2008 Hy-Vee Triathlon Report

Hello strange blog world. Sorry for the slight delay in posting the tri report. It has been  a very busy couple of weeks.  Overall the Hy-Vee Triathlon was a good day, but I need to learn how to better rid myself of stress and errands on race weekends.  Maybe it was the swim/no swim drama of the race, but I don't remember ever being so mentally not prepared to race. 

Prerace
Melissa and I drove to Des Moines on Friday for Sunday's race. I worked a full day so we didn't arrive in Des Moines until past 11.

I had only heard a few days before that the swim was back on.  Race officials had announced about 10 days earlier that they had to cancel the age grouper swim due to flooding.  Needless to say, I simply stopped practicing the swim when they made that announcement.  This wouldn't have been such a big deal, but Lake Michigan has been so cold this year that I had only two open water swims under my belt at the time of the race.  

Saturday we were up early and had a long day of running errands.  They included a trip with Melissa to the farmers market in downtown Des Moines, a quick swim in Chuck's fastlane in his backyard, the typical prerace packet pickup activities, lunch at Manhattan Deli, picked up a battery for the camera, and going out to drop off the bike and T2 supplies at the triathlon site in West Des Moines (there were two transition areas).  The real highlight of the day was dinner where we had the big first meeting of the parents (Melissa's parents came down for the race and met my folks for the first time).

We didn't get back home until past 10, but I don't think it really interupted my sleep.  I only slept for 20-40 minute incraments the whole night. Either way you look at it, it wasn't a good race prep the day before.

I left bright an early on Sunday (4 AM).  The only people on the road had USAT stickers and bike racks on their cars.  They had the athletes park at Valley West Mall, which was about 2.5 miles from the finish and about 5 miles from the start.  The shuttle was full of nervous energy, or maybe that was just me.  I am a talker by my nature, add a little bit of butterflies to that and I am just looking to make new friends.  At 4:28 AM, most athletes don't want to make new friends.  I suffered through. 

Once at T1, I made a quick trip to the bike stand.  Said hello to my old friend Andy Lueck, who checked the air in the tires and removed my embarrassing reflectors that were on my wheels for a year.  Then it was back to my transition spot to set up my gear and struggle into my wet suit.

As I was fighting the wet suit, I quickly looked around to realize that they had organized the transition area by age group (which is good so you can see how many bikes are gone when you get out of the water), and also that the fellas around me seemed to look much more serious than I did.  Now considering I only minutes before removed reflectors from my wheels, this probably isn't saying much, but I was a little intimated.  

[From stage left, enter KT]

"Yo Murph, what's up man?"

I don't remember being so pleased to see someone.  Kevin and I went to high school together, played little league together, and have shared a few sips of whiskey over the years.   Now he is living in Des Moines, and has been doing tri's for a few years.  He is actually a damn good triathlete and also just as friendly as they come.  Since we were a few miles from any spectators (they told all the spectators that there wouldn't be space near the makeshift swim area, so to stay up by the high school to watch the bike and run), I was glad to have a friend there.  

As I managed to get into the wet suit, talking to Kevin really let me relax.  By the time Charlie and Bikal ran into us about 10 minutes before the start, I was feeling good, ready to go.  A few minutes later the first group went off.  A few minutes after that, our horn went off and were off into the water.

I remember thinking what a perfect morning it was.  Very pretty sunset.  It felt good to be back in Iowa.

Race

All those pleasant thoughts were kicked away the first time I was kicked in the face in the swim.  Still, after last year when I got significantly off course during the swim, the kick and subsequent beatings I took were good indications that I was headed the right direction.  In fact, if I didn't feel someone passing me by going over me, I began to worry I was off course.

I managed to do much of the first half of the swim without stops.  The wetsuit made a huge difference.  The course was triangle, but felt a lot like an out and back as it was so long.  The water was a typical Iowa lake in that it was VERY merky.  

After the turnaround, I started to get tired.  I would stop, tread water, and adjust my goggles a little more often that before, but I continued to make progress.

