Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

I had some caprese from my garden (a few varieties of tomatoes along with basil) on garlic toast for lunch the day before the race:

I eat this daily July through August! It's slowing down now.

On the morning of the race, I checked again at what my Garmin thought I could do (although I put little stock in this):

59:47 would be amazing!

Two gels ready for the race, and oatmeal for breakfast.

I changed my strategy a bit, pretty much the night before the race:

Shortly after writing my "race plan" in my pre-race post, I realized that I wanted to push the effort a bit more. In that post, I noted wanting to start with sub-61 as a goal and hopefully being able to speed up to see if I could hit sub-60 on a great morning. I didn't want to go out too hard and have a depressingly slow last half of the race. But I quickly realized that I wanted to be strong enough in the first half to honestly give me a shot at sub-60... and make sure I wasn't easing back TOO much to let the chance of a sub-60 slip away before mile 5. I still don't want to go out TOO hard, but I want to go out a touch harder than I posted about pre-race.

I realized a realistic goal to achieve this would be 48:30 at mile 8. That means I could run 5:45s for the last 2 miles (if I had that in the tank) to drop down to a 60:00 finish. But then my "be around 30:30 at mile 5" goal was too weak. Why? Let's run the math: 30:30 at mile 5 means I'd have been running 6:06 pace. Then for miles 6, 7, and 8, I'd have to lay down 6:00 miles FLAT even though those are always the slowest, most depressing, false-flat uphill miles of the race. And then I'd have to hit 5:45s for 2 miles after PRing 3 of the middle miles to be able to hit 60:00. That's an impossible TC 10 Mile. I bet NO ONE has ever ran faster splits in those 3 miles than they had in the first 5 miles. (Or they were drastically sandbagging.)

So I have to try to hit close to 30:00 FLAT in the first half (like my 30:03 back in 2024) to have some padding in my pace to be able to "give away" a little time in the next 3 miles while still being within striking distance of my big sub-60 goal. This is NOT a "sub-60 or bust" race, but I want to put myself in a place where it's an option part way through the race. A lot of that comes down to mile 4: in 2024, I posted a surprisingly fast 5:46 split for mile 4 which kept that first half fast and kept me able to hit sub-60 overall. Maybe I'll have to slow up later in the race and not hit my "best possible goal" for the day, but that would feel better than going out too easy, building speed, but not having "enough race course left" to hit my goal... then I'd be more upset that I could have hit sub-60 but never put myself in a place to actually make it happen.

So I need to be strong climbing that hill during mile 3 (even though I've cut hills out of my workouts because of my calf issues this year), then still go fast for mile 4, turn in a fast first half of the race, and then keep it REALLY STRONG in miles 6, 7, and 8 without watching too much time slip away. All 4 of those points need to happen to be able to have a sub-60 finish, along with enough speed left to really close out those last 2 miles.

Whew.

So that was my updated race plan that I had in my head during the race. I also had a loose idea of what my splits were in 2024 so I could compare where I was during that sub-60 race with where I was during this race in 2026. Again, not NEEDING this race to be sub-60, but just to compare.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law came over to hitch a train ride with us to the start. They were in the 10 Mile as well:

Matt, Steph, and me!

Me and my wife - she was starting the marathon in 90 minutes! (We are so nicely lit
because there was a light rail a half block in front of us shining its headlight on us.)

I kissed my wife goodbye, left her with my hoodie (she was dropping off a bag nearby), and I jumped into "Corral A" for the start. Doron Clark popped up next to me, but otherwise I didn't see any other "race buddies" before the start. I lined up with maybe 100+ people in front of me: mildly aggressive for my intended pace.

"Five, four, three, two, one.... *BULL HORN NOISES*"

I shot out at a decent clip. I spotted my wife on the sidelines, so I got to hear one final "Go Hunnie!!!" before running off:

My wife's photo just after the start.

Me running past!

I felt like I was going out plenty fast, so I tried to ease up a BIT when I saw my first half-mile was 2:56 (fast, but not crazy fast).

• MILE 1: 5:54 (2:56 and 2:57)

The next mile was rolling along the river, but still nice and easy. Doron and I chatted a bit: I joked about just tucking in behind him as a wind-break for the entire race (he's usually quite faster than me, but has a bigger government job now and seems to be training less [meaning: slowing down]), and I remarked how I LOVE and HATE this race. He talked about this being a horrible threshold run.

• MILE 2: 5:53 (2:54 and 2:58)

That 2:54 half-mile split surprised me! I thought I was easing back a little. Apparently, my body wanted to be aggressive. I was going for that sub-60.

