Almost another perfect day for a spring race made for a pretty good race for me. According to my race plan I was hoping to finish in 1:08 which would have been quite excellent. I actually passed the halfway mark in 34 minutes (and change) but knew I was struggling so it was going to be tough.
I arrived pretty early and got my bib number and start time. The first runners left the starting line at 8:30 and then every one else’s time was handicapped off of it in 1 minute intervals. Based on their projections I started at 9:30 with the last runner starting before 9:40. This gave me WAY too much time to sit around before the race started. It is a low-key race but I still got pre-race nerves. Not an ideal race if you have alot of anxiety. I “gave” my wife the morning off so I didn’t really have anyone to talk with or to take wonderful pictures of me!
As I mentioned due to a bridge being redone on the Luce Line trail the traditional out and back course was modified. They made up all of the missing miles at the beginning which was appreciated. Though they added 3 180 degree turns which wasn’t cool. They are planning on this only being a 1 year diversion so let’s hope that the construction stays on pace!
The Luce Line is a great place for a race because it is a limestone covered dirt trail (according to the DNR). There is some shade off and on along the course and it is more scenic than many road races. The course included 2 water stations which made for a total of 4 potential water stops (although the 4th was about 1/2 mile from the finish). I took water 2x’s. I maybe should have taken some more since it was sunny and a little warmer than we were used to mid-40’s. The weather actually made for some difficult clothing decisions. I didn’t pack 9 different choices like Joe but I had 3 shirt options to wear – long sleeve, short sleeve, or singlet. I had trouble deciding and ended up wearing the short sleeve over the singlet. This was a decent choice given some slight winds.
I was a little surprised by the elevation chart that my Garmin produced. It resulted in a net elevation loss and most of the “hills” seemed like long slow grades not the sharper grades on the chart. But it is close enough! You can tell there are some inaccuracies because the elevation chart should be like a mirror. This year’s turnaround point was at mile 6 so it should be a mirror on either side and it obviously isn’t. Hmmm.
In some sense the slow grades are harder than short quick hills. They wear more on the quads. I was impressed by the overall accuracy of the course measurement – especially given the changes this year. My Garmin produced a 10.03 mile race which may be one of the closest measurements I’ve seen.
A few things of note during the race. Three of us started at my time and we went out a little quick but I stayed with them for the first 2 miles and never saw either of them again. I “caught” the first runner between 4 and 5 miles and got passed for the first time at 6 miles. I cramped up a little bit around mile 5 and it eventually went away. I don’t really remember where the water stops were mileage wise but it seemed pretty reasonable. By miles 7 and 8 I was starting to pass more participants which was a pretty nice feeling. I tried to keep pushing the pace in the late miles – but wasn’t overly successful with that endeavor.
Here are my splits according to the marked miles:
6:48
6:42
6:44
6:59
7:10
7:07
7:20
7:07
7:22
7:06
Based on the results posted at Raceberry Jam I was 15th overall, 12th male, 2nd in my age division and an official finish time of 1:10:31.
For $5 you couldn’t have asked for a much better race. I would be willing to pay a few bucks extra to use a timing chip and potentially save the race director some post-race headaches, including faster post-race awards.
[tags] Fred Kurz, 10 mile, Race Review, Wayzata [/tags]
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You know the race will be interesting when the 
The Securian Frozen 5K and Half Marathon is a part of St Paul’s 
A wise decision given the fact that the actual temp was officially -15 with a wind chill in the -20’s. The morning broke with a clear blue sky and lots of shining sun, so that helped make the race bearable! There was some confusion about the actual course distance. The e-mail clearly says 6.5 (6.55 would actually be a half of a half) but the announcements coming over the PA system in the registration area kept calling it a 10k (which is obviously 0.35 miles shorter than half of a half). My 
Attire? Yes how in the world do you dress to race at those temps? Well ultimately the same as you would to run in those temps! Unlike warmer weather where you could wear less layers, it was vital to keep everything nice and warm. I actually wore the attire mentioned 
Pre-Race We were able to park in the Securian building’s parking lot for $2 in downtown St Paul, which was great. Take the skyway over to another building for packet pickup and then stand around and wait. Unfortunately all of the indoor restroom facilities were closed to the public so you had to venture out to the porta-potties lined up on the street. We did a little warm-up jog and then waited for the race to start. The directors were nice to wait until all the runners lined up, but it was a chip race so they should have just started instead of punishing those of us who followed directions!
and hurt my face, but I couldn’t really see out of them so I shoved them up on my face. I tried to settle into a pace that would work for the whole race and picked some people to try to stay with. A guy was reading splits at the 5k turn around, which was a little weird but I came through mile 2 at 7:08. The course was a little hillier than I had expected since it was on the river flat. They weren’t anything monstrous, but definitely steep enough to tire you out a bit. I wasn’t really cold anymore at this point although the layers were making it hard to keep up a fast pace. I came through mile 3 at 7:23. The turn around point came pretty quickly after mile 3 and there was the race’s only aid station. Dedicated volunteers passed out bottles of water – caps already off. People were taking them, I did not. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t feel like messing with my balaclava or spilling on myself! 22:34 at the turnaround.
Post-Race I hadn’t heard my teammates cheering me into the finish and I didn’t immediately see them so I wandered back into the buildings to get my post-race food and finisher’s mug! Then I wandered back out and got some pictures of people, including this great one of Mark Deters! I finally caught up with Nathan and we headed home.
This was a pretty good week of training overall. The weather finally cooperated for the most part with only a few humid days and many excellent nights. My in-laws came in Monday night and left on Saturday night so we had plenty of touristy things to do around town. We had a great hill workout on Tuesday followed by a PR in the 15K on Sunday!