RACE REPORT: 2025 Get in Gear 10K

Saturday was the BEST day for the "Get in Gear 10K!" It's historically a wet and cold race, but it was in the mid-40s, calm, and sunny. So I "took care of business" at home in the bathroom before heading out the door:

I did this at the race too, but without my phone this time.


Good turn out for the Fleet Feet team! (I'm 3rd from the left in the back.)


My boys and my niece and nephew were all doing the 5K!


And my wife was doing the 10K too!

The 10K started 15 mins before the 5K, so my wife and I headed off to line up with about 5 minutes to go before the race started. I met some new teammates, jumped around nervously, and tried to go through possible race-plans in my head: I wasn't sure if I'd go out harder (more of the "norm" for me lately) or start a bit easier and work to negative split the race (as I wrote about pre-race on Thursday).

10 secs before the gun!


And we're off! That's Charlie's hands on the left, and Wes in the Santa hat!


Ready to suffer.




The increased back/shoulder/arm work shows a bit here. :)


My wife behind me! (She'd admit later that she was over-dressed...)


Charlie and Wes starting the 5K a bit later!


Go boys!!


And my sister-in-law Steph and Evie starting just behind the boys!

I started out a little closer to the front than I’m used to. I often feel like I start a little too far back, and I purposely didn’t make that mistake this time. But that also pushed me out of the gate. My first half mile was a dangerously fast 2:47 when I was hoping I could hold onto just below 3:00s. Yikes. I tried to ease up a little, and my first mile ended up being a great start:

• Mile 1: 2:47 + 3:01 = 5:49.3

An unusual thing happened between miles 1 and 3 that I’m not used to. Because I normally start a little too far back, I often start a race, pass a few packs of people, and then settle into a spot pretty quickly. But in this case, I had a group of 5 people pass me here at the 1st mile marker, and I had two more groups of 4 to 5 people each pass me in the next few miles. I wasn’t used to that!

Mile 2 ended on a fast note:

• Mile 2: 2:57 + 2:50 = 5:48.1

My splits were still golden! I was feeling optimistic that I could hit my sub-37:00 goal, and that maybe I could be around my OLD PR of 36:46 (that I broke last year when I ran 36:33).

Mile 3, however, felt a little more rough, and it showed in my splits. My optimism was waning. D'oh.

• Mile 3: 2:58 + 3:02 = 6:01.0

We ran across a 5K mat, and I glanced that my time was around 18:25. "OK... I can hopefully hold on and evenly split this race, and still finish around 36:50... but CAN I evenly split this? Am I about to crash and burn?"

The two worst short little hills are in the last half of this race. I was staring up the first one of those hills at this point (and the next would come at mile 5.5 as we go under and then loop back on top of the Ford Bridge). I WAS THRILLED WHAT HAPPENED HERE: I didn’t find myself working much harder, but I ended up pulling away from the people I was running with, as well as passing a few people heading up that hill! Maybe my better strength workouts for my lower body have been paying off!

We were past the 1st arrow (crossing the bridge), and the 2nd arrow was
the hill we just climbed. The 3rd arrow was what I was dreading at mile 5.5.

The slower half mile up that hill ended up not being the slowest half mile of my race! And then I bombed down the other side of the hill to turn in a respectable 4th mile:

• Mile 4: 3:01 + 2:47 = 5:49.5

I felt a little wind in my face crossing the bridge around mile 2.5, and may be just a little bit after getting up that hill, but wind wasn’t a factor. It was a beautifully calm day to race! I was hoping that would help me in this last half of the race.

I didn’t know what was going to happen in these last 2 miles. I was hurting, and my pace felt all over the place. I felt like I would surge for a few strides, and then start to die and back off for a few strides. Again, not feeling confident. But I was happy to get to mile 5, and HAPPIER YET to still be turning in good splits!

• Mile 5: 2:51 + 2:54 = 5:45.6

I noted my overall time at mile 5, and I was only about 10 secs slower than my goal PR pace from last year! And my splits were moving in the right direction, so I was really ready to push to see what I could do! I was just barely starting to think "...could I PR again?"

I tried to use the hill going down under the bridge because I knew climbing the hill on the other side to get up onto the bridge was going to be brutal. I was kind of running by my lonesome, but I had been slowly passing a few people for the last 1.5 miles or so - moving in the right direction!

I bombed down the little hill around mile 6 and passed a guy I had been back-and-forth with earlier in the race. I didn’t know if I would be able to hold him off for the finish, but he was a good push in those final few blocks.