We hit the base of the big climb up to mile 3, and again, I eased back a LITTLE... I'm not very "hill trained" right now, so I was OK letting people get past me on the hill. But really only 2 people pass me and I passed 2 people... that's really not "easing back" at all. I knew this would be a slower mile, so I was OK with these splits:

• MILE 3: 6:14 (3:04 and 3:09) "I was 18:03 through 3 miles in my fast year of 2024, and I'm at 18:01 now. Next step: keep mile 4 fast!"

Like I said in my updated "race goals" above, mile 4 was kind of a key mile. I needed to build a LITTLE cushion for the upcoming slower miles (6 and 7 and sometimes 8). I posted a surprisingly fast 5:46 in 2024 which helped me realize I might be able to go sub-60, and GUESS WHAT I POSTED YESTERDAY AT THIS RACE FOR MILE FOUR?!?...

• MILE 4: 5:46 (2:54 and 2:51) "NAILING my splits! But don't start to think this is easy!..."

I got up on Kari C's back around mile 3, but then she pulled away. I got up past her again and gave her a cheer. I was back behind Doron again too, and this might have been the last I saw him - I got in front of him and then *stayed* in front of him!

I started telling myself something around this part in the race: "Stop looking for 'good signs' of a fast split or 'bad signs' because of a slow split. Run the split you are in. It doesn't always mean something bigger. Don't give up on the race if you see a bad split or 2 or 3 in a row... keep it strong. Don't get too wrapped up with what you did in previous fast years. Race THIS race."

• MILE 5: 6:02 (3:00 and 3:02)

• HALF-WAY SPLIT: 30:08 (which was about 0:15 past my Garmin-measured mile 5 because of imperfect tangents)

To be fair, I was running decent tangents. I was weaving across the winding River Road. I felt like this was slightly better than average for me! But it's nearly impossible to run "only" 10 miles at this race.

I was a little bummed to run a 6+ minute mile at this point, but I kept telling myself to just run this race. Because honestly, I was still right on track. My first 3 goals were checked off my list: strong climbing the mile 3 hill, fast mile 4, and a fast first half of the race not much slower than 30 minutes. CHECK, CHECK, and CHECK. So even though I felt like I was working a little harder than I should have been, I was still hitting my times. Sub-60 was possible. I just needed to suffer and not give up.

That steep little uphill to start mile 6 is always a bear...

Dark blue mean steep as we turned away from the river.

... but I was THRILLED to see a 3:04 for that half-mile split! And then just after we turned onto Summit Ave, I saw my neighbors cheering for me, and their 4-year-old made a sign that had my name on it. ADORABLE. (Apparently their youngest was concerned when just the first few runners went by [the winner ran 49:14] and *I* wasn't among them. Ha!)

• MILE 6: 6:04 (3:04 and 2:59) "MY FASTEST MILE 6 EVER AT THIS RACE!"

2024 saw a 6:07 for mile 6, and my PR year of 2010 saw a 6:17 for mile 6. Those HAD been my 2 fastest splits through this mile. Again, I tried not to get too excited about it and just kept my head in the race.

• MILE 7: 6:00 (3:00 and 2:59) "That's FAST for mile 7 of this race!! But you are hurting... can you hold on?!?"

That 2 mile split of mile 6 and 7 WAS MY FASTEST EVER at the TC 10 Mile! I posted about this at the end of my 2024 race report: 2011 through 2022 had those 2 miles splits 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, and then 6:25 from 2025). In my PR year of 2010, they were faster averaging 6:14. And in my fast year of 2024, they averaged 6:04. So averaging 6:02 here yesterday was a BIG BOOST!

I was feeling good about my splits, but I was also REALLY WORKING. I was 0:01 faster this year at mile 7 than I was in 2024, but I was feeling much less confident this year. I wasn't sure about sub-60, but I was still feeling good that sub-61 appeared to be in the bag... it looked like 45-year-old Steve was on his way to his 3rd fastest 10 mile (out of 16).

I was going back-and-forth with a guy in a sweet bucket hat with roses all over it. We chatted for a moment after a family from school/church was like "wait... Steve? STEVE?!? GO STEVE STENZEL!!!" and the guy I was running with said "Whoa, was that all for you?!?" I told him we were RIGHT at 60:00 pace, and that the big downhill to the finish should get us under! He was aware as well, and gunning for the same sub-60 (as was mostly likely ANYONE around us).

• MILE 8: 5:46 (2:52 and 2:53)

The left side of my lower back started getting TIGHT around mile 8. It just got bad enough that I thought "if this doesn't 'release' soon, I might have an issue finishing..." But luckily it got better quickly. No issue there for the last mile!

I hit the mile 8 marker at 47:59, which was 1 second faster than 6:00/mile pace. I felt good, but not TOTALLY convinced that I was going sub-60. I was working!

