RACE REPORT: TC 10 Mile

Yesterday was my BIG RACE for the year! I've been posting a lot these last few months about how I looked back to Coach Jen's workouts that she gave me for 8.5 weeks leading up to my 10 mile PR of 59:05 in 2010. As I posted about over the weekend, I was REALLY HAPPY with my training, but just unsure what I'd be able to do at the race. I was HOPING for sub-61:00, and I had a few "check in" points along the course to for me to pay attention to (as I posted about over the weekend as well).

Pre-race burritos and burgers the night before!


WINDY the morning of the race!


"Twin Cities in Motion's" post of the finish line early on Sunday.

My sister-in-law was racing the 10 Mile (as she often does), so my brother-in-law and her offered to pick up me and my wife for the race. So Matt dropped us off near US Bank Stadium around 6:20:

Angela and I about to race the 10 Mile!


Me and my cutie. She was going to start the marathon in 90 minutes!


A few of my teammates!

Angela and I found our way to the starting line. I bumped into SO many friends (and family! - my cousin's wife was in town for the race!). We heard an announcement noting that the mile markers might not be out there because it was so windy that they could get dangerous - wild!! I worked my way up near the front (maybe 10 rows back or so) and waited for the horn.

"Runners to your marks!!.... *BULL HORN NOISES*"

I hopped around the standard few people who shouldn't be that far up. My wife cheered for me a few blocks later, and I finally noticed her AFTER she took these photos:

I'm wondering if that woman taking photos of me is my wife... :)

We were talking a different route to get out of downtown! We went straight to the river (to the Stone Arch Bridge) which meant there was an extra downhill and then the uphill behind the Guthrie that we didn't have before. My first half mile split was a bit fast (sort of not-surprisingly) at 2:56. I think I eased up a LITTLE so I didn't blow up later.

• MILE 1: 5:57 (2:56 and 3:01)

We were on the rollers along the river. I tried to "take the tangents," but it was crowded and I often had to take slightly longer routes.

• MILE 2: 5:57 (2:56 and 3:01) "Nice. Two great splits to start!"

I felt the strong wind at our back. I was hoping it would push the whole way! A bald eagle soared above:

Here's where my first big "choice" came - we were headed to the base of the longest hill of the day, and I had to decide if I was going to push the pace or ease up a bit. I found myself pushing. I passed a group of 6 women running together, including Kari C. who I cheered for as she smiled back. I MISSED MY 2.5 MILE SPLIT which was a bummer - this new Garmin doesn't beep as loud as my old one, and I've been missing a lot of splits because of that (especially while biking). But I finished the mile with normally slower splits, but still splits showing that I was working up that hill:

• MILE 3: 6:09 (3:03 and 3:06) "18:03 overall for 3 miles... time to keep these next miles strong before the 'check in' at mile 5!"

I was happy with that pace! I was on my familiar running route now, and I just kept working.

• MILE 4: 5:46 (2:51 and 2:55) "THAT was fast! Still feeling OK!!"

My Garmin was going off 0:15-0:18 before the mile markers, so I was already making note of that: I'd need some extra time to get from my Garmin's "mile 10" to the actual finish line. And if I'm close to breaking 61:00, I need to be aware of that! Now where would I be at mile 5?...

• MILE 5: 5:59 (3:01 and 2:58)

• FIRST 5 MILES: 30:03!

That 30:03 split was at the actual mile marker - I hit mile 5 on my Garmin more like 29:48, but that was early. I stated in my pre-race post that I wanted to be under 31:00 but didn't think I'd be close to 30:00 flat. Well, I was close to 30:00 flat. A shift happened here - now I wondered if I could negative split this race and run a sub-60! I knew I'd have to keep this next miles strong as these "false flat" uphill miles can often suck a lot of time out of my race. Time to suffer!!

Right after the mile 5 marker is the nastiest hill on the course: we turn away from the river and head up a 2 block gut-buster:

Dark blue = slow. Turning away from the river up a hill.

I got onto Summit Ave and felt better than I remember the last few times I did this race. I was preparing myself to suffer. Can I keep these splits close to 6:00 when they are usually 6:20-something??

• MILE 6: 6:07 (3:04 and 3:03) "A 6:07 here is a MAJOR WIN!"

My PR year in 2010 (with a 59:05 finishing time) saw a mile 6 split of 6:17. I was aware in the moment that this was my fastest mile 6 split of any of my TC 10 Mile races!

I had a plan to get to mile 7.5 and start going a bit harder, but after running a 2:59 split from mile 6-6.5, I decided to up the pace a mile early! OOoooooohhhhhh that's a good sign!!

• MILE 7: 6:01 (2:59 and 3:01) "Again, one of my faster mile 7 splits!"

One of my "check-in" points was overall at mile 7. I had wanted to be around 43:30 so I could maybe run some fast splits (if I was feeling good) to hit just barely sub-61. But after getting my mile 7 split and then running the extra few seconds to the mile 7 marker, I was at 42:15. I was 75 secs faster than I HOPED to be at this point! AND FEELING GOOD!!

I had been chasing Nathan C. (hubby of Kari C. who I passed uphill at mile 2.5) ever since we got on Summit around mile 5.5, and I was getting a BIT closer to him. He was a good rabbit! We ran through the 2nd-to-last water stop, and just like at every water stop up to that point, I grabbed a sip.

