Family Sports News

A few quick things happening in out world of sports last week...

Henry ran his 2nd track meet on Tuesday, and he did the 3200 for the first time. He's still coming off a knee injury, so his training has not been great. He said his goal was to break 13:00, and I told him that was weak. I told him I thought he could break 12:20, and he finished in 12:13. Guess dad knows what's up!

Go Henry!!

The next morning was Earth Day, and Charlie and I celebrated by biking to school. And then he biked to baseball practice after school, and I biked to pick up him from baseball. And then we biked along Ayd Mill Road for the first time to get home:

Heading home against rush hour traffic (obviously).
I'm wearing Charlie's baseball gear on my back.

Thursday night was Charlie's swim team banquet, and he picked up his 2 ribbons from a previous meet, and then his 3 ribbons from state:

His blue ribbon was from a relay, and his 3rd place in state was a relay as well.

Friday night was the high school "Elite Meet" at Hamline University. The best high school runners are invited to compete in almost like a "pre-state state meet." My nephew Ian is a good hurdler, and he competed in the 300 high hurdles, and he finished right in the middle of the pack (5th of 9) to finish 5th in the state! (His time was 39.52 if that means anything to you.)

Some sweet back-lit shots at 7:30 pm! Congrats Ian!!

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First Track Meet, Baseball Game, and Diarrhea!

We had a busy day on Thursday last week! After I finished teaching my classes, I drove 25 mins to Henry's first track meet! He'd been fighting a knee injury for the last few months, so he really only got in ONE hard workout since cross country season last fall. So he ran a leg of the 4x800 relay without his spikes:

Go Henry! He took off NICE AND FAST!


Finishing with the 2nd fastest time of his team: 2:33 for his first 800.

(I should say he had the 2nd fastest time on the "B team" relay he was a part of, as his school also had a "faster" team. I think his time was better than 2 of the "faster" team runners, so Henry was around the 4th fastest of the 8 on his team to run the 4x800. No times were amazing as his team ran 10:44 and the "fast" team ran 10:08.)

Then I shot back into St. Paul to watch Charlie's baseball game:

He was part of turning a double play at 2nd earlier in the game!

And finally, Charlie and I stopped by the University where I teach because the art gallery was having an opening of the student juried exhibition, and maybe 1/3 of the accepted works were done by current or former students of mine. And the art gallery is literally the building in the background above Charlie's head in the photo above. So we just walked over to see the exhibition and eat some snacks:

I had some of the seafood dip.

And I think it was the seafood dip that wanted back out of me around 10:30 that night.

Yep, it wasn't pleasant. It started with lots of stomach gurgling right around when I was trying to fall asleep, and I knew shortly that I'd be parked in the bathroom for a while. The good news is that I slipped out of and then back into my night splint (which has 3 plastic clips that make a slight snapping noise) without waking my wife! I "set up shop" in the bathroom from about 10:15 until close to 1 a.m. Luckily, I had my phone and was just watching whatever videos my Facebook algorithm wanted to show me - I was watching a guy pan for gold for 20 minutes at one point.

I poop OFTEN. Usually 3-5x day. And after that, I didn't poop for 36 hours (1.5 days), and it was NOT NORMAL when I first pooped. A slightly more normal poop happened after 2.5 days (mid-day on Sunday), but things were't truly normal for about 4 full days. Yikes.

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Friday Funny 2355: Race Distances "Explained"

This is a hoot:

As always, find more funnies on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com. HAPPY WEEKEND!

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Friday Funny 2334: French Pole Vaulter (and His Penis)

Lots more funnies on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com. HAPPY WEEKEND!!

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USATF Minnesota Championship Track Meet: My First 800 Since High School!

Over these last few years, I've been wondering how fast I could run an 800, which was my event for the 2 years I was in track in high school. After some shorter-than-usual speed work leading up to a decent Raspberry Run 1 Mile race last summer, I REALLY started wondering. And then my indoor 5000 meters this past spring got another Dad from my sons' school thinking about track meets again, and that got me thinking more about track meets too. So Anton and I decided to race our races at the USATF MN Championship in St. Paul on Saturday! I'd try my hand at the 800, and he'd do the sprints.

It's been over a quarter century since my last 800, and I'm 30+ lbs heavier now, so I really didn't know WHAT to expect!!

I pulled up to park at the meet at Macalester and saw this:

You know you're at a Master's meet when the car next to you has IcyHot at the ready!

