Bonus Resolution 4 - Finish 12 Races in a Year - 10 Down

As I alluded to last blog, it ended up being a crazy September for races. I did end up racing in a race every weekend of the month. I should not be surprised though as it seems from looking at various race schedules that September and October are the busiest months of the year. I wanted to update this resolution a week or two earlier so I did not have to write up about three blogs in one entry, so I will do my best to not go too overboard here.
First up we have the Thief River Falls Pioneer 10K I ran in on 9/14. Thief River Falls is about an hour away from where I live, and I decided to go run there because it is near where my mom's boyfriend lives and I thought I would hang out with them for the day while I was out there. This is a yearly 5k/10k event they do in Thief River Falls, and they made it a color run for the first time this year. They had members of their local swim team throwing that glorious colored powder at us at various intervals of the race.

I want to do my best to forget about this race. It started off great, it was the smallest 10K field I have competed in at around 35 entrants, and I started out really strong, and was holding up in 6th place and maintaining pace and looking to have my first ever top 10 finish and sub-50 minute 10K! Well, it was not meant to be. Around the halfway mark, a race volunteer waved me off a side street and directed me down a path that went a few blocks the halfway point where I turned around and headed back where I came from. There were no other racers immediately in front of or behind me as we were pretty spread out in the front of the pack. Where I got back to the point where I turned in from there was a big pack of racers were coming in off the side street and the race volunteer had her back to me as she waived them to where I was coming from. I presumed I had to go back where I came from so that is exactly what I did.

A few minutes later though, I saw the 3rd, 4th and 5th place racers together coming in off a side street who were previously about a good two or three minutes ahead of me. It was then I realized I screwed up and did a wrong turn and was suppose to keep going past the race volunteer an extra few blocks. I found out later one racer (the one in the photo with me to the right actually) tried shouting at me, but he was too far back and I had my headphones on. I found the timekeeper right after the race and told him not to count my time because of my error. I wish the race could have been labeled better, as some points were clearly marked by signs and other only had volunteers pointing where to go, and when you have a big pack of racers going by in both directions, oversights like that are bound to happen.

The next weekend on 9/21 had the official Color Run come to Grand Forks. I believe The Color Run was the initial color race that started the craze and its few imitators just two years ago. I was not going to do it, but a few friends and coworkers were making a team, and since this is a race that is not timed and purely recreational, I figured it would be a terrific way to enjoy a race with some friends and get super doused in color along the way. Over 4,000 people registered for the race, and they cleared out a good couple mile stretch of 42nd St. to make room for everybody. I joined up with Derek, Brooke, Ryan and Justine for the race. We all started together, but the field was so jam packed that we all eventually split off from each other. There was a very hyper DJ MCing the event which helped give the race the most straight up fun atmosphere of all the races I have been a part of. After the race, the DJ was getting everyone to dance and throw their own packets of color at each other in a little concert area around the finish line. We all jammed out there for about a half hour afterwards and made sure that the guy going around in a leafblower hosed as much color off us as possible before we headed back home.

Finally, I closed out September with the Wild Hog Half Marathon on 9/28. For some reason I was not as nervous for this race as the Fargo Half Marathon I trained so hard for in May. I guess in the back of my mind I had a feeling what I was in for this time around. I kept up my practice runs accordingly, and intentionally did not run for four days before the race to bank as much energy as I could for race day. I felt well prepared going into the race and was actually able to get some sleep the night before the race this time too! Unfortunately, I was not counting on it raining throughout the entire race. It was not a downpour by any means, but a nice and steady rain that held up from the beginning until the end. I threw on a light windbreaker to help keep me a little dry, but was probably more paranoid about it slowing me down and preventing me from hitting the two hour goal I set for myself for the race.

For the Fargo half, I started off trailing the ten minute a mile pacer for the first few miles before gradually increasing my speed and finishing with around a 9 minute a mile pace. So for the Wild Hog, I went to follow the pacer who had a 1 hour 50 minute finish time which I believe was around a 8 minute 30 second pace. Shortly into the race though, I saw the pacer for the 1 hour 45 minute mark and recognized him from a few group runs I did with a local running club in town this summer and I remember keeping up with him on those runs before so I thought I would try and keep up with him here. Silly me neglected those group runs in the summer were only five mile runs, and around that mark I started to gradually lose pace and sight of him. I was not getting passed by too many people though and found a new pacer by a guy in a makeshift garbage bag poncho I was able to follow.

I was still gradually losing pace and getting passed by a runner or two every couple of minutes but was keeping up with garbage bag man fine. I brought two energy gels with me I took around the 1/3 and 2/3 marks of the race and was only stopping at every other water aid station so I did not have gobs of it swishing around in my stomach. Around mile 10 though, I saw garbage bag man really slow down and stopped to walk for a breather. I was not anticipating this and it messed with my race psyche. I kept on trucking and found a running couple to trail behind, but after about mile 11 my legs started to feel like lead and my speed really started to decrease. Not too long later the 1 hour 50 minute pacer past me, and I did my best to keep up with her but it was no use as she kept getting further. At this point though I was giving it my all and told myself I was not going to stop at all and was going to run this out no matter how heavy my legs felt. I got passed by quite a few people those last two miles, but I finished strong and was all smiles as I saw my finishing time of 1:53:25. Not too bad considering the atrocious weather, and for running on empty the last two miles. There is another half marathon in Fargo in a couple weeks, right now my legs are still recovering and I do not know if I got that run in me, but if I do, or whenever I run my next half I would like to believe I could conquer that 1 hour 50 minute barrier.

Ok, I lied, that was not brief at all and I was my usual long winded self. If you managed to read this entire blog, thank you for sticking with me! I am now at 10 races in the books for the year, with only needing two more to meet this resolution. I am already signed up for one at the end of the month, and I know of at least a couple more before the end of the year and am just debating which one to sign up for. I will make sure to keep you all posted, so please keep checking back!

5K

UND Autism - 4/20/13 - 26:22 - 23rd out of 74
Uffda Mud Run - 9/7/13 - ??:?? - Finished
Color Run - 9/21/13 - ??:?? - Finished

10k

Hillsboro Run - 6/13/13 - 50:17 - 23rd out of 55
Dewey Memorial - 6/1/13 - 50:21 - 15th out of 56
Firecracker - 7/4/13 - 53:13 - 42nd out of 92
Frozen Feat - 2/16/13 - 53:57 - 50th out of 108
TRF Pioneer - 9/14/13 - Disqualified

Half Marathon

Fargo Rocks - 5/18/13 - 2:02:48 - 2062nd out of 5526
Grand Forks Wild Hog - 9/28/13 - 1:53:25 - 182nd out of 645