Relative vs. Absolute

I decided to run TC10 today. I finished. I achieved my goals. Those were:

1. Finish
2. Finish, and not be the last one in
3. Finish without having to walk
4. Finish while they still had size S finisher's shirts
5. Finish in under 1:30 (9 minute pace)

Those are the "relative" successes for the day. The "absolute" part is that being competitive like I am, I am ashamed of my time, injured or not. Before my injury, I wanted to PR (sub-1:09:45) and run with Paul Melby. So having to run conservatively to not aggravate my injury, and to be passed by so many people, and to run much slower than I'd wanted, is tough. But I'll get over it. It was a very fun weekend, though, and I'll recap it now ...

I started out Saturday arriving at the expo in the early afternoon. I ran into Dave, Jane, Gina, Ron and Adam on the sidewalk outside the Excel Center. (Congrats Adam on running your first marathon ... and with your dad no less. Super.)

Then it was inside to pick up my packet and wander the aisles looking at all the "stuff" on display and given away.

Inside the expo, I saw Andy (who ran a 2:58 PR today!) and Erin ...

and Dick Daymont ...

and Pat Brown ...

and Steve DeBoer.

I picked up just a couple little things ... some biking socks and another magnet for my car.

And a few stickers to give away to friends.

After leaving the expo, I went out to Gear West to browse. Didn't buy anything.

My friend Margo had mentioned that there was a new Trader Joe's in Minnetonka, and it was only .7 miles from the hotel we were staying at, so I bopped in there for a few staples. (2 bags full, actually!) I just love that store and can't wait until ours opens in Rochester.

Then I met up with Anita, Linda, Val and Shannon at the hotel before dinner at Nonna Rosa's with some more of the River Runners. We had a delicious meal and lots of fun chatter. : )

Molly and her husband

Val, Jodi, Buddy, Paul, Rick, Jacki, Wanda (3:12 marathon today)

Wanda, Anita, Shannon, Linda, Val, Jodi

They had the biggest pepper grinder I've ever seen in my life! I guess that saves him from having to lean over the table to grind pepper ...

I had penne pasta with tomato sauce and chicken.

And of course there were cookies for dessert.

We hit the hay pretty early. I had the rollaway bed which was NOT comfortable I must say. The box spring was shot and the middle sagged terribly so I slept on a V-shaped bed. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much.

Bright and early I was off to the dome to meet the others at section 232.

Renee K.

 

Ron, Gina, Dave, Jane, John



Ed, Mary, Tom, Paul



Paul and Tom O'





Paul and Tod



P.K.

 It wasn't long before it was time to head outside to warm up, plastic bags and all.

I spied a few River Runner teammates.

Rick

 

Paul and Cindy

The women's 10-mile championship race was the first race of the morning. Man, those are some fit looking women.

Then we were off!! I knew I'd be running (and/or walking) super slow, so I carried my camera.

I saw teammate Denise in the first mile. She recently completed Ironman Wisconsin, her first. Good job, Denise!

I ran the first couple of miles with River Runner teammate Jake Bauerly.

I knew I had to run very conservatively today so as to not aggravate my hamstring further. And that's what I did. But it wasn't easy. By nature I'm competitive, both with myself and in a race situation. I sooo wanted to be a racer today, but that wasn't to be. As I passed through the mile markers, especially the first few, I had such vivid memories of last year and how well that race had gone for me. Oh to be injury free.

So the miles passed by ...

with splits of 9:04 8:39 8:45 8:33 8:55 9:01 8;50 8:26 8:25 for the first 9. I felt like I'd kept everything in control and still had plenty in the tank, so I went a bit faster for the last mile (which also has a significant downhill) and pulled out a 7:44. It felt great to pass people I must say.

The lowdown:

Finish time  1:27:26

Age group 64/346

Females  871/4311

Overall  2226/7017

: (    There's always next year ...

There were lots of success stories today. Andy Hemenway ran his first sub-3 and a PR of 2:58. Tom Woo, Tom O' and Paul all ran extremely well. The website is too busy to give results right now, but Paul M ran a 1:08 and Woo and O'Leary I think ran 1:03s, with Woo coming in 4 seconds ahead of O'Leary. Congrats to Kristin Zhao and Millie Suk for BQs at their first marathons and Maureen Hogan and Angie Haugen and Sara Ryan for also achieving BQs today. And Shaun Palmer ran a PR and BQ. And I know I'm forgetting lots of other people ... Sorry. It was a PERFECT day for a distance race. Wow. Cool, sunny, not windy. Spectacular.

I'll save the post-race stuff for tomorrow's post. I want to ice and stretch some more and then get to bed as I'm behind on my sleep.

Good night.