Let's back up a second... we were watching the weather as it was looking possibly stormy for my 1:00 pm race:

At 8 a.m., a big line was coming that was supposed to be here right in time for my race at 1. Damn it.


I mean... that's not what you want to see...


It didn't look much more promising at 11 a.m.

It sprinkled a little bit as we were getting out of the car, but then it was fine again. Whew! We were there in time to cheer Anton on in the 400 (the Dad from school and church):

Ready to start (with other mutual church friends behind him).


Go Anton! That's his family behind him! He just broke 60 in the 400!

There was another heat getting ready to go of the 400, and then they announced "We're going to move right into the 800 after this heat, so 800 runners be ready early." Oh crap. The race was SUPPOSED to be about 30 minutes away, and I hadn't warmed up at all. So I jogged a little along Snelling Ave and got back to the track right as they were calling us to the line. Henry sat just off the track with my phone and snapped some photos:

Thumbs up lining up! That's Colin Abert from MN Distance Running Elite next to me.

Numbers 1-9 were lined up on the normal waterfall start. The rest of us (#10-15 and a pacer) were out in lane 5 for the first 100 before we got to cut in. And yes, there was a pacer who's plan was to run a 54 second 400. "Yeah thanks, but I won't be needing your services today."

"ON YOUR MARKS"....... [gunshot]

My first 100 was good. Heck, my first 200 felt perfect. The pacer, the MN Distance Running Elite guy, and one other guy SHOT off, and I was tucked in behind them (and I let them go). I had given this race a LOT of thought beforehand because there'd be no time to react to anything during the race, so I had given myself lots of scenarios in my head to work through. I figured 0:31 for 200 would be on the faster side (maybe TOO fast), 0:35 would be on the slower side, but somewhere around 0:32 or 0:33 would be perfect. And I heard the guy at the 200 meter point saying "32... 33..." as I ran through. So I was on my way!

In the distance (with Anton in the foreground) around the 200 meter mark.


300 meters in. Working, but doing OK.

I saw the clock reading 1:05 when I got close, so I took my 400 split without looking knowing it would be around 1:07 or so. If I could evenly split this race (with that opening 400), that'd be AMAZING.

1 lap done, 1 to go!

The pacer dropped out and I just had those 2 guys WAY in front of me. I had NO concern for anyone else around me - I was just gunning for a time. (In fact, I told my boys on the way there "I'd be so much happier with dead last in 2:14 than I would be with first place in 2:25!") Just like in high school, that 3rd 200 is the ABSOLUTE WORST. Everything started to fade a little to black around 500 meters (no joke), and I was hurting. I tried to hold on.

This is where things really suck.


200 meters to go! (With the pacer cooling down already in the foreground.)

The guy at the 200 meter mark yelled out that I was at 600 meters at 1:40, so I was aware I had a SHOT to be around 2:15 if I didn't bleed too much time... but that was a big "IF."

One thing I hadn't prepared myself for in all of the pre-race scenarios I went through in my head is that if they put everyone in 1 heat (like they did here), I could be racing against some very different paces. So I actually passed 2 people in the final turn:

Just passed that woman, and I was DYING.

I was ONLY slowing down. No even split for me. In fact, someone was cheering for me in the final 30 meters saying "Let's go! Let's go!... No... NO! DON'T SLOW UP! THROUGH THE LINE! THROUGH THE LINE!!"

Here's Henry's uncropped, unaltered, glorious finish line photo of me:

Oops. He missed. But thanks for being there Henry and Charlie!


Henry's next shot as I galloped into frame after finishing
(just after hitting my watch as you can see).


"Oh hi boys. Watch Daddy barf here on the track." *

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 42, M

2:17.33
3 out of 13 overall
1 out of 2 in the 40-44 age group
1 out of 11 Masters (age 40+)

Age graded: 77.81%

First in my age group and first overall Master! NICE!!!

My "Regional Championship" gold medal!

8 POST RACE NOTES:

• I was SO READY for this to hurt, but I still wasn't fully prepared for it. I forgot that I could make myself hurt THAT much just 90 seconds into a race. I TRIED to be mentally ready, but I wasn't!

• That finish time was pretty much right in the middle of the window of what I thought I could do. (But what I thought I could do was based on nothing... I hadn't raced anything like an 800 in so long!) I told Henry and my brother-in-law Matt that 2:20 would be a bit of a bummer, and 2:15 would be great. That was a pretty small window for not knowing what to expect, and I ended up right in the middle of that.

