Winter Carnival Half Marathon

Or, “I Suppose 30 and Drizzle is Better Than Last Year (15 Below but Sunny)”

Or, “Running While Talking Videos”

Saturday was the St. Paul Winter Carnival Half Marathon. Last year, it was way below zero, and it was shortened to a long 10K (click here to see those photos). This year, it was about 50 degrees warmer: it was in the mid-30s and drizzling / sleeting:

Everything was covered in a fresh coat of ice when I got up. As I pulled up in downtown St. Paul, I could see the fresh coat of ice reflecting off the snow in the median:

I got my number, got my chip strapped to my shoe, and headed out to the porta-potties. I was there SOO early, that I was the first one in this potty:

Standard pre-race “on the potty” shot

I ran up and down the road for a block or two, and the ice didn’t seem to be collecting on the road too much! I had brought my YakTrax, but I really didn’t want to have to wear them for a race. I HOPED I’d be OK without them. The one bad thing I noticed out there is that there was some real wind beating me in the face. It seemed like the first 6.55 miles on the way out were going to be into a nasty wind. Great.

I got back inside and started looking for people I knew. Soon I ran into Guy, Jenny, Julie, and Beth. (Guy and Jenny did that trail race with Pharmie back in October, Julie is a new blogger, and I met Beth at the second “GW Splash and Dash” last summer.) We grabbed a quick photo:

Guy, Me, Jenny, Julie, and Beth. And yes, I have a fist coming out of my crotch - no teasing...

Soon after, I bumped into Mark and Kris too! I shared an embarrassing story with them, and I’ll tell you all about it this Friday as my “Friday Funny.” You’ll just have to wait...

I got outside, and Dave Ryan (local morning-show DJ) was working the crowd:

I ran into Kirt and Chad when I jumped into the pack near the start line. I’d never met Chad before, and he was a great guy. I pivoted around and got a shot of everyone getting ready to start:

Soon, we were underway!!!

Note: All the photos from this point on are from the digital camera that I ran with. But I didn’t take PHOTOS - I took a few short VIDEOS throughout the race. The full video will be up shortly, but in the meantime, below are some SCREENSHOTS from a bunch of short videos from the race. So that’s why the quality sucks.

My goal was to go out SLOW and REALLY ease into the race. On a GREAT day, I thought I might be able to break 1:30, but I really just wanted to break 1:32 while running a fun race if possible. We headed down the hill to the river. I was easing up and letting some people pass me without trying to keep up to everyone. I was running in about 30th place.

Rain falling while running by the river

Running up to mile 1, there was a guy announcing times. I heard “...14 ...15 ...16 ...” and thought I was running nice and slow (7:20something). Then he paused and started up again: “SIX 18 ...19 ...20 ...6:21 ...22 ...” Shoot. I was running WAY too hard. I NEEDED to ease up.

Mile 1: 6:22. “Oops. Slow it up Steve!!”
Mile 2: 6:42. “Still... ease up.”
Mile 3: 6:48. “Better...”

I was feeling great, but I hoped that I didn’t go out too hard. At this point, I was 67 seconds ahead of my pace from 2 years ago at the same race (where I broke 1:30:00). OF COURSE that was on my mind, but I’m smart enough to know that “on pace to do [blank]” means nothing at mile 3 of a half marathon.

Here’s a little downhill stretch just after mile 3:

Mile 4: 7:00. “Nice pace. Maybe just a little faster than that, but good.”

Just after the aid station around mile 4, there was a guy in front of me that pull to the center of the road and started puking:

Gross. I hope you got through the rest of the race OK, buddy.

And at that point, we had an extended uphill that was about a half mile long, but not too steep:

Mile 5: 6:45. “Good.”

At mile 5, I was still feeling GREAT, and my total time was 33:39. I did some quick math, and realized that if I ran 7-minute miles from this point, I’d be right around 1:30. I grinned a little to myself. Seven-minute miles from this point on sounded like a cakewalk. But there was a LOT of race left to be run.

Mile 6: 6:46. “I still feel great! Should think about upping the pace shortly!...”

