Category Archives: 15K

07292018 – Run

A 15K run while on vacation. I did a fair amount of research to find somewhere to run besides the roads, but the best places were a good 30 minutes away. It seemed irresponsible to spend an hour driving for a 90 minute run. That seemed like a lot of time away from the family and cost in gas and entry fees. And I think I would have needed to run loops anyway. 
So I mapped out a rough course on the roads near our campsite. There was a pretty straightforward out and back, but that seemed a little boring so I figured out a way to make it more of a lollipop. 

I only made one mistake which added maybe a 1/4 mile to the route and I got to see these cows twice! 

Back on track I kept moving along. I was using the virtual training partner on my watch to help me keep pushing the pace. So it would beep every now and then. As I was going through the rolling hills there were lots of ATV/snowmobile trails but I opted to stay on the roads. 

I did come to a little park that looked like it had ATV trails but the sign said no ATVs. But it was a park so I turned in there a took a chance that it would work out. It was a nice little wooded and dirt loop to spice up the run. It gave me a short view of the Wisconsin River. It had a little picnic area that you could rent and a few more trails I didn’t take. 

I had set my virtual pace at 8:40 and tried to stay in front of it the whole time. I also didn’t do any warmup or cooldown. I definitely felt the camber of the road by the end as even the side roads were noticeably at an angle. The main county road had a little bit of a shoulder but not consistently wide enough to run on. 

All in all it was a good run. Oh and the temperature was perfect. Mid-50’s! The route was mostly shaded so the sun wasn’t ever a problem. I also took out my new birthday present, my hydration vest. It was probably a little much for this run, but I need to get used to wearing it. And I did drink a few times from it. 

Final details: 9.5 miles 1:21:52 8:36 pace

USATF-MN Team/Championship Schedule

The 2009 USATF-MN Team Circuit and Championship Race Schedule was voted on awhile back.  Here is the schedule:

I recognize at least two races are missing from the schedule which is good! Last year I ran the 5000m championship on the track and that wasn’t very exciting. The Earth Day Half Marathon was also on last year’s circuit.  It was the weekend before Boston last year and I imagine that is why it got left out of the schedule this year. It is a little odd that there isn’t a half-marathon on the schedule at all though.

Here is an interview with USATF Minnesota Long Distance Running Competition Chairman Ed Whetham from Down the Backstretch about the 2009 circuit.

[tags] USATF-MN, USATF, Championship [/tags]

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Race Review: MDRA 15K

Sunday was an excellent, pretty much perfect day for a race. I woke up a little tired from seeing the in-laws off last night and slowly worked out some of the kinks on the warm-up.  The temps were right around 60 – which almost felt cold! It was great.

The MDRA 15K is the state masters and open 15K championship as well as being part of the USATF-MN Team Circuit.  So needless to say there was some competition at the front! It otherwise would be a fairly small race which included a 5K.  The 15K saw 9 new records this year! According to the final results the winning time was 48:00 a little bit off my official time of 63:24 which is a 15K PR.  This is also my first road 15K, the rest were all part of the DINO Series in Indiana.  I finished 4th on our team this week.

It was a good race – we started about 400m in front of the 5K start, so each loop was a little over 5K. I’m very pleased with my race, I finished approximately on the same pace as last week’s 10K. The race started towards the top of one of the major hills along the course and finished behind the start at the bottom of the hill, ensuring an overall elevation loss.  The course while on the road was fairly scenic winding through Braemar Park, a residential area, and along I-494 and US 169. The first mile was mostly downhill winding past the indoor driving range and parts of the golf course.  The road actually went through the golf course where mile 1 was located. I decided today to hit the split button on my Garmin so I could actually read my mile splits and not have to do the math in my head! This produced a little discrepency since the mile markers were a little off according to Garmin.  I’ll list the split times I clicked.  6:24 for mile 1. I felt pretty good with that split but thought it would be best to slow down a little so that I wasn’t totally wiped out at the end of the race. It was a little hard to let a pack go, but I new it was the smart thing to do.  I continued cruising along as we went through the residential section hit a couple small hills and grabbed some water along the way.  I remained comfortable and ran mostly by myself coming through mile 2 in 6:38. We have left the scenic portion and ran the next mile mostly on frontage roads alongside the interstate so not too exciting.  We also hit the first major hill of the course along this stretch.  The hill wasn’t steep enough to make you winded but it was a fairly long steady uphill. The downhill felt good as we came back by the parking area, crowds, and water stops.  I came through mile 3 in 6:54. The first 5K was 20:29.