• My splits were normal track-racing splits. My Garmin said 1:07.0 for the first 400 and 1:10.6 for the second 400 for a total of 2:17.6. In high school, that "ascend" was even worse (like 8 secs instead of 3: usually something like 1:00 and then 1:08) because my coach was of the "go out hard and try not to puke" mentality.

• How did this race compare to my high school times? My first official 800 meters in high school was 2:20 and quickly dropped into the teens. After maybe after half or 3/4 of a track season, I was running between 2:08 and 2:11 regularly (for the rest of my 2 years of track). My PR is either 2:06 or 2:07. So at times I feel like this 2:17 is a long ways off from that, and at other times I feel like it's pretty great to just be 0:10 off my high school PR 26 years later.

• I wore "regular" running shorts in a race for the first time in YEARS! Simple reasoning though: I had the tiny "bowl full of sunshine" shorty shorts set out to race (the shorts that went with the old Wells-Easton track jersey), but with the threat of rain, I was afraid to put those on. They turn to cling wrap and show EVERYTHING when they get wet. Nope. Stayed away from wearing those.

• My Garmin actually showed me slowing down. Here's my map of the race, and it shows me faster in the first 200 (and even registers me running wider in lane 5 for the first 100), and then ONLY GETTING SLOWER:

Ouch.


Pace shows me slowing too. I don't believe the HR.
And my cadence slows when I'm hurting... so yeah...

• Because of the race (and of my long run being a day early last Sunday instead of Monday), I had a TINY run total last week. I did that long run in WI while camping a week ago Sunday, and then I just had a normal easy run on Wednesday, a SUPER SHORT day-before-the-race run on Friday, and then a short warm-up before the race on Saturday. My weekly total was 9.21 miles!

Wimpy run miles. And bike miles only on my commuter bike as I'm still waiting on my broken bike.

• Speaking of my long hilly run the week before, my legs had healed up before this race! My quads were SORE for a few days after last Sunday's long run in WI. But they felt OK by Wednesday, and nearly back to 100% by Thursday. I can't use that run as an excuse for any slower-than-desired times for the track meet 6 days later.


The boys and I cheered on Anton in his final 200 before taking off:

Go Anton!


My boys at the top of the stadium.


Selfie with Anton.

I don't know if I'll do another one of these for a while. Time will tell. It sucked, but was kinda fun.

* I didn't actually barf. I was just catching my breath.

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WHAT HAVE I GOT MYSELF INTO?!?

This is happening!...

Stay tuned for a race report...

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More From the USATF MN Indoor Championships

I've got 6 quick things to report post-race:

• FIRST: I left my shoulder "sticker" on for an hour after I got home, and it left a little red mark on my arm when I took it off at noon. When I showered before bed at 10 pm, a big red mark caught my eye. Oops:

• SECOND: I was LEGITIMATELY concerned that I'd fall out of the short yellow shorts! After I did a few warm-up laps (which felt "breezy" down there), I walked to the far back corner of the fieldhouse (back by the old bathrooms if you're familiar) and poked around down there a bit. The inner pouch was still relatively intact, so I deemed it "safe enough" to continue. Whew. These tiny 1970s-esque track shorts have a limited life, that's for sure!

• THIRD: The results show me picking up a place after the 22nd lap, but I don't recall passing anyone. (As I noted in my race report, once we got settled in after maybe just 50 meters, we pretty much stayed in the same place all race.) It turns out someone who was 8 seconds ahead of me with 3 or 4 laps to go dropped out. Yikes. He was running 0:37-0:39 laps (when I was running 0:41-0:42) until around 2200 meters when he creeped into the 40s. And then his last 3 laps before he DNFed were 0:48, 0:50, and 0:52 - so he ran a 5:12 opening mile, but then ran his last 800 meters at 6:34 pace (with his last full lap at 7:03 pace). Dang. His pace just before dropping out was 2:00/mile slower than how he started the race. At 2200 meters, he was 0:33 ahead of me, but on his last full lap, he was only 0:08 ahead of me.

Results by lap showing me picking up a place at 4400 meters.