Running up to the turn-around, I heard a PA system and a familiar voice. It was Gary Westlund from Charities Challenge!! He was hosting a party at the turn-around and he got a photo of me:

Turnaround: 44:56. “Nice. Now keep it strong!” (About 50th at this point.)

After the turn-around, I saw Chad pretty quickly. I kept looking for other runners that I knew. I LOVE out-and-back races for that reason! Here’s a boat-load of people running out towards the turn-around:

I saw everyone that I knew on their way out, but I didn’t get a photo of everyone. Here’s the one’s that I got:

Guy


Julie


Jenny

Because I was looking so hard for people I knew, I stopped thinking about my pace, and I also missed the mile marker for mile 7. Do’h.

Mile 7 and 8: 14:15. “Shoot. Time to pick up the pace. Go harder NOW.”
Mile 9: 6:56. “Thought I was working harder than that. Dang.”

I chit-chatted with a LOT of people on the way back into downtown St. Paul. One guy said “I’ve NEVER seen someone taking pictures during a race.” I laughed and said “Well, you STILL haven’t - technically, I’m taking video!” I was talking to more people in the second half of the run because I was passing a lot of people. But the bottom of my feet were getting SORE. I was hoping that I still had 4 miles left in them!...

Leading up to mile 10 was a little bastard of a hill. It’s only about 2-3 blocks long, but it was making my hammies burn. Here’s the base of the hill:

Just after that hill, someone standing by the road was cheering for me BY NAME. I didn’t know who it was at the moment, but a few seconds later, I figured it might be Steve Q. If so, thanks for cheering Steve!

Mile 10: 6:44. “Good! GO. NOW. HARD. GO.”

It was hard running out there because I had passed a group of people in front of me, and now the road ahead was pretty lonely:

But I was heading toward a small group of people making a lot of noise. Just out of the frame to the right was a guy with a loud horn:

At that point, I saw a bald eagle above me. I was HASHED, but I still had the energy to turn on my camera:

No, that’s not a speck on your screen. It’s an eagle. Trust me.

Mile 11: 5:53. (short)
Mile 12: 7:27. (long)

They need to move that mile 11 mile marker - it was placed too early 2 years ago too. So I was knew that a long mile 12 was coming after seeing a sub-6 mile 11.

I was giving it my all. I KNEW I had sub-1:30 at this point, but could I PR?!? My PR was 1:28:05, and I’d have a LOT of work to break that, but by-golly, I was going to give it a shot!

The last few blocks along the river was where the wind was the worst - other than that, the wind wasn’t a big deal out there. I passed Kirt and said hi. I turned on my camera and started filming just before I rounded the final corner. We ran under a bridge and up the final SOB of a hill. Here’s that final 1-1.5 block hill as I was still under the bridge:

The finish is still 3-4 blocks beyond the top of that hill, which SUCKS!! I was pumping my arms so hard, that most of the video I was taking is of the ground. I held the camera up just as I was about to cross the finish line:

Mile 13 and last 0.1: 7:11.

Official Results: 1:28:55
34 out of 786 overall
8 out of 53 in the 25-29 age group
1 out of ?? in the “carry your camera and take videos throughout the race” category

Ummmm..... that last category might not officially exist. ;) As I was still recording, I swung the camera back and got a shot of me breathing hard and HAPPY to be done:

In every race, there’s at least ONE THING that anyone can feel good about. It’s usually something very random that makes you happy - you’re happy how you were able to push those middle miles, you’re happy that you were able to hold off that last person as you were headed to the finish line, etc, etc. I really believe that each person in every race has that one little “thing” that they feel good about. For this race, I gave myself a little smile and felt good that there were so few timing chips in the pail as the volunteer was talking off mine with a nippers:

After finishing, I ran through to get my “Winter Carnival Mug,” some snacks, some water, and headed to the car right away. I had to get home, get showered, and then get to my nephew’s 2nd birthday party! I would have loved to have stuck around to see everyone finish, but I had to get going.

I hope to put together my first ever “video race report” in the next day or 2, so stop back to see that shortly! Thanks everyone! (Oh, and thanks to everyone who left me such nice comments on my Twitter feed just after the race! Thanks guys!)