Up the hill we go passing the starting line.  I got a couple people on this long steady hill, even though I was trying to keep the pace under wraps. We wound back down the hill and two guys came by at a decent pace.  I decided to go with them for awhile thinking they would help pull me up to the next big pack.  We never caught the pack and I stayed with them for a mile or so.  Mile 4 was 6:50. They didn’t really help my overall pace too much as I’d let them go a little bit and then surge to catch back up. This got a little tiring and finally they just pulled away as we went back into the residential area and hit the small hills. I grabbed some water again and went through mile 5 in 6:49. Back up the long frontage road hill, still feeling pretty solid along the way. I caught a few people on the hill even though I remained at a steady pace.  i came through mile 6 in 6:56. And through the 10K in 41:36 (that 5K was 21:07). That split was actually faster than last week’s 10K and only 8 seconds off my 10K PR. Wow!!

Somewhere in here a woman came into the picture – I can’t remember if she passed me or if I caught up to her.  But going back up the hill I was able to put some distance on her even though I remained at a steady pace.  She caught back up to me heading back down the hill though and we continued battling the rest of the race.  It was nice to have a little motivation to keep pushing hard. I came through mile 7 in 6:58. I remained in front but she was right there and I could here her breathing and footsteps as we hit some of the small hills in the neighborhood.  I figured if I could keep her behind me I would be fine, but didn’t want to get into a kicking match too far out.  I was finally starting to feel the pain of the miles and some pain in my right buttocks.  I came through mile 8 in 7:01. I skipped the final water stop and focused on pushing through – there was a pack a few hundred yards ahead of me.  I started trying to focus on them but also kept an ear out for the woman behind me.  She did pass me coming out onto the frontage road and I stayed right with her.  As we started climbing the hill I started picking up the pace a little bit and was able to go by her pretty easily.  Along the way I caught a Slab City runner and kept picking up the pace or at least the intensity. I came through mile 9 in 6:53. 3/10ths of a mile is a pretty long way to kick and I had no idea what she might try to do so as soon as I saw the 9 mile marker I started picking up the pace and steadily increasing it.  I came through the last 0.3 miles in 1:55 (5:57 pace).  The final time was 1:03:23 (1:03:24 officially) with the last 5K at 21:46. Not even splits but not too much of a spread either, in my opinion.

I felt good and felt like I recovered pretty quickly.  The woman I was racing, Laurie Hanscom finished 9 seconds behind me, so I waited and thanked her for a good race and told her she did a good job. I joined some of the other guys on the team to cheer our female teammates on to the finish.  I finished 58th overall and Laurie finished 4th overall for the women.  I can’t complain too much about the day.

I finished it off with a chiropractic treatment, chiropractors in Franklin.  At first I thought it was a massage which would have felt great on my tight lower back.  I decided to go ahead and give it a try since it was free! It was my first time and was a different feeling.  I think I will stick to massages for now!

All in all a good day!

[tags] MDRA, 15K, Race Review, Edina, USATF [/tags]


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Race Review: DINO Series 7 Fort Harrison

On a brisk Saturday morning, the final race in the 2007 DINO Series was held at beautiful (and hilly) Fort Harrison State Park on the Northeast side of Indianapolis. The morning temperature was in the mid 30’s with a little wind but that did not deter almost 350 people from coming out for the 5K and 15K trail race.

