Saturday, October 25, 2008

Monster Dash Half Marathon

I wanted a 1:40, well, that was my basic goal...depending on conditions. I felt good all week. Ran some good times. Thursday I had a lot of energy in me and a really good 6 miler. Wasn't sure how that would affect today.

Weather was cooler than I liked, but it's end of October. I had tights a long sleeved skin shirt and a long sleeved tech shirt. Also had gloves and an ear band. I wore my devil horns for a "costume"...this was a costumed race.

Course followed parts of Twin Cities. Was nice not running in a downpour however there were some nasty hills on the turn around so it's not an easy course. I definitely went out too fast, running mostly 7:30s and some a bit faster. On the turnaround I slowed down a bit on some of the hills and it was a struggle for sure through the last 5K and even a little beyond that. I came up the last hill, was around the corner and made a dash for the finish line. Unfortunately the 3 other races going on that day were also coming around that curve and one of them was a "fun run" so yes, much slower runners to dodge around which sucked, but I did pass a girl who had passed me earlier in the race and that was kind of fun...and I crossed in 1:41:33 on my Garmin. No posted official time yet. My former PR was 1:44:12. So while not the 1:40 I wanted it was good and for being a tougher course and just 3 weeks after Twin Cities.

Nice race except for that finish. Oh, and that they had a great food table, but the water was on it as well and the 5K (2 of them fun run and timed) and 10 miler all finished around the same time and were trying to get to that food table, with the water in the middle of it, as well. Oh, and the spectators were also holding things up...so just a couple things I would change about the race. Overall a decent experience though.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice job on the race. The 1/2 people totally deserve their own food table! Congrats on the PR

MNFirefly said...

Nice job, Danielle!

RunToTheFinish said...

Still impressed that after one heck of a marathon you were ready to race again. Also impressed you even attempted a costume :)

I had such a great run this weekend I'm still up in the air about signing up for a half...but I really gotta fix this knee thing I guess.

JustRun said...

Wow! You are a machine, woman. Don't give yourself a hard time for a minute... geez! :)

Also, I just wanted to say that I love you for going all out with the concert. That is too fun and probably really good for us to do once in a while. Good for you!

Runner Leana said...

Sorry you didn't hit your goal, but congrats on that PR! Not too bad considering you just BQ'ed so recently.

That has to be frustrating about the finish. You would think that they would try to keep those groups all separate to give those running seriously a chance to finish strong rather than to dash around?

Anonymous said...

Another good one! Way to go! Sounds like that rain annoyed you again. You're starting to feel like me about it - huh? ;)

Dori said...

OMG, Danielle, I was at that race and saw a woman with devil horns coming in! I had no idea that was you, of course, but I almost called out to you. (All I could come up with was, "Are you horny?" so I kept it to myself.)

Had I been a little more organized, I would have arranged beforehand to meet you. Anyway, good job on beating your previous time.

Unknown said...

Your comments are very helpful to us for next years race. We will incorporate your finish comments for next year's race. We will also separate the water/gatorade area from the food area. Very Good suggestions. Thanks again. Sincerely, John Larson, Team Ortho Foundation

mg said...

A 1:41 half just 3 weeks after a BQ? You rock!