• MILE 8: 5:52 (2:51 and 2:52) "WHO *EVER* SAYS THIS AT MILE 8 OF A 10 MILE?... BUT SUB-60 IS IN THE BAG!!!!"

Yes, I was that confident. Maybe 20 minutes prior, I would have been happy with sub-61. But at this point I would have been bummed with anything over 60! I was running strong and laying down good splits yet!!!

For the previous 1.5 miles or so (since around mile 7), I was going back-and-forth with a woman, and I mustered out a cheer for her along with "we've got a shot at sub-60!"

I was watching my splits, and I was keeping them under 3:00/half mile, so I was still taking time OFF my sub-60 (anticipated) finish.

• MILE 9: 5:52 (2:55 and 2:56) "Gooo!! Keep shaving time off this wild sub-60!"

We turned to angle slightly north at mile 9, and then the wind was SLIGHTLY in our face. It was a little defeating, but I didn't think it was enough to make me bleed so much time that I'd end up over 60:00. I tried to duck in behind other runners when I could, but I was being slapped with wind more often than not.

I spotted bro-in-law Matt in the distance (standing across from the Cathedral), and shortly after heard him cheering for me around mile 9.5:

Me back there to the left.


Close-up. That's the woman on the far left I was going back-and-forth with.




A little bit of an awkward hip-drop, but I was FLYING at this point!

Notice I was running past that guy in red over those last 3 photos. I was moving. I don't remember much about running down the hill past the Cathedral. I wasn't *absolutely* dying, so I wasn't desperately looking for the finish line. I was still just running strong!!

• MILE 10: 5:31 (2:52 and 2:39)

• MILE 10 to the FINISH: 0:18

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 43, M, St. Paul

59:23
5:57 pace

147 out of 9117 overall
120 out of 3338 men
5 out of 545 in the M40-44 age group

First half: 30:03 / Last half: 29:20

- Start to 5K: I passed 77 runners and was passed by 13
- 5K to 8.76 miles: I passed 15 runners and was passed by 4
- 8.76 to finish: I passed 3 runners and was passed by 1

- 11th in age group at start
- 5th in age group at 5K
- 4th in age group at mile 8.76
- 5th in age group at finish

[Garmin had 10.06 miles in 59:23.8, or 5:54 pace]

Garmin said 22 mph wind from the NW!!
(Also, some "green" after crossing the river for fast mile 4,
but otherwise nothing unusual with the pace colors.)

8 POST RACE NOTES:

• I couldn't be happier with this race! In my pre-race post, I mentioned something about not even dreaming of breaking 60... but it WAS in the back of my mind. I never said it out loud (I told lots of people I hoped to break or be right around 61 mins), but I had sub-60 WAY back in my head as a possibility. So then being WELL under 60 was amazing. I just felt like I was flying. Yes, it was hard, but it was like a "fun" hard, and not a "defeating" hard. I felt better at the end of this race than I have in a looooong time.

• I had my fastest middle miles EVER at this race. I've always said this is an issue for me, and I mentioned it in my pre-race post. So here's some proof about how much faster I was in the middle of this race: the last 7 times I did this race (2011, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, and 22), my splits for mile 6 and 7 were SLOW. Those years, they averaged between 6:20 and 6:28 (in order, they were 6:28, 6:24, 6:27, 6:20, 6:22, 6:25, and 6:24). In my PR year of 2010, they were faster averaging 6:14. This year I averaged 6:04! (6:07 and 6:01.)

• Related to that last point, I think some of my speed in those middle miles came from how much harder I've been running some of my "pace miles" in my long runs. I've had a summer full of PR after PR in the speed of my long runs. Between that and Coach Jen's training, I was ready to knock out some faster miles.

• I only had 3 miles that were over 6:00. In 2010 when I ran my 59:05 PR, I had 4 miles over 6:00. The last 2 years, I had 9 miles EACH YEAR over 6:00! Even my previous 2nd-best TC 10 Mile from 2011 had 9 miles over 6:00! This was a great race for me.

• Here's an interesting point: I've been saying that my training has been keeping up with Jen's workouts from 2010 partly because I have a Garmin giving me 1/2 mile splits now (when back then I only had mile markers mapped out), so I might not be in the same shape. But then DURING the race I also used the 1/2 mile splits to keep my miles where they needed to be. So early on (like miles 1, 2, and 4 for example), when I had a fast start to a mile, I could ease up a bit and not start to "blow up" over the course of the entire mile. It's not surprising at all that early on many of my mile splits had faster first halves and slower 2nd halves to help keep me from going out too hard. (In later miles, it was just about surviving, and you'll see my half-mile splits are a lot more even later in the race.)

• The (mostly) tail wind was wonderful! I can't say enough good things about that. Thanks God / Mother Nature.

• Paris 2024 Olympic marathoner Conner Mantz broke the course record, and ran the fastest time ever on American soil!!! My understanding is that because it's a point-to-point race, it doesn't qualify for the true American record. He ran 45:13, and the actual record is about a minute slower than that. I would have loved to have seen that! Matt said the guys were FLYING to the finish! The top-5 times EVER ran at this race were all ran yesterday.

• I had a little toe pain post-race, but I didn't think it was this bad:

Nice little blood blister there!

I have a lot more to say about Coach Jen's workouts and how I think they helped me with this fast race, so check back for more on that! I'll leave you with this pic that Henry snapped of me when I got home from the race: