Four Final Things Related to the Securian Run 13.1

ONE: Catching Michael.

In my race report, I noted trying to catch Michael in the second half of the race. He was my rabbit. I realized that I had a similar race with Michael nearly 2 years ago where I WAS able to catch him before the finish. It was at the 2010 MDRA Mudball trail race. It was a 4-lap race of 1-mile loops. Here's the lead pack of 5 finishing the first mile:

Leading are the 2 guys that ended up taking 1st and 2nd, then Michael in the blue, and then that's me peaking right over his shoulder (with a nice high-school kid behind me who I chatted with a bit during the first loop).

I passed Michael shortly after, and was able to take 3rd. But that was a shorter race, and as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm better with the shorter distances.


TWO: Better Place.

In 2011 and 2012, the Securian Run Half Marathon had the SAME NUMBER OF FINISHERS. There were 830 runners each year. It's nice to compare finishing results and note that I was 25th out of 830 in 2011 and then 21st out of 830 in 2012. Both years I was 5th in my age group.


THREE: Injury Prevention.

It was just after the Securian Run a year ago that I realized I was injured. I had some sharp pain VERY low on the back of my heel a few days after the race, and the Doc told me to wear this at night:

You might be thinking I dug through my drawers to find my
"funnest" pair of boxers. You'd be wrong. They're all like this.

A year ago, this is what I posted along with that first photo:

Dr. Folske said there's a good chance that the point where my achilles meets bone down at my heel has some micro-tears. This "boot" (it's actually called a night splint) keeps my heel neutral all night long so the tendon can heal up quicker.

If I were to keep running, I'd just be aggravating where that tendon meets bone, and my body would try to heal it by building more bone. If I kept that up, I'd need to have surgery to scrape the bone back down.

Surgery? No thank you.

So I wore it every night for about 3 months straight last year. Then I wore it after longer runs or harder races. After my race this past weekend, I wore it for a night and a half (I wore it all Saturday night, but took it off in the middle of the night on Sunday). And so far, my heel is feeling JUST fine! So I think I made it through the Securian Run this year withOUT any issues!


FOUR: Current MDRA Grand Prix Standings.

After the the Meet of the Miles, I was in 3rd. Now, after the Securian Run Half Marathon, I gained a place on one person and lost a place to another. So I'm still currently 3rd (out of 64 men) in the MDRA Grand Prix:

Some people to note:
• 4th: Michael's behind me by 30 points (that's who I tried to catch all race).
• 8th: Good ole Kirt Goetzke. If you run in MN and you DON'T know Kirt, then you DON'T really run in MN. ;)
• 11th: Chad made the sub-1:25 prediction for Michael and I. Close.
• 12th: I met Omar a few years back at a duathlon. Nice guy!
• 14th: George and I raced many of the same races together, but finally formally met last month.
• 20th: Ben's a SPEEDY dude. Notice the 1000 points from Meet of the Miles. Really nice guy too. Sweet Goetzke-esque ponytail to boot.