I found myself in a photo that Nathan C (spouse of Kari C) posted online! It was climbing a little (and kinda the "final") hill just before the mile 9 marker:

Nathan with a thumbs up, a guy in pink shorts behind his head
that I was running with for a while, and ME 100 feet back there!

Close-up. It's pixelated, but you can see the HURT on my face.
And the guy in the white bucket hat I was chatting with is off to the right!

That hill up to mile 9 felt slow. I was trying to keep it fast. I ended that mile with a 2:59 half-mile split and saw that I was just about 7 seconds under 6:00 pace...

• MILE 9: 5:55 (2:55 and 2:59) "That 2:59 was scarily depressing. Keep the first half of this final mile well under 3:00, and then you've GOT SUB-60 IN THE BAG!!"

My pace was a little all-over-the-place in this final mile which is something that happens to me when I'm dying. I'll feel good and fast for a few strides, and then I'll have to ease back and feel like I'm hot sludge. I was still feeling like I was on sub-60 pace, but it didn't feel nearly as great as it did in 2024.

(Also, I realized that I MAY have eased back a BIT in this final mile. I didn't have the mental capacity to hold on to any more "hurt," so my goal was just to make sure I was sub-60. It wasn't about racing THEE possible fastest race anymore. It was to not kill myself for an extra 2 seconds at the finish line, but still make sure I hit my goal.)

I tried to bomb down the hill to the finish. Note my pace turning red:

• MILE 10: 5:35 (2:55 and 2:40)

I glanced at my Garmin to see that 2:40 half-mile split, felt good about it, and then finished my final 100 meters to the finish.

• FINAL SECONDS TO FINISH LINE: 0:22 (for 0.07 miles: 5:03 pace!)

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel
45 years old, M, St. Paul

59:34
5:57 pace

104th out of 9483 overall
97th out of 3785 men
5th out of 469 in the 45-49 age group
79% age graded finish

103rd at the start, 9th in age group
126th at 5K, 9th in age group (6:03 pace between)
102nd at mile 8.64, 5th in age group (5:58 pace between)
104th at the finish, 5th in age group (5:43 pace between)

30:08 first half / 29:26 second half

Garmin: 59:33 for 10.07 miles (5:54.8 pace).

5th in my age group was AMAZING!! That ties my lifetime best at this race with 2024! My PR back in my 20s was in a speedier age group where I was only 18th.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Less beautiful. But not sore at least!

My pace graph shows the big hill at just after the mile 2 marker, the short steep hill just after mile 5, and then the fast downhill finish:

And here's that elevation chart:

Big hill at mile 3, short hill at mile 5, "false flat" uphill
through mile 7, and then FINALLY downhill to the finish.

I looked for my family (who I didn't hear) around the finisher's chute, but couldn't find them and started to get chilly in the open breeze. (It turns out they nearly missed me and shouted at me once I was past, and they were just about another 200 feet up the road after I turned around. D'oh! I walked back to nearly the "big flag" and they were apparently just the the other side of the flag.) I jogged back toward the light rail line and took the train home.

My wife was out running the marathon, and my boys and I were going to bike around to see her a few times. On our way out the door, she texted and requested a Coca Cola slushie, so we stopped to get her a Coca Cola slushie!!

I biked for a few miles with this in my hand as it didn't fit properly in my bike bottle holder.

My wife happy to see a slushie at mile 15.5.

Sarah with running buddy Alicia at mile 17.

She had her best finish post-Covid of 4:49!! Congrats Cutie!

So I'm still missing my 1:00:xx finish, but that's OK! I now have 3 in the 59s, 3 in the 1:01s, and a bunch in the 1:02s. I put in a lot of work to get this one (my first 5 weeks of training, my final 4 weeks of training, and two weeks of final hard runs), and I don't know if I'm interested in putting in that much work again next year. It's always fun to be fast, but I don't always like working so hard that I'm worried every other workout is going to wind up injuring me. This one was a worth it, so still soaking this in!!

The TC 10 Mile is tomorrow. I’m in better shape than I ever thought I would be at this point (after brief injuries this winter and spring, and another flare-up at the start of this training cycle). So what’s my race plan and race goal?

I was coached in 2010 (to my first sub-60:00 finish of 59:05), and I reused pieces of that training plan in 2024 to go sub-60 again (59:23). I went into that 2024 race to try to break 61, and then found myself a lot faster than I thought I’d be and knew by mile 8 that I was going to hit sub-60 (which is WILD... in 2010, I wasn’t sure at mile 9.5 that I was going to be able to hold on and break 60!).

When I started this training plan in early August, the goal was just to not embarrass myself at the race. I had to ease back a few times earlier this year because of injuries, so I had no lofty goal for the race. Just wanted to get in some decent training.