The 15K course was an out-and-back along one of the horse trails in the park.  The course was rated 4 out of 5 for hills, but a 2 out of 5 for surface of the trail by race director Brian Holzhausen.  I would agree that it was a tough and hilly course, with some fairly steep hills.  The surface was pretty good, while the trail was cut wide, it had well grooved single track areas that were easier to run on.

Registration on the chilly morning was held inside a shelter house that was surrounded in plastic to help cut down on some of the arctic breeze that was blowing through the flat, open field where the race would start and finish.

I ran a 1:07:38 (7:17) which is a 15K (9.3 mile) PR.  I’m sure I can run them faster on a road course, but at this point all of my 15K’s have been DINO’s trail races. This was about a 5 minute PR for me, so I was very happy with that.  I was also shocked to have been first in my age group and 38th overall.  There were a ton of people in the 20-24 age group ahead of me!

Mile by Grueling Mile!

The start was in an open area and went alongside the tree line before cutting through the meadow and hitting the first major hill at about the half mile.  The course went up a steep hill (perfect for sledding), ran along the top and then back down.  Cutting through a swath of woods, we ran a short bit on the road and re-entered the woods.  I came through the first mile at 7:14, which was a little faster than I had expected but it felt like a good pace.  The miles were marked on the trail, they were a circle of cleared leaves with orange paint.

There was a lot of up and down, most were fairly short hills and I don’t remember there being any other major steep ones at this point.  I decided that I would take it easy up the hills on the out portion of the race and see what I had left coming back through the course.  It was a very winding trail and I came through mile 2 at 7:01.  I still felt really good and was just cruising along with a small group of people.

I recognized some of the other guys and felt comfortable with being around them place and time-wise. There was a water/Gatorade stop around the 2.5 mile mark (strategically placed to serve both the 5K  and 15K runners). The course continued to meander through the woods, not really staying flat long enough to get into a strong stride.  I came through mile 3 at 7:09.

I was still feeling pretty good and ate one Clif Shot Blok, per my race strategy.  At this point our group had kind of spread out and I was trying to stay with a guy who passed me.  This part of the course began to have some steeper hills and some stretches of wider trail.  We were running along near the park’s boundary lines.  After a steep descent we came to a creek crossing.  It had rained several days during the past few weeks so there was probably 3-4 inches of water in the 6-10 foot wide creek bed.  I was able to almost one-step through it, barely getting my left foot wet.  The guy I had just passed hit a rock while jumping and kind of twisted his ankle (he was able to work it out and seemed fine later when he passed me!).  The 4 mile mark was on the bank of the creek and I came through in 6:45, very surprised to have been under 7 minute pace.

This last .65 of the out segment presented some of the steepest hills of the day.  Maybe some of the longest as well.  I was just under a mile behind the leaders and they came back at me. The course finally flattened out for the last quarter mile into the turn around point (where they were checking numbers and providing water/Gatorade).  Coming back I was able to see all the runners and where different people were behind me. Crossing the creek again I got both feet soaked! I ran the 5th mile in 8:10.  Part of me thinks that the 4 and 5 mile marks may have been a little off because of the major time swing but I also know that the 5th mile was tough.

I got back into the groove of running the hills, which became a little trickier now that there was oncoming runners to deal with.  The course was definitely wide enough for us to be running beside each other, it was like I mentioned earlier that in sections the course was significantly easier (and had less leaf cover) over a worn single-track area.  I continued running with the same group of guys, but we were also getting passed by individual runners occasionally, some of whom seemed to be flying by.  I went through mile 6 at 7:18 and was starting to feel it a little bit.

At this point I kept saying to myself that I had less than a 5K to go, it isn’t that far.  I took another Shot Blok and focused on catching/staying with the runners ahead of me.  I was slowly able to pass some runners and began to feel a little cramping.  It wasn’t too bad and I tried to run through it, but it did affect my stride and pace a little bit.  I took some water and tried to fight through.  At this point I started saying, this is shorter than Shadyside (2.64 miles), which is a piece of cake. I came through mile 7 at 7:15.

