The slowest race I’ve ever done, by far… and a mental grind.
I parked at a friends house and ran to the start line to pick up my bib. I got my bib and shirt and ran back to her house to drop the shirt off. I walked back to the start to kill some time since it was still early and a little chilly.
When I got to the start, it was cold! The start line was different than previous years and started at the cathedral in St. Paul. I went to the top of the stairs to hide from the wind. The difference in temperature from the week before in Florida when I was running was awesome for running but not for standing around.
I started with the 2:30 pacer and hung back with him for a bit. There was a girl running next to me in a Medtronic shirt and we got to talking. She was from Colorado and was running with her sister. They were trying to run a half marathon in every state and were on their 15th or something like that, how cool!
I found some of my Northstar running club folks and ran next to them for a few miles, they were doing much better than I was so I enjoyed just listening to them talk. I also was getting annoyed by these two ladies who were run walking and at the perfect pace to run past me and then go right in front of me so every one of their walk breaks I would have to go around them.. which at the point when I start to crash a bit, that was not fun.
The race was pretty uneventful until about mile 8ish when I started to hit a little wall. A little after mile 9 I ran into some club run folks and chatted with them a bit, that was a nice break to catch my breath. I texted Joel to let him know I had slowed way down and would love to see him at the kids at the finish. I texted him a bit more the next couple of miles giving up dates on where to go, etc. My other running club, Northstar, was around mile 11 and was so nice to see them!
Joel finally caught up to me a little after mile 12. He parked on the opposite side of the bridge though so I had to actually backtrack a tiny bit to say hi to them. The kids were so stinking cute!! They seemed excited to see me.
I got across to the finish line and was so happy to be done. Joel had walked back to the car and was able to drive and come find me to pick me up. We went and got a delicious breakfast and then headed back to my car to head home! It’s definitely and interesting perspective being way towards the back of the pack of a race… I’m thankful I finished, though 🙂