But as I shared in my recent posts about my two last months of training (found here and here), I was surprisingly able to turn out some fast workouts... way faster than I had expected.

Pre-race 2024, I BARELY flirted with the idea of going sub-60, and then the race became a BLAST because I was turning in amazing splits. I’m afraid of putting too much pressure on myself for this year‘s race, and then not being happy with a relatively decent time. I could finish in 60:55 which was my goal time 2 years ago and would still currently be my 3rd fastest lifetime 10 mile (I’ve only been under 1:01:20 twice), and I could be bummed about that. Which makes zero sense as type this. But it could easily happen that way. I don’t think I want to go out at a pace that would mean an amazing finish only to slow up a little and still have a good finish but be depressed about it. I would hate to post a good time and still be bummed at the finish line. That’s just not the way I want to spend my race.

I never fully trust this as it usually reads FAST, but my Garmin is saying 59:15.
(Picture taken on Thursday, which is why it states "3D:" the race was 3 days away.)

It shows my anticipated finishing time dropping over the last 4 weeks.

I’ll have my splits from 2024 in my head, but I won’t necessarily be gunning for them. They will just let me know where I’m at compared to then - I’ll be slower for sure, but can I be close to them at times?

2024 also had a strong wind from the west - it pushed us home during this point-to-point race. It was a beautifully cool and perfect morning for a race, and Conner Mantz ran a course record of 45:13! (The top 5 times ever turned in at the TC 10 Mile were from 2024!) Being I had a good race on a perfect morning with perfect wind in 2024, I realistically can’t hope to be near that again. Or if I could be near that again, my training would have to be much better. Not just “similar.”

(Another reason I'm concerned about not being able to keep up with "2024 Steve" is that I set 3 lifetime running PRs in the spring of 2024: 5 mile, 10K, then 5K. I was coming off a GREAT few years of running. This year has been much more sporadic. Back to the upcoming race...)

In 2024, I hoped to be well under 31:00 at the halfway point, but I hit mile 5 at 30:03. And I wanted to be at mile 7 in 43:30 so I could possibly negative split my way to sub-61, but I was 75 seconds faster at 42:15 at that point. And I dropped down below 6:00 overall pace at mile 8 (47:59 overall at mile 8).

This year, I think my mid-race goals are to split the difference between my *goals* from 2024 and my *actual splits* from 2024. Sub-30:30 at mile 5 would be good. Then can I keep mile 6 faster than usual like I did in 2024? If I turn in a good first half, and then a good mile 6 and not feel DEAD, I’ll be happy... and then I'll be trying to see how much time I can shave off my finish.

In that "comparably trained" year of 2024, I was THRILLED with my mile 6-8 splits: 6:07, 6:01, and 5:44. (I even noted in a later post with some "final race thoughts" that miles 6 and 7 in 2024 were 0:41 faster than the average of those miles for all other TC 10 Miles of mine!! I ran 12:08 instead of my average of 12:49 for those miles in all previous years!) Compare that to miles 6-8 of 2025's race report where I wasn't quite as trained as I am this year, and I ran 6:24, 6:26, and 6:14 for those 3 miles. That's a difference of 1:12 over JUST those 3 miles between 2024 (FAST) and 2025 (depressingly average). There's a good chance that the good training in 2024 really showed up in those later miles of the race... and I'm hoping that happens again tomorrow!!

And even in my "pre-race goals" post from 2024, I noted how I would much rather speed up throughout the race as I wrote about paying attention to my half-way split at mile 5:

And again, how I'm feeling will play a part in my mood here: running 31:00 while feeling GREAT will have me pushing for a big negative split (which historically can turn out some decent race times for me), while running 30:00 while feeling DEAD will make those next uphill miles really slow and depressing, and I'll stop wanting to push myself.

Looking back to all of my 10 mile finishes (I think all but 3 are TC 10 Miles), you can see that I tend to finish around 1:02:something:

10 mile races (15 total):

59:xx: 2 times
1:01:xx: 3 times
1:02:xx: 9 times
1:03:xx: 1 time (at the end of the Loony Challenge race weekend)

I SHOULD be able to set a 3rd best 10 mile time of sub-1:01:20, I really think I can be under 61, and there's an outside chance that I could go sub-60 if everything comes together perfectly. I'm going out with 1:00:59 as my goal, and I'll see if I can chip away at that later in the the race if I have fitness left to spend! And I think that's the big question: how hard can I go in miles 6-8? Will this better training "show up" for those later miles and allow me to keep building speed? And can I stay fast enough in the earlier miles to give me a shot at a better finish? (Without blowing up by going TOO hard TOO early?)

Stay tuned!! Good luck all 10 Milers and Marathoners!!