Bonus Resolution 4 - Finish 12 Races in a Year - 12 Down, Complete!!

Cannot believe I managed to knock this out before the end of October. But last weekend marked the 12th race of this year, which will mean at least an average of one race a month. What better race to achieve that milestone with than a half marathon. I was pretty reluctant on signing up for this one since I just did a half in Grand Forks a few weeks prior, but then some personal life happenings transpired that forced my hand into signing up for the Fargo Mini Marathon not too long before the registration deadlines expired.

I was a little worried that I was going into the race with a severe lack of sleep. I was able to carb up at the local Noodles and Company before going to work early the night before the race, which resulted in me getting off work a little earlier than usual so I was luckily able to squeeze in a two hour nap before booking it to Fargo. Race packet pick up took place only on the day before the race, so a friend of mine in Fargo picked it up for me, and I met up with them in the morning once I drove into Fargo. As luck would have it, they were only a short three minute drive from the event center where the race started.

The weather was another gloomy overcast out with temps in the mid 30s, so it was brisk to say the least. I kept thinking it looked like it was going to pour on us at any point during the race, but thankfully we all managed to evade any hint of precipitation that day. Only major blow to deal with were some hefty winds that picked up during the final couple of miles, but I will take that over getting doused for nearly two hours like I did in Grand Forks. The Fargo Mini operated like the half in Grand Forks, where the 5K started about 10 minutes before, and then the 10k and Half racers started together and split off during the race.

I did not want a repeat of the Wild Hog where I started off too fast and was getting passed by everyone after the halfway point into the race and then have my legs feel like lead the last two miles, so I started off at a more gradual pace for the first couple of miles where I passed a fair amount of people and got passed by about an equal amount as the pack thinned out. Around mile two, I picked up on a pacer around what seemed like was my ideal race pace of around 8:40-8:45 minutes a mile. I kept up with the girl in the purple headband and sweater until she split away with the rest of the 10k runners at mile four.

About a mile or two later, I want to say around mile six I found another similar paced lady who I managed to keep up with and stay behind. I liked her pace as she must have gradually been increasing and we were slowly but surely starting to pass ahead of the field. This felt great and I told myself whatever I did that I must maintain pace and stay within 30-45 seconds behind her so I do not lose steam. Somehow, someway I managed to pull this off for the remaining six to seven miles of the race.

The last three miles especially breezed by as it felt like she started amping up her pace and I still managed to keep up with her. Those last six to seven miles were the best six to seven miles race miles I experienced this year. Aside from taking in the race that curved in and out of a lot of new development in Fargo and West Fargo, it felt flatout awesome to maintain a solid race pace, and not get passed by a single person in the final half of the race while managing to pass roughly 30 other competitors in that same stretch. I had to say thank you to the girl I was following during the race and we had a fun little chat about the race and other races we did this year in the finishing area for a bit. I dug the mini's form of finisher medals in the form of hockey pucks, which is fitting since the event center hosting it is the home of the minor league hockey team, the Fargo Force.

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:52:11, which beat my old PR I set at the Wild Hog by a minute and fourteen seconds. I placed 162nd out of 528 overall in the half. I felt great about my performance, and I guess the trick must be going into it coming off work the night before and just a couple hours of sleep. I had a great day to celebrate afterwards and met up with a couple of Fargo friends I have not seen in awhile for lunch, and meeting up later on that evening with a few awesome coworkers for drinks and dinner. It resulted in me passing out nice and full and buzzed and happy. A great way to feel after hitting this goal. I am signed up for one more race this weekend, and there are a couple more before the end of the year that I am still debating on signing up for so stay tuned here for future race logs!

5K

UND Autism - 4/20/13 - 26:22 - 23rd out of 74
Arthritis Foundation Zombie Run - 10/12/13 - 29:06 - 1st Place Survivor, 2nd out of 67 overall
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 Mini - 10/19/13 - 1:52:11 - 162nd out of 528
Grand Forks Wild Hog - 9/28/13 - 1:53:25 - 184th out of 649
Fargo Rocks - 5/18/13 - 2:02:48 - 2062nd out of 5526