City of Lakes 25K 2010 race report

My two marathon training partners, Michelle and Aileen, had signed up for the City of Lakes 25K some time ago. I wasn't planning to run it, but last week I found I could fit the race into my schedule. Even though I have never run the COL 25K, I seemed to remember it filling early. I looked at the website, saw that it was still open, and registered. My running partners and I are early morning runners - we start our runs at 5am. With an 8am start, I may actually see what Michelle (M) and Aileen (A) look like in the sunshine. :-)

We talked about our plan - M and A are running the Twin Cities Marathon in three weeks and I am running a trail marathon in two weeks. I didn't need 20 miles, 15.5 would do. M and A's plan would be to get 3 to 5 miles in before the COL. I would meet them at the start and we would run together at marathon pace which would be 8:23 as they had trained for a 3:40 marathon. I never picked a goal marathon time so I just went along with their training.

I was pretty excited for race day and got most of my things ready the night before the race. S!Caps - check; Shot Bloks - check; wet-wipes - check (always ready for a porta-potty emergency). :-) The temps were looking to start out cool so instead of choosing my usual racing singlet, I picked my standard second choice, a sleeveless red shirt.

After a good night of sleep I was up at 5am for a slice of wheat toast with peanut butter. It's my ONLY tried and true race morning food that so far (knock on wood) has kept my GI system happy during long runs. Well, the peanut butter toast AND shot blocks keeps me happy. GUs are a recipe for disaster for me, especially when I get to around the 2-hour point in a run. Well, I packed my stuff and headed for Lake Harriet. Half way there I remembered that I forgot my running cap at home. I almost always wear my Afton Trail Run cap in longer races. It keeps the sun off the shiny portions of my head and helps control sweat dripping down my forehead. Oh well, no cap for me today.

I found a nice spot to park a few blocks from packet pickup and walked down to get my bib and my chip. Nothing eventful was happening here except it was pretty cool so thankfully I brought a pre-race sweatshirt. It was down near the start that I ran into M getting a little mileage in on the way to meet A for a pre-race Lake Harriet loop. They were looking for 18 to 20 miles today. I did some more walking and recognized some runners from other races but didn't talk with anyone. Closer to race time, I took the walk back to my car to put my sweatshirt away, took a final drink of water, and put on my bib and chip. Back to the start area I went.

It was cool, in the lower 50s, and I was now in my sleeveless shirt looking for some warmth. Ahhhh, the fishing pier was in the sun and that was the place to go. I hung out there for awhile and found it was a popular place for runners to stay warm. Out on the pier I saw one woman putting on her chip, and the next thing you know, she said: Oh my gosh! - Her chip plunked into the waters of Lake Harriet, and went swimming gently towards the bottom of the lake. One of the guys with her stuck his arm down into the water to get the chip. I was walking away at that time and don't know if he got the chip or not. My guess is no.

Now it's race time. I saw my friend Ann and we chatted for awhile. We thought we picked out a good starting position - I told Ann that we were planning to run in the 8:20s and it seemed like we were in a good spot. M and A headed off to run to another porta-potti away from the start since the close ones were too crowded. M and A came back just before starting time and found me, the race started, and off we went. We had talked about running faster than 8:23s if we felt good and that's what happened. Of course, I almost always start out too fast and our first mile was a 7:59. Mile 2 - 7:49. Mile 3 - 7:49. Mile 4 - 7:49. The even streak would end there. M and A and I were running together. At water stops I would usually take two cups off the water table, stop and down them both, and then catch up to my friends. That was my water plan and I stuck to it the whole race. My S!Caps and Shot Block plan was to take 3 Shot Bloks and an S!Cap at miles 7, 10, and 13. I stuck roughly to that too, syncing them to the nearest water stop.

The race ended up being a nice Hard run. It wasn't as hard as if I raced it, but we were moving right along. My heart rate seemed fine and our pace seemed to be staying in the 7:50s. Our wildlife viewing today would be a dead squirrel (flat), a dead chipmunk (extra-flat), and a big dead rabbit (still in 3D). The rabbit was in the section along Lake Harriet where we would run three times. I'm happy to say I didn't step on it once. I'm pretty sure others did.

We hit the half marathon timer at 1:44. Most of us know that 1:45 is a Corral 1 qualifier for the Twin Cities Marathon. M and A already qualified but it's always nice to get a sub-1:45 half for marathon runners in the 3:40 range.

A mile or two from the finish M dropped back a bit. She said later that fatigue was starting to set in with 20 miles at that point for the day. A and I ran strong to the finish and had a nice final mile in the 7:30s. No drop-off in pace. Michelle finished just seconds after us. It was nice to feel good all the way to 15.5 miles; In the Spring I would have some issues with fatigue after running 13 miles and my Spring 25K was much harder at a much slower pace. Michelle, Aileen, and all have a 2:03 time for the day. It was really nice to run that race with my partners.

That's it. Nice race. Nice pace. Nice finish. We enjoyed some water, banana, and chocolate chip cookie at the finish. I really like the COL 25K mug too. I would run this one again.

My Gamin data for the race is here.

--Mark