Harmon Farms 10 miler

I ran the first annual Harmon Farms 10 miler trail race in Inver Grove Heights, MN on Sunday, September 16th. The race is held in Salem Hills Park on mountain bike trails. Being a first year race, there were 100 or so registered to run. In the end, 89 finished.

The race director asked people to line up according to their speed. I wanted to be near the front but there was only one lone guy at the front of the pack. Just before the start, several others joined him. I felt better, because by the looks of the crowd, I was not going to finish in 2nd place. At the starting horn we were off. I think there were 6 guys in front of me as we took off. The first .75 miles was in open parkland and paved walking trails. Then we entered the park mountain bike trails for most of the rest of the race and the finish was the reverse of the start with .75 miles of open park / paved trails again.

The morning was cool in the low 50's and there was a slight breeze. Pretty nice weather for a race but I had been freezing my butt off before the start in my sleeveless shirt and light, long-distance running shorts. I knew I would warm up soon enough. At mile 1 I hit the split on my watch and noted a 7:16. Pretty fast for the terrain. Mile markers were not placed at every mile so I couldn't keep track of my pace very well. I was running by my heart rate and knew I was testing my threshold for a 10-mile race.

For the first 5 miles there was a 17 year old running right behind me. Nobody could run side-by-side as it was all single-track bike trails. I chatted a bit with the young guy and he knew he was first in his age category. I didn't know if I was or not. I'm in the 40-49 age group and was hoping not many of those in front were in the 40's. There was a guy about 100 feet behind me most of the race. I thought he just might be in the 40's so there was no way he was passing me. You see, they were giving out awards for the top three in each age/sex category. After mile 5 there were 10 runners in front of me including the 17 year old that passed me because I took more time at the water stop to have a little GU and water.

Near the end of the race I caught up to the 17 year old and the guy tailing me was still right behind me. I increased my pace so he couldn't catch me and I stayed right with the young guy to the finish. My finishing time as a new 10-mile PR for me at 1:14:28 for a 7:27 pace. I was 11th out of 89 finishers. The results got posted and I was 4th in my age group. Ugh. But wait... They had an award for the first male/female finishers from Inver Grove Heights (I was not) and he was from my age group. They didn't give double awards so they moved me up and gave me the third age-group award. Yes! I'll take the $20 certificate to one of my favorite running stores! It almost paid for the entry fee!

It was a great race for me and I'll do it again next year.
--Mark