I made it out in pretty good time (17 minutes faster than last year), but I think a lot of it has to do with the wetsuit advantage (and some might be due to swim lessons and training).


After a pretty uneventful T1 I was out on the bike course.



[In a related note, I make really funny faces on the bike.]

The bike course we a good Iowa course, some hills, a stretch on a country road, a couple of hot laps around a mall parking lot (could have done without the last part). I pushed it hard thinking that I had been riding more and should keep a good average mph (also known as "not thinking"). There was a part in the ride when I remember feeling somewhat tired, never a good sign.

On thing that made the whole event better was my awesome crew. Good look'en too!



On to the separate T2 area I had a pretty quick bike rack and shoe switch, then tried to minimize the damage with a gel (unsuccessfully). Then it was off to the run.

I don't need to go into much detail, but the run was hot and my legs felt like bricks. I was spent. All that lost sleep and crappy prep week, plus bad hydration and nutrition, plus probably not running enough, and my run when from an enjoyable Iowa morning to looking forward to stopping.

In the end I finished well and slightly improved my time from last year's tri.

Overall, I have to say I liked the 2007 course better, but I think that is clearly because I grew up in the city of Des Moines vs the suburbs. I did hear from a number of people they liked the West Des Moines course better because the downtown run was too confusing. Either way, they run a top race there. They changed the entire course on a flip of a dime due to the flooding, and it was run very, very well.

I was also pretty pleased with my performance. I didn't drown, Melissa's parents and my parents got along well in their first meeting, and I dropped a ton of time in one year. New PR in the swim (37:47), the bike (1:18:11) and the run (54:05) and overall (2:55:41). 

Batavia Triathlon Report

It's a crazy sport that calls an hour plus event a sprint.- Annette Jonker, CTC

A good look at the swim layout for the triathlon. (and Melissa's best photo of the day)

I am still a relative "newbie" to the triathlon world. I knew this summer that I wanted to try the Hy-Vee Triathlon again, other than that I took me quite a while to plan my races this year. I think part of my slow planning comes from my background in running where you didn't really sign up for most races until the morning of.

Well times have changed and races are becoming more popular, and triathlons especially fill up quickly. For example, as soon as I figured out most of the Chicago Tri Club (CTC) members do Galena and Tri-Shark as their early season warm-ups, they were full.

I had to look for another option to give me a race to get under my belt before I took my revenge on the Hy-Vee course. Enter the Batavia Sprint Triathlon. I liked that I didn't have to travel for the race, saving the price of the hotel. I liked that the run is 4.1 miles, was longer than most sprints, which typically have end with a 5k. Without knowing much about it, I was in. A sprint triathlon would be a great way to see how all this training was paying off.

3:35 AM: Alarm goes off. Ouch early. It's raining. I threw the tri shorts, a tee shirt, and the flip flops on, brushed my teeth and I was out the door. Pulled up the car, tossed in the bags, and secured the bike.

I live in Wrigleyville USA, home of the Chicago Cubs and about 40 bars and nightclubs. This was one of the first times I have ever awoke before 4 AM while living here, but I knew what would be outside. Let's just say it wasn't other triathletes packing their cars. No, it was the leftovers of Saturday night's fun. And like a tuna sandwich after four days, it wasn't looking so good.

Despite having the option to sleep in, Melissa decided she would join me for the day. I was a bit surprised as she is a self-confessed sleepaholic, but I couldn't have been happier. Despite her ever decreasing patience for all of my crazy endeavors, she has come to enjoy race day. As I have learned watching my friends run the Chicago Marathon, as a spectator you can't help but feel a lot of the anticipation, excitement, and pride that the participant feels, even to the point where you typically feel very tired at the end of event(although it could also be partly due to the obscene early hours at which time you have to get out bed for these events).

So half awake Melissa and I took the drive out to Batavia, a pleasant suburb about an hour west of Chicago (or around 40 minutes at 4:20 AM).

