 posted May-20-2007 04:58 PM
   
Short version:
28th out of 2653 overall
26 out of 1162 Gender (out kicked by the top 2 females @ mile 13)
1 out of 139 Age Group -- 1st place Male Masters  Longer version -- starts with the drive... Left on Friday afternoon at 2 and was expecting a drive of about 3:45. After 2 hours, we had only gone 50 miles due to the non-winter season in Minnesota (aka road repair). Finally brokefree and covered the next 200 miles in 2.5 hours. Met up with the rest of MN RED who had made the journey to Fargo for a nice carbo loading session. Woke the next morning at 4:30 to get out for a short shake-out session @ 5:00 am. Showered and headed to the Fargo Dome for the race. Did another little warm-up and some strides to get ready for the race. I came in to this race looking to hit a MAJOR PR. Unfortunately, the wind would not cooperate. Temperature wise, no complaints. However, a sustained wind in the 20 MPH range with gusts into the 30s makes things tough. Also, how can the wind always be in your face -- but I digress. So, lined up at the start and planned to hit it fairly hard right off the bat. Was looking to get it done in 1:19:59 (I will save you the suspense -- strike one). The start of the race includes marathoners and half marathoners for the first 5.25 miles and then there is a split. Got out comfortably hard and tried to find someone to work with. Not much luck, just try to stay smooth. I am passing a few people and feeling fairly good. Look at the garmin every now and again and appear to be on pace. So, I continue on. When we get to the 5.25 mark, there are two runners a good distance ahead of me that I decide I should try to catch up with. This requires a bit of a surge, but I catch up and tuck in for a while. Nice to get a little break from the wind. Only problem is, I am TERRIBLE at drafting!!! Given that my stride rate is at or above 180 (and my strides are fairly short, I generally have difficulty getting close enough to draft effectively. After about 3/4 of a mile I pull alongside of them and ask if this wind is ever going to give us a break, they say, "not likely" and surge ahead. Go with them? I don't think so. So, just try to keep smooth. At around mile 9, I catch up with three women (the top 3) who are running together. I surge ahead of them I just try to keep running. At this point, I am quickly realizing that my goal of sub 120 is out the door and I am struggling with the committee in my head! Why not just shut it down and cruise in? Why are you torturing yourself? Standard comment # 1 -- Just Shut Up and Run! So, I try to stay on it as much as possible, I know I am slowing but am trying to keep the effort strong. At this point, the lead bicyclist for the lead women keeps calling out to everyone -- "First place women -- cheer them on"! Very nice, but after about 20 times -- gets kind of annoying when they are RIGHT BEHIND you!!! Wish I could surge to get out of ear shot. Nope, aint' going to happen. So as we near the last turn that leads to entrance to the dome, the top two woman pass me (right at mile 13). They are running so strong! A thing of BEAUTY!!! I try to stay with them as much as possible and succeed for the most part (they beat me by 11 and 7 seconds respectively). The 3rd place woman finished 4 seconds behind me. Nice to finish between 3 speedy women.  Afterwards, one of them said that they were chasing my cute shorts after I passed them.  So, here's the final results. Official finish time of 1:22:08 -- a PR by 1:14. As for the splits, I was trying to get the garmin to match with the mile markers -- good luck! So, they are all over the board. Nearest estimates I can come up with (from Sport Tracks) are as follows: 5:48 @ 147
6:00 @ 154
6:04 @ 155
5:55 @ 158
6:15 @ 156
6:01 @ 158
6:11 @ 159
6:00 @ 159
6:14 @ 160
6:11 @ 161 -- 1:00:39 a new 10 mile PR by 56 seconds (unofficial)
6:26 @ 161
6:20 @ 161
6:15 @ 164
2:05 @ 167 -- yes, the course measured long at 13.29 AVG HR 158 and MAX of 170.
 Afterwards, we hot footed it out to mile 20 of the marathon to run 3 teammates in to get their BQs. All were successful! Then, we lived up the E and D for MN RED and partied like Rock Stars until early in the morning. How could anyone complain? Thanks for reading!!! P.S. Wouldn't be surprised if the course was a touch long because they changed it 3 days before the race due to flooding... Oh well.
[This message has been edited by hermosaboy (edited May-20-2007).]
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