going to rethink that a bit. . .

Around mile 12, it started pouring rain again, with thunder. I kicked it up a gear and started reeling in other runners in an effort to get to the finish before I froze.

I finished strong at 2:33:05 and felt good. I did get a massage, but the legs felt surprisingly good. I had to drive 175 miles home, and then my son wanted to go to a bookstore and out for supper. Legs had some soreness, but I was walking fine and made it home fine. I am tired now, and confident I will sleep well.

Shoes were great and I had none of the leg pain that I had earlier in the week (more on that to come; suffice it to say, new shoes were not stopping supination and I had very sore ankles, knees, and shins after only a mile. . .)

Now, I am looking forward to a twenty mile run next weekend and then the Fargo Marathon.