We arrived just after 5, with the transition area open from 5-6. Already I felt rushed. The chip pick-up and number writing went smoothly. I gave Melissa a quick kiss and headed into the transition area to set up my gear.

I found the rack numbered with the range that matched my race number, found an open spot and couple of pretty friendly guys next to me. Set my my stuff out, took a quick sip of the Gatorade and decided I should hit the restroom before donning my new wetsuit.

Well it turns out I wasn't the only one with that idea. There were four stalls, and about 20 people in line. It was 5:38. I told myself, "if I can get out of here by 5:52, I should be OK." Well, I was out of the bathroom at about 5:54. On my way out I saw the line had grown to about 50. Timing is everything.

There was a lot of discussion around water temp and should you wear the wetsuit or not. Well, I decided I needed to practice with it, so it was going on. Then I hear from the PA, "The time is six o'clock. The transition area is closed. Participants please make your way down to the pool area." My first thought was, "oh crap," but I really didn't have much to worry about. My transition area was set up, I just need to toss my new CTC jersey on, spray a little "suit juice" on the right spots (a lubricant designed to make putting on and taking off the wetsuit a little easier), and put on the wetsuit.

Sounds easy right? Well I had only put on a wetsuit maybe three times before in my life, and I think the average time was about 10 minutes. But they had to do the pre-race announcements, the Star Spangled Banner, and then they were not starting in big waves, but a person every three seconds. I was around the 240 person, so I had some time.

AND it only took me a couple of minutes to get the wetsuit on (a subtle brag).

The "Swim"
They had us line up by our race number (see above, thanks to Melissa for the photos), which was also in order of the average 100m swim time we put down when we registered. I had put 2 minutes per 100, because that is my reach goal for a 1500m swim. This was a 400m swim. No worries, I was glad to see how the whole thing worked before I got in the water. As they didn't care what swim cap you wore, I put on a different color one so Melissa could see me.

When it was my turn to start, I have to admit I was VERY nervous. Not like running races, it was more of a surreal moment, one which I can probably most compare the beginning of my college boxing matches. The water temp felt great with the wetsuit, so I am glad I had it. Once I took my first couple of strokes, I was fine, but also swimming in a crowd for the first time this year. It was also the first time this year I swam in open water, but I felt much better about it compared to last year in the Hy-Vee tri.

I quickly noticed that swimming in a wetsuit was great. I felt the buoyancy right away. I kept to the inside mostly so I could see the side of the island we were swimming around on my breaths. That worked well until it took a turn towards my right and I was all the sudden pushed into traffic around the turn.

After around 80-100m it was time for a U-turn left for the second half of the first of two laps. I was feeling pretty good now, but then people started standing up. It was shallow enough on the whole backstretch you could stand. Now I had watched the first swimmers swim almost the whole lap, so you didn't have to stand up there, but it was very hard to swim around people that were walking in front of you. I did by get around a couple of people, but after a while it was too shallow to swim (as we had been told), so I plowed my way around the end of the first lap (see below).

The second lap was more crowded than the first. What I should have remembered is how short the actual swim is and just gunned it, but I think the nerves got the better of me. The second back stretch had twice as many walkers, which made the swimming very difficult. None the less, when I came out of the water I was glad to see the time on my watch was under 7 minutes. Good enough.
I wanted to focus on transitions today, and they were faster than the last race I had, but still slow. I need to remember to do my recovery from each event during the next. Still, considering I had to take the wetsuit off, and everything was wet from the rain, I think the first transition was OK. With practice they will get faster.

The Bike
The bike course was nice. There was a pretty solid cross wind on a couple of miles of the backstretch, but overall it was a very pleasant day for a ride. I tried to go out hard early, but I am not sure if that worked out. I always seem to "warm-up" on the bike, and pick up speed as I go. I averaged over 19 mph on the ride, but I still see this as one of my weak disciplines. I am going to try to get a little extra time in the saddle the next two weeks.