• FOURTH: Related to that, being it was a 5000 on a 200 meter track, I lapped or was lapped by everyone but 3 of the other 14 people in my race. One of those was the guy above who didn't finish (so I suppose I TECHNICALLY lapped him 3 times being he dropped out with 3 laps left), and the other 2 finished ahead of me on the same lap in 17:18 and 17:30 (that's 0:21 and 0:09 ahead of me). But as I noted in my race report, I did NOT feel close to these guys - 9 seconds still seems SO FAR AWAY on a 200 meter track. The leaders passed me a number of times, 3rd-5th all passed me once, and only those 2 guys in front of me (in 6th and 7th) were on the same lap as me. And then everyone behind me I passed a number of times (9th place [the person who finished right behind me] finished over 2 minutes behind me, so I finished 2.5 laps ahead of him).

• FIFTH: There was one other DNF that I THINK might have been accidental. When I was finishing my race, I was announced as a "FINISHER" when I came to the line with 1 lap left. I would have LOVED to have been done, but I knew I had another lap, so I kept going. (And I was right.) There's someone else in the results who "officially" DNFed with 1 lap to go, and I have to think that the same thing happened to him, only he stopped when he was told he was done. If that's the case, that stinks:

There should be numbers in the far right box. And his splits
show he was kicking, so maybe he was off on his count as well.

• SIXTH: Two people recognized me after the race. First was one of the people I passed a few times (the only female in the 5000). She said she realized who I was mid-race. Apparently she was in better-than-normal shape for the TC 10 Mile a few years back and ran near this guy in pink plaid shorts that she thought was me. NEWS FLASH: it WAS me. She liked all the cheers I got for those shorts (and I like that too!). And one of the people working the meet (who gave me my arm and hip sticker) asked "do you do triathlons? I used to always read your blog!" She also laughed at me before she recognized me when I came BACK to her table just after getting my stickers saying "ummm... this is my first legitimate track meet since high school... do I need to do anything else? Am I 'cleared' to race?" She loved that.

(And I forgot until now that I did the USATF MN Masters Outdoor Championship in 2019, so I guess it was not my first legitimate track meet since high school.)

Here's my race report from last week if you missed it!

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USATF MN Indoor Championship 5000 Meters

Laurie (our YWCA running coach) emailed on Wednesday about upcoming races. Included in that was the USATF Minnesota Indoor Championship this weekend. I didn't give it any real thought until Friday afternoon, and then (as I noted in yesterday's post) I registered just 2 hours before registration closed. Then I took off at 9 a.m. yesterday morning for my 10 a.m. race at the University of Minnesota fieldhouse just a few miles away. I was stopped at a light next to someone who I was SURE was heading to the meet:

Their pole made it safely from WI!

I found out the morning of the race that there was only ONE heat for the 5000, and that I was seated 8th out of 15th:

Later, I'd learn there were only THREE guys who raced it last year!

This felt perfect to me: a full heat, but being it was only one, it felt more low key.

First time in the fieldhouse since its remodel. It's brighter!


Pre-race tradition.


Looking down and HOPING these shorts would hold together for the race.
(Also, maybe don't ask to borrow my phone... because I'm gross.)


I need to replace my shoes soon...


... and worse than that is my socks had a hole in the same spot too! (See the little toe poking through?)


Shoulder and hip stickers! I felt SOOO official!

I chatted with a guy who was ALSO shooting for around 17:30, only he was planning on going out fast and holding on, and I was going to start a bit easier and try to build. I told him I knew that 17:30 was 0:42/lap, so I'd be trying to stick around there. He joked that he'd run away from me at the start and then try to hold me off before the finish.

We were the first race to kick off the track meet at 10 a.m., so it was still pretty quiet there when we were lining up. We got our final instructions, and 15 of us toed the waterfall start.

"Runners to your mark......" *GUNSHOT*

There were some speedsters in this race, but also plenty of "old guys" like me that were OK to settle in. So I took a spot pretty quickly, and I was THRILLED I could work my way to "along the rail" before the back stretch when I started near the outside. And I was quickly running on my own with no one around me - we spread out right away.

I did NOT want to go out too hard. I was very aware of my 0:42/lap goal: my 800s ideally would have laps that looked like 0:42, 1:24, 2:06, and 2:48. So I was happy with my first 2 laps of 41.2 and 41.7. Third and fourth were a bit slower at 42.4 and 42.5, so my Garmin 800 split was 2:47.6 - that's PERFECT (0:00.4 under my ideal splits goal!). I told myself to speed up a LITTLE to try to hold around 2:48 800s. My first 1600 was RIGHT ON:

• FIRST 1600: 2:47.6 + 2:49.5 = 5:37.1.

