My Wife's Second TC 1 Mile

Thursday night was the "TC 1 Mile" in Minneapolis. It's a "road mile" and part of the USATF series here in MN, so it draws out quite the runners. It was also the "USA Road Mile Championships," so that REALLY draws some amazing athletes!

Pharmie and I got down to Gold Medal Park about 30 minutes before her wave:

Compare that pre-start photo with her pre-start photo from 5 years ago:

36 weeks pregnant and "racing" a mile as seen in this 2011 race report.


Racing in the "friends and family" wave.

Times have changed. This year, she had to jump in and keep 2-year-old Charlie from whacking Henry in the face with a cowbell. Look at her face in the middle photo (and Henry's face after being whacked in the last photo):

I love these 3.

SIDENOTE: Pharmie took a special photo for me inside a porta potty. She had to show this to me. She didn't know how this was possible. HERE'S THE PHOTO. Yikes. Never seen that before.

Anyway, I figured I wouldn't recognize many people in Pharmie's wave (the "open" wave) because most of the folks I knew would have already ran in the early "USATF MN" wave. (That's the wave I would have been racing in had I not been in the boot.) As the start of her wave ran past, I recognized Nathan C (who I mentioned a few times recently in my O'Gara's 8K race report):

Nathan in the red MDRA jersey with the yellow laces.


Here comes Mama!! She's waving to Henry.

Two things happened when she passed:

First, I had been chatting with BFFFN Devon (whom I shared a lovely embrace with), his sweet Thea, and friend Nordica when Pharmie ran past. Charlie instantly bust into tears because he saw Mama and she didn't stop to hang out. So we had to leave our other friends so they didn't get an earful of Charlie wails.

Second, we were right by the 1/4 mile marker, which had a clock. I noticed it was WELL under 2:00 when Pharmie went by! She was hoping for sub-8, and it looked good from the opening quarter mile! I was afraid she'd go out too easy and build to a fast finish, so this was very promising after 1/4 mile.

Post-race, she would tell me that she actually went out REALLY HARD. Sure, her gun time was sub-2 at the first 1/4 mile, but her chip time was exactly 1:30. She was at 6:00 pace! And she was dying. So she ended up easing back a bit to hit the 1/2 mile mark under 3:30. At that point, she realized sub-7 could be possible, so she went for that! She doesn't remember what her watch said at the 3/4 mile marker because she was hurting, so she just gutted it out in a sprint for the finish. The boys and I ran into most of my YWCA running team near the finish line (the course is shaped like a horseshoe, so it's easy to see the 1/4 mark and the finish just by walking 1 block), and we all cheered for Pharmie as she ran past in the final 60 meters:

Pharmie saw this photo and was pissed at the other woman's smile and beautiful stride.

Well she hit the line in 7:07! NOT BAD FOR AN INITIAL GOAL OF "SUB-8!"

7:07.0
743 out of 1873 overall
190 out of 907 females
26 out of 133 in the F35-39 age group

She finished, came back to find us, and immediately gave all of her post-race goodies to the boys:

We were hanging out with Laura and Julia. That's Julia's dad back there in
the white. He was the one who had the "Dad-Off" with me at the Lake
Johanna 4 Mile where we raced with our kids in the strollers.

Then we stuck around for the 2 Championship waves where we got to see local rockstar Heather Kampf blow away everyone else to finish in 4:34 (about 2 seconds shy of the $10,000 bonus time of 4:32):

And then Ben Blankenship blew away the men's field to set an event record of 3:55 and take home the $10,000 bonus (which was sub-4:00 for men):

Some of my team in the background to the left.

Post race, I posted this on Facebook:

"Pharmie had a 3+ minute PR at the Medtronic TC 1 Mile tonight from when she did it
5 years ago. Her tip? Don't be 36 weeks pregnant. Nice job with your 7:07 Hunnie!!"

(Here's her racing pregnant 5 years ago if you're interested.)