I felt like T2 was fast. The shoe change was quick, but I did eat a gu and take a quick sip of Gatorade (why I didn't do this on the bike is beyond me.) I say it felt fast, because according to the times from the tri it was painfully slow (third slowest in my age group?). I had all these times on my watch, but the memory was full prior to the race and I couldn't go back and look at my splits. This whole dumb move with the watch is especially annoying because there was a three minute difference between my chip time and my watch (not in my favor).

I keep telling myself that the watch splits don't matter, but I am curious as to where those three minutes went. Let's just say I am very suspicious with the tri's timing system (not helped by the fact it took them over a day to post the results).

The Run
The switch from bike to run is a tricky one. Your legs typically feel like they weigh a ton each after getting off the bike. That being said, after leaving the transition area, I felt surprisingly good. I felt like I was moving fast, mostly because I was picking off a lot of other runners.

I hit the first mile marker at 7:25, which is pretty quick for me. The second one was closer to 8 minutes. I don't know exactly what the last two were (watch and the memory issue), but I think the mile markers may have been a little off. My pace didn't drop that much.

I think I may have had four or five people pass me in the run total. I probably passed two or three dozen. That being said it was so tricky because the race wasn't organized by age group (by numbers or start times), but by estimated swimming time.

The run course was very nice. It was along the fox river in Batavia. It reminded me of running along the Iowa River in Iowa City. A wide, full, slow moving river with a nice bike trail running along it. We actually crossed over the river at the turn around point, and then crossed back as we approached the finish line.

Melissa was there at the finish, she was impressed with my day. I felt good, but I wanted to go faster. Overall I was right at the top third (179/517 finishers), top half in my age group (22/49). My goal was top half of my age group, but this is kind of a beginners tri with a very short swim (my weakest link), so I will have to put up a much better effort to keep that kind of place in Des Moines.

Final Times: Batavia Sprint Tri
(400 m, 14.7 miles, 4.1 miles; first number is my age group place out of 49 people)
Swim: 28 6:36 (1:39 per 100 m pace)
T1: 32 3:29
Bike: 20 45:28 (19.4 mph ave)
T2: 45 3:34
Run: 16 32:38 (7:58 per mile pace)
Total: 22 1:31:43

100 yards away from the finish

Bayshore Half Marathon Race Report

The blossoming cherry trees of Old Mission Peninsula

Cherry Trees, Vineyards, and Running

And the race reports just keep on coming! After we ran the Hustle Up the Hancock this February (see here), my Honorable Uncle Tom proposed that we come up to Traverse City for Memorial Day Weekend and join him for the Bayshore Half Marathon. Well you don't have to ask me twice to go to Traverse, and to run a race up there... the whole thing sounded perfect.

Growing up my family would drive from Iowa to Traverse City every summer to meet up with my mother's family there. My aunt and uncle had lived there for all of my life, and my grandparents built a house next door to my aunt and uncle's place when I was very young. It was (is) a great summer town, and a wonderful place to escape to for a weekend.

So low and behold, three months later, Melissa and I leave one shore of Lake Michigan for another. We arrived around 11 pm local time at my aunt and uncles, just in time for a quick nap. My alarm went off at 5:10 AM so we could leave the house for TC Central High at 5:50.

The Traverse City Track Club has put on the Bayshore Marathon for 26 years now. The Half-Marathon is relatively new (three years), but a very popular event. They both filled up pretty quickly. I believe they capped the races at 1700 apiece.

The course is about as nice as you could put together. It runs along the east shore of the Old Mission Peninsula just North of downtown Traverse City. It is very flat and has some stunning views. The run the half-marathon as a point to point, busing us out to the start 13.1 miles up the peninsula. The marathon starts near the high school (the finish line), and is an out an back. The fun part (for the half runners), is they start at the same time! Thus you start seeing the marathon runners about half way through your race, and give you the further incentive to run hard as you don't want to get beat by a marathon runner.

As I put my racing schedule together this year, I did pick this as an "A" race, a race where I am looking to get a personal record (PR). I was hoping to run this race under 1 hour 45 minutes, which translates to an 8 minute per mile 13.1 miles. My fastest 1/2 marathon thus far was in Nashville last year for the Country Music Half Marathon. I ran a 1:46:36 there (and was very pleased with that run at the time).

