After the Arrowhead race, I took a long break from running; as we know here in Minnesota, the winters are long, so I decided to do some ice climbing with some local friends.
It was time to train and be back on the trail again. I received an invite on Facebook to run 50K with other ultrarunners, all of whom are very talented like John Taylor who finished 32 races of 100 miles each, and yet he's so humble. I had a good time after 7 hours and some minutes with them and came home satisfied that I had resumed my training with 50K.
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| At Chippewa Visitor Center |
April 30, 2011 -
The marathon in Brainerd was my first debut as a pacer, leading the 4:15 group. The morning was pouring, which I was fine since I had my rain jacket to test out. I know that for some runners, it was probably uncomfortable to run in the rain, but for me I enjoy running in any condition. At the start line with my sign and 18 runners ready to go, the buzzer went off exactly at 8 AM. We started out at a slow pace during the first 2 miles as a warm-up, then I began to keep my pace of 9:43 m/m, which made some of my runners linger until the last of them encouraged me to slow down my pace a bit. It wasn't enough to keep my runners, and there were just a few left, one of which was a woman - numbered 24. She told me 20 days before the race, she suffered a tear in her left knee. At some point during the race, she felt pain again, and it was uncomfortable for her to continue without aid. So I tore a strip off my t-shirt and wrapped it around her knee for support until we reached the aid station. Consequently, this cost me some time, and I was about 9 minutes behind my time, but I was happy to cross the finish line, knowing that I had done my part and contributed to the MN Pacers.
May 1, 2011 -
After a cold bath with ice (and calves compression), once again I declared myself ready for the Minnetonka Half Marathon with now 1:50 as my goal time. For some reason, it didn't start out well; I had a bad stomachache, and 10 minutes before the race I was still in the bathroom. The weather was cold and windy, the course had some ups around the lake, and at the end of the goal was a bit muddy. MN Pacer Tim and I crossed the line at 10 seconds before our target time, which was very good. With a medal around my neck, I retired for the day and came home to rest after 2 races in 2 days.
May 7, 2011 -
New Prague Half Marathon took place south of Minneapolis. I had a companion with me to our target, Russell, who was as usual 1:45, starting at an easy pace and after the first 1.5 miles, began to maintain a steady rate. Some runners suddenly started to lag; we just carried on. When we crossed the 13.1 mile, we checked our watch and noticed we were 5 seconds faster than our target. The most interesting thing I saw along the way was a runner pushing a child in a wheelchair. Perhaps a mile before we finally reached the line, we reduced our speed to wait for some runners to cross together the final 14 seconds before our time. This time without a medal, as they did not expect to meet their goal time. Then came Leah B., another MN pacer with much more experience than me. Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog.
