New Prague Half Marathon

The New Prague Half Marathon is one on Minnesota’s annual rites of spring. Unfortunately, it’s unfriendly to women and older runners, with a hard 13 min/mile cutoff, but it’s neverthless in the Minnesota Grand Prix series of races, so we went and my sweeties ran the 5k. My time was 1:53:19, almost exactly eleven minutes slower than the last time I ran it two years ago, and I finished seventh of eleven this time compared with second of thirteen two years ago. Oooo - second tier - it’ll take a bit to get used to THAT! Grump grump.

I think the CC-4047 cancer drug is actually slowing me down, in two ways: First, it reduces my resting heart rate by 10-15% and probably also reduces my aerobic heart rate; Second, it has cut my red blood cell count and hemoglobin somewhat, thereby further interfering with oxygen transport. What I notice while running is that I get out of breath before my muscles get overtired, which suggests to me that that the cardio-pulmonary system is trying to make up the deficit. Or not, what do I know? Of course the dexamethasone doesn’t help and I did run a marathon just six days ago, so hey. I’m happy and quite lucky to be running at all!

It would be hard to find better weather for running. The temperature was 50 to 55, no sun, with a slight facing wind for the first half of the run and a tailwind for the second half. It’s a “moderately hilly course” (their words) on open rural roads, absolutely spectacular scenery, especially if you like fields and cows. For the most part the roads were closed to traffic and I could run right down the centerline stripe, avoiding the slanted driving surfaces. And, perhaps because of that, the “trick hip” problem did not appear. Huh. The left knee was sore on the very outside, feeling as if bone-on-bone, though I doubt that’s happening. That’s new as of last week’s marathon; I hope it goes away. The right hip flexors were sore too, but that’s from undertraining and it will go away for sure. I had a severe cramp in the right calf after the race was over, but that’s also from undertraining and pushing too hard, plus maybe a little dehydration, so it’s of no concern.

Splits: 8:10, 8:13, 8:13, 17:30 (2 miles), 9:04, 17:01 (2 miles), 9:37, 8:44, 8:50, 9:18, 8:45 (1.11 miles), average pace 8:39. You can kind of see the hills in there. I had a great last mile with a pace of about 7:53. Don’t you love downhill finishes?! And now I feel just wonderful, as usual after a hard run. It’s a masterpiece. Miller time!



Friday's lunch: Curried organic turkey with organic black beans, organic mixed rices, and coconut flakes, organic broccoli with shredded parmesan and asiago cheeses, orange slices, pickled beets, and organic pomegranate juice. I did have seconds.