I spent all day Friday preparing for the race. I went into St. Paul and picked up my race number from the meet hotel. Then after that, I went to the expo for the race, where Matt Llano and Megan Hogan were talking and signing autographs at the Lifetime Fitness booth.
Later that afternoon, I participated in an elite athlete panel at the expo with Matt, Megan, and Antonio Vega. It took a little bit to get started but ended up being a lot of fun as we answered questions about our training and the sport from this weekends runners. After that was the VIP reception for the race, which was an interesting learning experience. Not only am I not used to things like this before races, but it is was amazing to learn about the race's title sponsor Medtronic; which is a medical technology/health and wellness provider. Their goal in sponsoring this race is to promote healthy living so you do NOT need their products, that is quite a statement to hear from a medical company!. It was also a good time to catch up with many old friends, and meet a lot of new ones. After the reception, I also managed to catch up with an old training partner in Christo Landry, who will be racing with me next week in Japan!
As for the race, I had to get up at 4:30am. Then I headed over to the racing area with Matt Llano, Paul Giannobile (Who ended up running 56:43 and winning his age group!) and Steve Hallinan, who was staying with us for the race. An easy warm up and a few strides later, it was time to race......
(I am next to fellow WM grad Ed Moran on the left rocking the all blue uniform)
As far as the race went, the weather was PERFECT, and I actually felt pretty good. I got out very well in the top 10ish (it was a HUGE pack) and just kind of tucked in. The first half of the race is pretty much all downhill, while the second half is all uphill. I stayed in contact with the lead through about 5 miles (I went through in about 23:30ish despite what my chip said). After that it felt like I ran the whole second half of the race up a mountain alone. After about 6.5 miles my legs decided they had enough, and I just had no other gears but I managed to hold on as much as possible. I only got passed by one person (Craig Curley), and we basically played cat and mouse 45m apart, until mile 9, where he got away from me a little bit. Considering I have only been working out for a month now, I am trying not to be disappointed with my finish/time with all things considered but ........
I still have a lot of work to do to get to the level I want to be at, and I just have to take it one day at a time. This was a step in the right direction but just a small one. I do not get a break though as next up is the Ivy League Ekiden in Izumo Japan the 6th-12th! I am really excited to get this opportunity and race with 3 of my old WM teammates!
Train hard and stay healthy everyone
-Jon