I was 1.1 seconds slower than my "best possible goal" at this point. And I was feeling decent!

I was lapping some other runners pretty often, but I was still running in the same place as when I started. I settled in and was left alone! Teammate Mike showed up along the track and started cheering for me, and Kirt G also gave me some cheers!

My 2nd mile was a BIT slower, but I was still feeling OK... not "good," but OK. And in a 5000, feeling "OK" with 9 laps to go is about all a fella can ask for.

• SECOND 1600: 2:49.2 + 2:51.7 = 5:40.9.

The good news was that the 2:51 would be my slowest 800 split! I was able to up the pace a LITTLE for the last mile. I had been lapped twice by the leaders, and I just held them off before being lapped a 3rd time when they finished. The 2 leaders were back-to-back the entire race!

I only really "held back" once during the race. I was coming up on lapping Michael B for maybe the 3rd time, and I was also getting ready to lap a REALLY TALL GUY for the first time. I ALMOST swung wide to pass the tall guy as he was running wide to pass Michael B, but I didn't want to be forced out into lane 3 while on a turn. So I tucked in behind the tall guy. He actually provided a draft for 30 meters as we passed Michael! When we came out of the corner, I passed the tall guy as well. I'm not a "smart" racer, but this was my second smart move all day (the first being getting to the inside rail quickly at the start even though I started way near the outside).

I was just *gently* bleeding time, but it wasn't horrible. I wasn't going to finish in exactly 17:30, but I was hoping to still keep my finishing time in the 17:30s.

• THIRD 1600: 2:50.4 + 2:50.7 = 5:41.1.

I really finally started to kick with about 2 laps left, so when I hit my Garmin after 4800 with 1 lap left, I was going hard. I closed with my fastest lap all day, but not CRAZY fast showing that I was holding back too much: 0:40.1.

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 42, St. Paul, 5000m

17:39.49
5:40.86/mile

1 out of 1 in the 40-44 age group
8 out of 15 overall

I walked back to my phone and got a photo of Michael B with a lap left:

Still quiet there!


Close-up. Go Micheal!


I finished 8th, so I saw my name at the bottom but among the leaders!

Oh, and the guy also shooting for 17:30 that I talked to pre-race finished just in front of me in 17:30! But on an indoor track, 0:09 feels like a HUGE distance, so I wasn't even thinking about trying to catch him. I just pushed hard to the finish.

Being it was professionally timed (thanks Josh from Wayzata Results!), my splits EVERY LAP were recorded! This shows my fastest lap was my last lap at 0:40, I had 3 slow laps about 2/3 through the race that were 0:43, but then the rest were all 0:41 or 0:42! I'll take that consistency:

My 1000s: starting and ending with "perfect" 3:30s, then a bit slower in the middle.

I was aware that 3:30 1000s would be 17:30, and I thought I'd "check in" every 1000 while racing. But once I start running hard, my brain stops working. I glanced at my 1000 and 2000, but then I had trouble figuring out when 3000 meters was: "OK, 3200 meters is 2 miles and that's 16 laps, so the one before that is 3000 meters... right??..." Stupid oxygen-deprived brain.

Oh, and notice my last 800 in the 200 meter splits above: I ended with a nice perfect little descend: 0:43, 0:42, 0:41, and 0:40!

Maybe my MOST consistent 800 meter splits ever! All within 4.1 seconds!


Nothing like a good 5 second warm-up! ;)


A selfie with teammate Mike post-race! (Before his 1 mile.)


First shot in my short shorts and new jersey!


My gold medal!


I still had my number sticker on once I got home and sat down...


... and it left a little redness when I finally took it off.

My first 5000 meter race over 12 years ago resulted in a fast 17:17 finish (where I went out with a 5:20 opening mile and managed not to die!!). I had NO intention of being able to hit that yesterday, but maybe 0:22 isn't THAT far off from it.

My second (and only other) 5000 meter race from just over 11 years ago resulted in a 17:49 finish. So I didn't finish with a "personal worst" yesterday!! I actually beat my 30-year-old self!!

An opening 5:20 mile when I was 29, and CHUNKY BABY HENRY cheering
me on when I was 30. (My 2 previous 5000 meters in 17:17 and 17:49.)

I'm feeling REALLY GOOD post race - nothing is acting up. Today will be a more low-key day after the race. Have a great week!

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