I had enough strength to charge up some of the hills, well at least charging up them faster than some of the others! It probably didn’t look too pretty as I continued to fight through the side cramp (it did go away, but I don’t remember when!) At one point I ran with a guy for a short while as he tried to pass me, letting him go when I caught the next guy. Somehow I missed the 8 mile marker, but knew that we were getting close to the end (which is the beauty of an out and back course) and started trying to pick up the pace a little. We ran back along the road and then back up the grueling hill that started it all.  Running across the top section I started picking up the pace for the final stretch. At the base of the hill (around 1/2 to go) my wonderful wife cheered me on.  I knew that Brian shouldn’t be too far behind me (we have a friendly rivalry at these races) and listened for her to cheer for him, so I could judge where he was. He seemed a safe distance back but then I began hearing the heavy breathing of someone and got scared.  I began stretching it out, knowing this was a long distance to try and kick. I crossed mile 9 at 14:54 which is a 7:27 pace for the 2 miles.

The runner who passed me wasn’t Brian, it was Patrick McCartney who I’ve met several times.  He pulled away from me a bit during this straight stretch and then I decided I wanted to try and beat him.  We began pushing the pace, ultimately running the last 100 yards or so at or near 100%.  This was an all out kick to the finish.  I tried switching on the afterburners and was able to pull out the “win.” I clocked the last .3 at 1:46 which is approximately 5:54 place, beating Patrick by 2 seconds and Brian by 10.

I am very pleased with my time and overall race.  We waited around for the awards and was very surprised to have won my age group.  Other Anderson runners did well in their age groups also. We weren’t able to stay around for the awards banquet which was being held to honor those in the fall-sub series and overall DINO race series.  I received 2nd place in my age group for the fall sub-series and 44th overall  in the standings.

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Race Day: DINO Series #5

On a cooler Saturday morning 206 eager competitors (89 in the 15K and 117 in the 5K) lined up for a muddy start to the DINO Series 5th race of the season at Town Run Trail Park in Indianapolis. The 15K started at 9am with the 5K following five minutes later. This is a little late for the current weather trend, but stays consistent with the DINO Series 9am start for all 7 races.

I ran the 15K course which is 9.3 miles, except today due to the structure of the trail and modifications by the city the course was actually more like 10 miles, and the 5K distance was closer to 5 3.3. We were dutifully informed of this well before the race start so you had time to mentally engage yourself for the longer distance. According to the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association which helps maintain the trail, the trail was modified due to high levels of erosion.

Town Run is mostly a Mountain Bike trail that is primarily single track throughout the entire course. It winds along the White River from 96th Street goes under 465 and supposedly comes out on 82nd Street somewhere. In the 15K we did a two loop course. We began by running the 5K loop and halfway through our second time around that loop we went straight out to complete and approx 5 mile loop through open meadow and more woods. After completing this grueling loop we finished along the 5K course. This was no easy race.

I started farther back in the pack than I should have and spent most of the first 2 miles trying to get around long “trains” of runners on the single track. After finding a group that I felt comfortable staying behind we got into some semblance of a pace and didn’t have to worry about the single-track much after that. I and some others faded from the main pack and around the 4 mile mark the group I was with completely disintegrated with me staying in the front and running a long while by myself before other runners started catching me. Due to the million switch backs and turn you could see those ahead and behind you at various points, but you couldn’t always be sure how far behind they actually were. I used some Clif Shot Bloks at the 5 and 10K marks, they seemed to help a little bit, but I took half the recommend amount of 6 per hour. They are given away free at the registration table for the DINO races!

I’m not excited with my overall time or individual splits, but this is actually a little faster than my last DINO race and considering the course, my current training, and nutritional habits I am happy with my 1:19:11 (7:55) ten mile time. My splits were 7:50, 6:51, 7:44, 7:43, 7:57, 8:17, 8:11, 7:48, 8:29, 8:17 (ones with similar formatting are approximately the same mile). I was very happy to place second overall in my age group and 23rd place overall.

Did you race this weekend? How did you do? Tell us about it in the comment section.


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