This race report starts with the air quality issues from a few days ago. I didn't sign up right away because the northern MN / Canadian wildfires made our air look (and smell and taste) like this:
Pic from my bike ride on Thursday morning...
... when it SHOULD look like this.
Charlie and I were fishing in the Mississippi River on Thursday afternoon and things were fine:
We literally got home after this and the air had started to stink. It moved in LIKE THAT.
On Thursday, I checked the "air quality forecast" (which I never knew was a thing), and it showed this for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday:
"Hazardous" on Thursday with the worst air quality reading IN THE WORLD in Mpls.
... but clearing out in the next few days. Phew!
The day before the race, we had a quinceanera where I had 5 tacos, 6 taquitos, and a lot of cake:
The night before the race, some of the wildfire smoke moved its way back in again. It wasn't NEARLY as bad as Thursday, but it was a little hazy and smelly again. It was that way for the race too, but luckily I have no lung issues.
My boys and I got to the race site, and the porta potty we first found had no toilet paper. But then I spotted this one off in the distance...
Like a beacon shining in the night.
... and it had TOILET PAPER!!!
A final pre-race photo with my fellas before heading to the start!!
In my
pre-race post, I noted that I was 80% sure that I'd set a "personal worst" of slower than 5:04. I figured I had a 3% chance to break 5:00... that was NOT the goal. It was to see how close to 5:00 I could get. It was hot, my training hasn't felt great, and I didn't get in many short, hard, "1-mile specific" track workouts. I told my boys that I was concerned what my 2nd and 4th 1/4 mile splits would be: would I ease up too much after the opening split? And then would I be dying in the final split?
I lined up and chatted with Brooks G as my boys waited off to the side for their wave to start 10 minutes later.
"Love you Dad!" said Charlie with about 30 seconds to go.
"ON YOUR MARKS...." [airhorn noises]I took off DECENTLY fast on the right side. The 1/4 mile markers were on the right, and I wanted to see if they were going to line up with my Garmin (set to take auto-splits ever 1/4 mile) to see if I'd be running an extra few seconds to get to the finish after my Gamin said it had been a mile. I really didn't know what pace I was running, and I was ready to see ANYTHING on my Garmin at the 1/4 mile mark...
• FIRST 1/4 MILE: 1:10.5. "WHAT?!? 70 seconds?!? Am I going to DIE before the finish!??"That was fast. I was instantly concerned about "crashing and burning" before the finish, but I still felt OK, so I was going to hold on for this ride.
• SECOND 1/4 MILE: 1:14.8. "2:25 at the halfway mark? NEVER thought I would see that today!!"I was "on pace" to hit 4:50, but I knew I wasn't GOING to hit 4:50 as I didn't have another 1:10 and 1:14 left in me. But I did start to believe that I could maybe break 5:00! Which was INSANE. I didn't feel like I was giving back much time, and I was sticking with the same crew since about the 1/8 mile mark. It was time to hold on and see what this 3rd 1/4 mile split was going to be...
• THIRD 1/4 MILE: 1:15.1. "I have a REAL shot at breaking 5:00! Keep it strong!!!"It was at
this race 2 years ago where I crashed and burned HARD in the final 1/4 mile, so I was aware of what that feels like. And I was NOT doing that at this race! I was hurting, I was maybe giving back a LITTLE time, but I was feeling good about what I was doing! And I was actually slowly GAINING on the small pack in front of me!
• FOURTH 1/4 MILE: 1:14.9. "Just another second to the line! Sub-5 is happening!!"I ran another 1.4 seconds to the finish, and saw 4:56 on my Garmin!
OFFICIAL RESULTS:
Steve Stenzel, M, 45, St. Paul
4:56
44 out of 128 overall (USATF wave)
3rd in 45-49 age group (USATF wave)
42 out of 85 men (USATF wave)
Unofficially, looking at both waves:
54 out of 609 total
3rd in 45-49 age group (1st master in all of the 2nd wave)
My unofficial Garmin 1/4 mile splits.
Started fast, then held on! (I don't believe my HR... I'm sure it was climbing.)
USATF wave results.
I don't know how I did that. Seriously. It was 90 degrees and a little humid with the smell of wildfires in the air. I've felt a bit burnt out and overtrained for months, and I've rarely had a "good" training run. My track times were nothing great over the last few weeks. I didn't plan on going out that hard, but I did... and then I held on. I had a little hope of turning in a decent time at the 1/2 way point, felt like I was able to go sub-5 at the 3/4 mark, and then didn't feel horrible in the final 1/4 mile. Happy to be 45 years old and crank out another sub-5!
My wife and I headed out for a little shopping, drinks, and dessert that evening to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary:
At "Crave" at MOA.
We were at MOA because the boys had a fencing team party there.
So our date was there only because we had to get our boys there.
Time to rest my legs for a few days. Then back to TC 10 Mile training! I'm not going to follow my old coach's training plan like I did in 2024, but I might look at some workouts and throw in a few "different" training workouts that I'm not used to.
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