We arrived at the high school around 6, quickly picked up my packet and headed to the bus. The trip was short, but I enjoyed my conversation with some runners from the area. Once off the bus we walked to a starting area complete with a tent and plenty of port-0-potties. The weather was cool, in the 40s, but in the sun it actually felt ok.

I stripped the pants and long sleeves off, I decided I didn't need the gloves so I checked them as well. Once I checked my stuff, I realized I had lost my uncle, and that I needed to make one more stop at the john before I hit the road. Despite the fact it was 5 minutes before the race start time of 7 AM, I convinced myself it was ok because it was a chip race and the race was pretty small.

I actually made it to the start line to hear the gun go off, but I was well to the back of the race. So I spent the first mile somewhat concerned about my pace and trying to pass people as quickly as possible.

Another thing this race does well was post mile markers. Since the marathon was an out and back, and due to the location of the start and the turn around, their mile markers were about a .1 of a mile before ours. This was a good little "heads up" for me to know where I was. While that first mile was a lot more crowded than I expected, I finished the first mile in 7:45. I decided I would try to keep every mile under 8 minutes, that way I would have some cushion in time should I hit a wall at the end of the race.

And then there was the course...

Near Mile 5 on Bluff Rd

I had planned on taking my camera on this race so I could be more like my blogging mentor Donald and have cool race reports, but Melissa convinced me that would be dumb as I was trying for a PR. Of course she is right. Donald is running ultras and stopping to take a few photos won't mess up his time as much as it would mine.

Speaking of times, here are my mile splits:
Mile 1: 7:45
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:57
Mile 4: 7:54
Mile 5: 7:58
Mile 6: 8:17

Mile 6 was kind of annoying, and proved Melissa's point about stopping messing up the times. My shoe lace came undone that mile, so I stopped to tie it and there was a knot that in my labored state could not undo. I guess I lost 15 seconds there just tying my shoe. I was very upset that I had a mile over 8 minutes.

Mile 7: 7:57
Mile 8: 7:59
Mile 9: 8:06

Mile 9 I did not tie my shoe, was just getting tired. In talking with my cousin's husband after the race, that was also the tough mile for him. I knew I would see Melissa at my aunt and uncle's house at the end of the mile, but I did struggle a bit getting there.

Once I reached my aunt and uncle's house, I was surprised that Melissa wasn't there at all. I have to say, I was more than a little bummed out. Then I hear, "Hey Babe!" Turns out my aunt and uncle's neighbor was throwing a party for the race and my cousin had come over and got Melissa for it. Thus two houses later I saw Meliss and my cousin (and maybe 10 other people). I was glad to see Melissa was taken care of, and as always when ever I see someone I know on the side of the road it left me feeling a little refreshed.

Mile 10: 7:58

There are a lot of mind game I use in a races, and I think that is true of all endurance athletes. When I ran marathons I started to break up races into the "pace-yourself" section and the "leave-it-on-the-course" section. This is a pretty natural thing to do in the marathon due to it's "mental half-way point." Half-way in a marathon is of course 13.1 miles, but mentally half-way point is 20 miles. There is a lot of talk about how the marathon is two races, the first 20 miles when you try to pace yourself, and the last 10k when you try to survive.

Since my marathons, I have taken that approach to breaking the race up to my other distances. In the half-marathon, I used to think of it as 10 mile and a 5k (because I really like the 10 mile distance), but for this race I decided to take a different approach. I thought I would keep it under 8 minute miles (on pace) for 11, and then see what we had left in the tank after that. This approach seemed to work.

Another mind game I play when I race is I think of a phrase to motivate myself. Something simple that I can focus on while I run. For the Bayshore I decided I would focus on something Kevin had texted me the night before, "dig deep."