• Mile 6: 2:51 + 2:53 = 5:44.9

I SAW MY OVERALL TIME! I WAS JUST UNDER 35:00!! THE FINAL 0.2 MILES OF THIS 10K USUALLY TAKES ME AROUND 1:20, AND THAT WOULD BE A BIG UNEXPECTED PR!! (Bettering my 36:33 from last year.) SO I WAS GOING HARRRRRRDDDDDD!!!!

Pic from Coach Laurie, just in front of the guy I passed 20 seconds earlier.


Hurting!

Brother-in-law Jon (who took all the photos at the start - thanks Jon!) saw me coming. The guy I had just passed was able to pass me right back, but he was a good pull to the finish. And the little kid in orange was a 5K runner (who's course meets up with our 10K course for the final 2 blocks), so I look REALLY COOL passing him in the final few meters:

Guy in white is now back in front of me!






Big strides toward the finish!


You can see the hole in my butt - I can only wear these "Tutti Frutti" shorts
in cold weather because of the wind-proof briefs I wear under them!


Closing in on the finish line!

• Final 0.2 miles: 1:19.0 (Garmin had it as 0.25 miles.)

Holy balls. An unintentional PR brought on by a big negative split!

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, M, 44, St. Paul

36:17
5:51 pace

54 out of 1492 overall
51 out of 742 men
6 out of 86 in the M 40-44 age group
12 out of 401 male masters (40+ years old)

54th overall at mile 1
63rd overall at 5K
54th overall at the finish

18:30 first 5K / 17:47 last 5K

(Garmin: 36:17.3 for 6.25 miles, or 5:45.37 pace)

5 POST-RACE NOTES:

• I really don’t know how I did this! Like REALLY! For how bad I felt at mile 3 (with splits moving in the wrong direction), but then how much I ended up negative splitting it, I... I just don’t know. I mentioned in Thursday’s post about better / faster / stronger long runs I’ve had in the last 6-8 months, and I’ve also had some consistent and really good track workouts. Maybe that all did the trick!

• I took myself RIGHT to the edge of the pace that I could hold onto in the last half of this race. When I was hurting around mile 3, I was very concerned I wouldn’t be able to hold on in the last half especially because I hadn’t raced in a while. And it hurt like hell, but I was able to speed up and have my fastest 2 miles as my last 2 miles. Whew. Training has been treating me right apparently! Which brings me to my next point...

• I'm not necessarily proud of THIS RACE, but I'm proud of my TRAINING. I feel like my solid training these last few months has been "seen" by this unexpected PR. It's not that I raced it perfectly on a perfect morning (which all might be true as well), but I just feel happy that my good training is showing.

• I train to negative split my runs, but this was a huge negative split! My average pace in the first 5K was 5:58/mile, and it was 5:44/mile in the last 5K! I was hurting so bad, so I can honestly say I wasn’t sandbagging. I think it was just all of my negative split training telling me I was running pretty fast early on, but then I had the fitness to keep speeding up, even though I was dying.

• A blog reader finished around me and recognized me, and we chatted a bit in the finisher’s chute. Sorry, but I didn’t get your name! My brain wasn’t fully working yet! He knew I had a sub-37 goal, and he knew I had PRed as soon as I mentioned my time! Thanks new friend!! (EDIT: by his comment, his name is Cory! Hi Cory!)


I got through the finisher’s chute quickly so I could grab my phone, go find Jon, and go cheer on the rest of our family. I found Jon quickly, but just like last year, I had barely missed Henry finishing. And then somehow, Jon and I both missed our young boys who were running together, as well as his daughter!

Jon's pic of Henry finishing the 5K!


Henry on one side, and Rob E finishing the 10K on the other side in green!




Henry off to the finish!


Superhero boys!


Our entire racing crew!


Boys ringing the PR bell for Wes! (28:03)


Evie with a PR! (33:03)


Old man Steve ringing the PR bell! :)


54th at mile 1, down to 63rd at the 5K point, back to 54th at the finish.




My 10K (with half-mile splits).
Slow up the hill to split #7, then fast down the other side.


The "random speed" like I mentioned above: surging, then dying, then surging, then dying...


Slow up the hill at the half-way point, then faster down the other side.
And a pretty consistent last half!


Stopped for 2 DELICIOUS fritters on the way home!


Charlie went to play at Wes' house for a few hours, and I got him home looking like this.

Well, a PR in your mid-40s is a great way to kick of the race season! Back with more shortly!