This is the third year that Mary and I have run the "Freeze Your Buns" 4 mile run in St. Peter, MN.
Mary was feeling healthy enough to run, so this was going to be a nice start to Valentine's Day - going to a road race with my Schmoopie.
On arrival, I saw some speedsters from MN RED there. Rob, his son Cameron, Brian, and their coach Ron were there. I also met up with Ryan from New Ulm, whom I have gotten to know while accumulating dreadmill miles at Snap Fitness this winter.
Mary, Ryan and myself went for a warmup run about 45 minutes before the race. Mary was planning to run a nice, easy run. Ryan was planning to run with me at the start, as I was planning on starting out at 6:30/mile for the first couple of miles and see what happens. My goal was to break 26:00 (6:30/mile pace).
Soon, we were at the start line and we were off!
As expected, Rob and Brian shot out in front, and there was another runner with them whom I did not know. Then there were about another 6 runners in front of me. Included in that bunch was coach Ron and 13 year old Cameron. Ryan was running beside me. Ryan and I hit the split at 1 mile about perfect, and the next mile is what I consider the toughest. It gains about 120 feet with the steepest part right before the 2 mile mark. As we got into the climb, Ryan backed off a bit, and I was gaining on Ron and Cameron. I pulled up beside Cameron and encouraged him to stick with me and draft as we were climbing the steepest hill and going into the wind. He took up my offer. Soon, we crested and took a left turn to go downhill and with the wind. Cameron didn't stick with me on the downhill. In the next mile, I was able to get back on pace and pass a couple runners. The lead pack of three was out of sight now, but I could see the #4 runner about 250 yards ahead of me. I pushed pretty hard the last mile but came up about 50 yards behind him at the finish. I'm quite satisfied with my performance, as I had a finish time of 25:27, finished in 5th place (? not official), broke my goal time by 33 seconds and bettered last year's time by 55 seconds.
Here are the mile splits:
Mile 1: 6:31
Mile 2: 6:51
Mile 3: 6:15
Mile 4: 5:50
Here is a chart of my HR, speed and elevation. I think Mr. Garmin put an extra 100 feet of climb on the hill at mile 2.
I walked back a bit from the finish to cheer Mary on. I thought she would finish somewhere around 36 minutes, but saw her coming down the final stretch as the timekeeper was still calling out times in the 34 minute range.
She finished with a 34:42, a fantastic result for such a modest approach to the race.
Another fun day of running.
Thanks for reading,
John
