Northern Lakes 30k

And two other runs.

Saturday, May 31:

The Northern Lakes 30k is three weeks ahead of Grandma’s Marathon, and with a little warmup and cool-down it makes a good 20-mile run. I finished in 3:02:30 by my watch (no online results yet) which is a pace of 9:49. In the past I have been about a minute per mile faster in most marathons, but I’m out of shape. Nevertheless I’d be happy with today’s pace in a marathon right now - it’s about a 4:17 finish. Actually, I’d prefer a 4:15:59 finish because that’s a Boston qualifying time for 65 - 69 :-) But it doesn’t really matter because I’m not going to run Boston anyway - been there and done that. There are SO MANY marathons to run :-)

Pains: The left hip flexors started to hurt a little almost right away, but didn’t get much worse over the 18.6 miles. Same with the left knee. I did wear a protector/warmer on that knee - maybe that kept it from getting worse. No other problems, and neither of those slowed me down. I walked quite frequently in the later miles, either because I was out of breath or because muscles were just plain tired. Out of shape.

Splits: 9:15, 8:54, 9:24, 9:24, 9:29, 9:17, 9:52, 9:44, 9:49, 10:15, 9:38, 10:14, 10:00, 10:22, 10:49, 9:50, 10:04, 10:00, 6:08. After the race I ate a big breakfast and then spent two and a half more hours mowing the lawn with a push rotary mower. Does that add on for the equivalent of a 26-mile training run? I think so. At least my calves thought so - the left calf cramped up during the mowing. Ouch. Maybe better hydration after the race would have helped that cramp.

The race itself is OK. I’m not enthusiastic about the 30k course, because it was on roads that were open to traffic, and almost a quarter of it was on a busy access road immediately parallel to a freeway. Noisy and a bit dangerous - there were places with no shoulder except a narrow strip of soft dirt next to the pavement. Sheriffs deputies more than once instructed us to run the entire race on the right side of the road, but in places the water stops were on the left side and in many places the left side was safer. The water stops were all working, though, and the finish line was great. My two sweeties ran the Northern Lakes 10 mile race at the same time, finishing well ahead of me.

Thursday, May 29:

After returning from Mayo with good news, I ran 3.3 miles on local roads in 27:26, for a pace of 8:19. Oddly, this is exactly the same pace that I ran in the Brian Kraft 5k race on Monday. That was a very flat course, and today’s run was quite hilly. Something was wrong on Monday, most likely just the dex that I took the night before. And maybe the good news helped today.

No pains or problems. I had intended to run four miles, but cut it shorter and scampered home when thundershowers appeared in the west. Running in lightning is just as dumb as golfing or boating in lightning.

Tuesday, May 27:

Gateway Trail, eight miles in 1:08:20, for a pace of 8:33. Faster than intended but no pains or problems. This was just one day after the Brian Kraft 5k that I whined so much about, and the pace really wasn’t much slower. All in all a delightful run.

Splits 8:48, 8:48, 8:08, 8:42, 8:17, 8:34, 9:12, 7:51, total 1:08:20, pace 8:33. A masterpiece.



Post-30k Breakfast. First a yummy plate of eggs (not shown), then gluten-free oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, organic strawberries, blueberries, banana, mango, organic walnuts, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice. Man I love that stuff.