Thus, combining my two little mind tricks, I kept telling myself that if I could just hit the 8 minute mark, I would be fine AND not to go all the way to think about "digging deep" until I needed it late in the race. Once I hit that 10 mile mark, I decided I would make it to the end if I picked up the pace a little and started focusing on "digging deep" and leaving what I had left on the course. I didn't really want to be able to sprint to the end of this one.

Mile 11: 7:39
Mile 12: 7:53 (running out of gas)
Mile 13.1: 8:20 (with the extra .1 mile)

Total time, 1:43:40 on watch, 1:43:37 on chip. Under my goal of 1:45 (and another thing off The List), 3 minutes faster than my previous PR, and I felt pretty good.

My uncle ran a great race (see him finishing above in the blue on the left). And my cousin's husband Than just came in behind me despite not sleeping for the last few months with a new born and not really training!

Post race Melissa and I went the farmers market in TC, then a little wine tasting tour on the peninsula. Traverse City is known as the "Cherry Capital of the World," but I couldn't help but notice many of the cherry farms were new vineyards.

Regardless, I had a great weekend. My hats off to the people of Traverse City Track Club. I highly recommend running in the Bayshore races, but don't tell anyone about it as the size of the race is part of it's charm.

Notes:

Next race: June 1, Run for the Zoo. A local 10k/5k with the Chicago crew.

Since I didn't take my camera with me on the run, I took it with me on my bike ride the next day. It was a very pleasent 27.6 miles along a lot of the same miles as the run.

Since it seems that people have actually liked some of my music recommendations, I am going to keep them coming. We listened to Death Cab for Cutie's new album Narrow Stairs on this trip. There are a couple of songs I really like, I will leave you to sample Bixby Canyon Bridge. It is the first song on the album. Enjoy!

Corporate Challenge Race Report

(Photo: Team Sg2, ready for the Challenge!)

Last night I ran the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Chicago It is a 3.5 mile race that over 23,000 people ran last night including 44 people from my company, Sg2. 

Running with me was my brother in law Kevin, who has tagged along with us for this even the last two years. We started near the front, with a couple other runners from my team. The course leaves a lot to be desired, much of it is run in the “lower” streets (Lower Randolph for example). The with the exception of the first mile, it is actually about the ugliest route you can find in Chicago, but it is the best for cutting off traffic as it’s an evening race during the week.

Kevin and I ran together for about the first half mile, at which time I told him I was going to try and save myself for the ½ Marathon I am running tomorrow in Traverse City.  Later Kev.  He ran a nice sub 22 minute race (6:16 pace).

Despite trying to “save myself”, I couldn’t really turn off the competitive juices. I did slow down for the second mile (although not as much as the splits indicate because I think the first mile marker was short). But then I wanted to finish with a sub 7 split.

Here are my mile splits:
Mile 1: 6:28
Mile 2: 7:28 (I think the first mile marker was short)
Mile 3: 6:49
Mile 3.5: 3:01
Total 23:47, 6:47 pace, and a PR (Personal Record) at 3.5 miles (which I have only run twice before).

Let’s hope I didn’t blow it by running too hard and I can get two PRs in one week.

Other Notes:

• My friend Jen has returned from checking something off of her Life To-Do List. Inspired by WND friend Charlie Wittmack, she participated in a Mt Everest base camp hike. Despite a serious of challenges, Jen made it to base camp and has a ton of cool stories. She has agreed to do an interview for WND. Look for that next week!
  
• My fascination with the open water 10k swim in at the Olympics continues. Strangely, the Wall Street Journal continues to be fascinated with it too. Here is the latest story, which is about the US’s first qualifier in the event.  
• In kind of a bummer of Olympic news, it looks like Paula Radcliffe’s injury is somewhat serious. My have been a big fan of hers ever since she destroyed the world record in the women’s marathon at the Chicago Marathon in 2002. I didn’t see her finish because I was still at mile 14 or so. In less than 2 years she dropped that world record over 3.5 minutes! Still, she really struggles with her public image in her home of England due to her dropping out of the Olympic Marathon in Greece in 2004. She was coming back from a serious of injuries, and actually won the NYC Marathon last fall (8 mo after giving birth to her daughter). Reports are now that she has as stress fracture in her femur. Not good. She is going to try to run in the Games, but it sounds like a very difficult task. I wish her the best of luck, but either way I am a fan.
  
