Long Run, Tri Shop, and Marathon Trials

Saturday was a big day. It started with me getting out for an early morning long run. It was one of the coldest days so far during this warm winter:

Just below 0 with the windchill.

I ran a 13+ mile loop along the Mississippi:

I had a 2 mile warm-up, hit some hills at a decent pace between miles 3 and 5, and then wanted to do 6 miles at half-marathon pace. (My next race is the "Securian Run Half Marathon" in just under 2 weeks!) My "race pace" miles were 6:48, 6:33, 6:28, 6:10, 6:04, and 6:20 (the last one was a "long" mile). Those six were ran in 38:23, at 6:23.8 / mile pace. I was happy with that! I finished 13.08 miles in 1:29:56.

I think I can say this now: I'm hoping for a "WINTER half-marathon PR" at the Securian Run. I've done 5 winter half marathons over the last 4 years, but 2 of those were cut short (1 because it was too cold, and 1 because a volunteer told us to turn around too soon). My current "winter half-marathon PR" is 1:28:05, but the short half marathon last year would have been around 1:25 had I kept up the pace and the race was a full 13.1. If it's a nice day in 2 weeks, I'd love to be able to hit about 1:26ish. We'll see.

Anyway, I finished the run and snapped a photo of some ice forming on my face, stubble, and hat:

Then, brother-in-law Matt stopped over, and we headed out to Gear West Bike and Tri along with Henry. Matt needed some new swim gear, and I needed them to look at Pharmie's bike. I snapped a photo of Matt and Henry with Henry STARING at someone getting a bike-fit on the trainer:

Then that afternoon, I watched the Olympic Marathon Trials coverage on NBC. I wanted to look for some local Minnesotans. I don't know many of the guys in the trials, but I knew 3 Minnesotan woman: Michelle Frey, Nicole Cueno, and Jenna Boren. And I don't "know" her, but I recognize Minnesotan Katie McGregor.

Michelle was the one that signed my cover of Runner's World when she appeared on it:

Nicole and I first met at a 5K a few years ago (where I had to out-kick her for the win), and then we ran the Securian Run Half Marathon together last year. Here's a photo of her running next to me from my race report from around mile 4:

(And here's a link to the video I took during the half marathon last year where Nicole can be seen a few times. Oh, and Michelle's in that video too!)

And Jenna and I officially met at a race a few years ago, and we run into each other at "Dome Running" now-and-then. We just talked about the Trials 2 weeks ago.

Here were 2 photos that friends put on Facebook of Jenna and Nicole after the Trials, but before the NBC coverage. This let me know what they were wearing so I'd know what to look for on NBC:

Jenna pre-race


Nicole post-race

I snapped some photos of the TV screen to try to get photos of people I knew:

Men's start


Women's start


NICOLE in the blue sports bra to the right!!! GO NICOLE!


JENNA in the white just right-of-center on the outside! GO JENNA!


Katie McGregor hung in the LEAD-PACK for the first half - that's her to the far left!


MICHELLE in the red! (Photo found on Facebook today from Gary at Charities Challenge)

In the end, out of 152 female finishers:
Katie McGregor finished in 11th in 2:34:01 (+8:23)
Michelle Frey finished in 22nd in 2:37:03 (+11:25)
Nicole Cueno finished in 58th in 2:42:33 (+16:55)
Jenna Boren finished in 63rd in 2:43:04 (+17:26)

Nice work ladies!! See you at the races this summer!

On the men's side, Minnesota had 3 guys in the top 20! Nice job fellas!!

If you're a local runner, check out this video showing many of the Minnesotan men in the Trials training on local trails (many that I'm on for 90% of my runs!). Nice work in Houston, everyone!!