Why did I ever think a 1 mile race would be fun?? I apparently forgot in the 15 years (wow, has it really been that long?) since I graduated from high school about that pain that is the 1 mile that I used to run (well, OK 1600) at least twice a week during high school.Anyway, this is the kick off race for the registration for Twin Cities Marathon. If you go down that evening, you are guaranteed entry into the marathon (registration officially opened today) and you can run a 1 mile race. There were different divisions, mass run, then age groups 50-59, 40-49, 30-39 and 29 and under and then a Championship women's (where I think you had to run at least a 5:20) and a Championship men's (where I think you had to run at least a 4:30). The weather was a bit windy, but not too bad and upper 60s/low 70s and by the time we ran it wasn't bad. Kind of like a track night in fact.
My roommate and I went down to get race packet and then just hung out for a while before I had to warm up. I was doing the age group (so glad I did that as it was much less crowded) which was supposed to start around 7:25, so at 6:45 I couldn't wait anymore and did a 10 minute run to warm up and did some stretching. After the mass start went, I decided it was time to head up to the start chute and my roommate came with and headed down to the finish where she was going to watch. I did a few strides at the start chute area to keep warm and found my hamstring and IT band are still aching a bit when I try to stride out and run fast, this has been a problem for a while and I need it worked out before I do any real speed work. Originally when I had planned to run this race, I had high hopes of heavy training and getting a fast time, well, no speed work, tight leg and let's see, yeah, I ran 45 miles last week and was at 27 before the warm up and run last night (now I'm at 30 with warm up, race and a bit of cool down), including a 6 mile run during lunch yesterday (OK, so I forgot to taper). Anyway, wasn't sure what I could do, but I thought for sure a sub 7:00 mile would be doable and maybe even getting to a 6:30 or so, I ran the first mile of my 5K in a 6:38 back in March, so figured a 1 mile I should at least be able to do that. McMillian's predicted a 6:21 so figured I'd see. Start happened a bit late, and at the first quarter I'm assuming they were calling off splits and I 
think I was around 1:30, and I remembered, oh yeah, this race hurts worse than that darn 5K! I remembered the feeling of the mile though, even though I wasn't running 4 laps around a track, but I remembered it, the focus and feeling of nothing being around me but what was right in front of me, the saying in my head "why did I think this would be fun, why am I running this?", over and over, all remeberances of track. Half point was a 3:10. Then it was just straight shot down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis to the finish. I was running in a pack with one girl around me and a bunch of guys...I saw Brit's Pub which I knew was about 2 blocks from the finish, a block later was The Local, the bar I had figured was the point to really bear down, the girl in front of me I had kind of tried to catch but didn't feel I had it in me, but right at The Local I was able to see the finish line just over a block ahead too and I remembered my kick and how much fun it is to really fly...so I pushed everything I had and passed her and a few others and hit the mats in about 6:19/6:20. No official results yet but right after crossing, I saw IE and first thing I said was "this was not fun, why did I think this would be fun?" I got my chip removed, got out of the chute, grabbed a water and we headed to the car so she could get her coat and then went for a beer at both The Local and Brit's (not a good idea on an empty stomach, they hit FAST!).
think I was around 1:30, and I remembered, oh yeah, this race hurts worse than that darn 5K! I remembered the feeling of the mile though, even though I wasn't running 4 laps around a track, but I remembered it, the focus and feeling of nothing being around me but what was right in front of me, the saying in my head "why did I think this would be fun, why am I running this?", over and over, all remeberances of track. Half point was a 3:10. Then it was just straight shot down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis to the finish. I was running in a pack with one girl around me and a bunch of guys...I saw Brit's Pub which I knew was about 2 blocks from the finish, a block later was The Local, the bar I had figured was the point to really bear down, the girl in front of me I had kind of tried to catch but didn't feel I had it in me, but right at The Local I was able to see the finish line just over a block ahead too and I remembered my kick and how much fun it is to really fly...so I pushed everything I had and passed her and a few others and hit the mats in about 6:19/6:20. No official results yet but right after crossing, I saw IE and first thing I said was "this was not fun, why did I think this would be fun?" I got my chip removed, got out of the chute, grabbed a water and we headed to the car so she could get her coat and then went for a beer at both The Local and Brit's (not a good idea on an empty stomach, they hit FAST!). Typically, in track, the first meet or two I would have in the 6:10-6:20 range and improve my time over the season...so...I might have a faster in me. Consider my PR was a 5:40 probably when I was 15, 18 years later (oh my, am I really THAT old??) I was only 40 seconds of my PR without any speedwork...hmm...
2 comments:
NICE JOB, Dani!
Good job! No telling what you can do now.
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