• As a side note to the note, Paula’s husband and coach, Gary Lough, went to Iowa State.
  
• The New York Times has an article on shoes specific to triathlons. It is interesting. The tester said for each perk of each shoe there was a drawback and she wouldn’t give up her favorite shoes anytime soon. I wish they had tried Newton’s in the test as well. 

Drake Relays on the Road Report

I apologize this report is running so late with this report. It has been a busy couple of weeks around the house.

Why This Run?

I should probably start in how I picked this race to run. Originally I was was planning o running the Country Music Half-Marathon in Nashville. I ran it last year. It is a very well run race, and despite a hilly course I managed my personal record in the half.  I had a fun time with my friends in Nashville, but I have to leave right after the race and didn’t get to fully honky-tonk it up (I had to get back to for a friend’s wedding).

This year I decided I wanted to lead a CARA pace group in training for a “spring” half marathon. I knew it would get me into shape a little sooner, and I really enjoyed running with groups. Well what I didn’t know is how bad this winter would be in Chicago. It was brutal, and the Winter Training Group for CARA was not very popular this year.

My group (8:30 pace group) consisted of the other group leader, Ellen, and Rob. Yep, there were three of us. Others sometimes joined us for a run, but for the most part it was just the three of us.
Well my group was pretty small, and only Rob was planning on running in Nashville, and I couldn’t convince my other friends to get in gear to train for it. I also realized how expensive it would be to either fly or drive down and hotel it in Nashville.
Then I found out they ran a half-marathon for the Drake Relays on the Road that same weekend, and it would be the perfect excuse to go see my parents and my friends in Des Moines (where I grew up). 

This was actually the 40th running of the Drake Relays on the Road.  It started as the Drake Relays Marathon, but was shortened to a half in 1994.  They have also run 8 and 10ks as well. 

Whenever You're Ready… The Race Report?

Right. WND Gal and I drove to Des Moines from Chicago Friday night. Up early on Saturday, my dad drove me to the start area at 6:50 for a 8 AM start. I got there, registered (only $30), looked for the gear check (there wasn’t one, used a bush in the parking lot), and tried to find the rest room.

I have run a few of these races in Des Moines on my “vacations” home at my parents’ house. They are a refreshing break from the gigantic races in Chicago. This race had 1900 participants, half of which ran the 8k that had the same start. No chip, no crowd, just a bunch of people out for a run.

Not that everything went smoothly. I did not feel well from before I went to bed, and didn’t shake whatever it was when I got up. I was tired and had stomach issues. It was a about 37 degrees with a decent wind. The hour before the race I was really wondering if I should really go out and run it.

And that feeling didn’t go away…

The start was right in front of the Drake Stadium, where they were holding the rest of the Drake Relays. The first couple of miles did not feel good. My legs felt heavy and it was cold. Maybe it was just that I was not awake yet and cranky, but I was not having a good time.

Then comes the 8k turn-around. No, I didn’t do it, but I sure thought about it. 

About a half mile later, around mile three, I saw my sister, father, and WND Gal. I decided I was warming up enough that I could lose the pants. At that time I told my dad that I wasn’t feeling well and that it was going to be a long day.

“Well you are on pace, so keep going.”

Yep, sure enough.  OK Pops.I felt a lot better in shorts. I also knew the roads for the next mile or so (having gone to high school in that neighborhood). Oh, and it was also the downhill portion of the run.

I also met a nice guy from Northeastern Iowa running in a distinctive cowboy hat.  Turns out this was my kind of fellow.  He had done some pretty cool ultra runs and we were about the same pace.  We ran for a couple of miles together and swapped cool running stories to pass the time.

Of course, what goes down must go up, and once we started back up the hills around mile 6.  I wasn’t really in the condition to keep up much a conversation, but still was not too overwhelmed by the hills.  I kept thinking of the bike ride I had done the week before where the trend had been to work hard up the hills and coast to get your breath going down.

WND Gal and her two chaperones for the day (my sister Patricia and my father) did show up at miles 6 and 9. It is always nice having support like that on these runs. I keep thinking with all the training and races I do, that one day WND Gal will get sick of it, but she seems hanging around (as long as I don’t make her run them).  

I had read some stuff on the internet about a big hill near the end of the race, so I knew right after I saw Team Dave at mile 9 (see photo with the three other guys) that I would have to do one major hill then I would be home free. As we ran up a hill at Beaver Rd towards Forest Ave, I assumed was the big hill everyone talked about near the end. Of course, it wasn’t. It came right after mile 10 going up Forest towards 46th Street. Not only was it a pretty good size hill, but it came with a pretty strong head wind.

But by this time I knew I had enough gas in the tank to get home. My game plan for the day was to run a strong 10 mile race, and then see what I had left for the last 3.1 miles. I wanted to run an 80 minute 10 mile run, and at the 10 mile mark I was just under 1:22. So I was pleased. So while I was tired, I tried to push the last 3 miles to see how I could finish.

I finished with a pretty quick mile. It was nice to see WND Gal at the end. Right after I finished I went into a pretty big coughing fit, but after I caught my breath I was fine.

I finished the race in 1:46:47, which is only 10 slower than my PR in Nashville last year. I still think I have a lot of room to improve, and I think the Bayshore Half in Traverse City on Memorial Day weekend will be the perfect time for a quick PR.

Later that night we had dinner at my parents house with my folks, sister, WND Gal and my best friend Charlie, his wife Catie, and their newborn James. It was really a great evening and fun weekend overall.

Race to Wrigley...

You just have to love a good 5k.

Why?  They are so inclusive.  Don't get me wrong, I also like 10 mile races, because not everyone can go out and walk/trot a 10 mile race.  There is some self selection in the event, which allows for it to be run by runners who understand the few unwritten rules to a running race. 

That being said, the neighborhood 5k is just as much fun, for different reasons.  First of all, they are smaller races.  Here in Chicago, the Race to Wrigley I ran on Saturday is about as big as the neighborhood 5ks get (5000 registrants).  Now there are much larger city events (Chase Corp Challange, Shamrock Shuffle get over 15,000 runners), but there are a bunch of these neighborhood events that are just great.

So pretty much everyone can get out and do a 5k.  Some people walk and run, some people do it it in under 20 minutes (me someday?), but most people finish between 20-30 minutes.  A great way to start a Sunday if you ask me.

Of course, not everyone was asking me... or wanted to hear from me for that matter.  Top on that list was What's Next Dave Gal (see above).  We celebrated a friend's new job and impending move from Chicago the night before, at which time WNDGal was trying to find excuses not to run the race the day.  Apparently the best thing she could think of was a hang over, well that didn't stop her.  

The next morning she was up and at 'em (although not pleased), and managed to brave the low 30 degree weather and threat of snow.  With WNDGal is our good friend Sara (having a laugh at poor WNDGals expense). 

On to the Race

This is only the third running of this race, and it has really improved every year.  The route is a real good one, and nice because it is in an area I know very well.  As you can see from the photos, it ends going through the Wrigley concourse, and coming out under the famous marquee.  Cool stuff.

I didn't run nearly as well as I did last year, finishing 2 minutes slower in 23:57 (ouch, I know).  Not sure what was going on with that, but it would have been slower had I not run with my co-worker Brittany.  I think much of the problem is it has only been some 14 hours since I ran 12 miles (which is my high for this year thus far.)  I thought about putting off the long run to do better in the race, but decided the schedule just did work out well if I did that.

All in all I think everyone had a good time, with the possible exception of WNDGal, who left her breakfast right around 1.5 miles into it.  Even she was glad she did it, and ran the route later in the week to prove she could do it. 

Running:

3.1 Mile Race, 24:57, 7:47 minute/mile