Well, I am on a roll this summer/fall, and I am not taking it for granted. This was my fouth PR in a row after setting a new PR in the mile, 5K, half marathon, and now the 10 mile!
I will say my previous 10 mile was a little soft. I have only done three 10 mile races, and the first time I ran the 10 mile (time – 1:06) was shortly after we moved to Minnesota in 2022. I had an injury I was dealing with for the prior 8-10 weeks, so I was finally just getting back into shape. And the second 10 mile (time – 1:07) was this past April when I was coming off a winter of training that went okay but not great.
For the Twin Cities 10 Mile this past Sunday, the race starts in Minneapolis and then ends at the capital in St. Paul. I was feeling really confident about my fitness (more confident than I have in years) going into this race. I knew I could set a new PR, and my ‘A’ goal was to run a 1:02:45 (6:15 min/mi pace) as this would allow me to move up a tier in the elite field at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. There are three tiers for the elite field at the Indy Marathon, and right now I am in the bottom tier, which honestly doesn’t get me many perks. I was hoping to move into the second tier to potentially get a few more perks–albeit there was no guarantee they would be more perks as it depends upon how many top tier (pros) are running the race. Anyway, I figured it would still be a fun goal to go after. I knew this time would definitely be a little bit of a stretch, but I also thought it was within my wheelhouse.
Saturday I drove up to my sister and brother-in-law’s house to spend the night there. My sister ran the race too, so we would carpool to the start. I took the boys with me as Craig was busy in the field harvesting corn, so he wasn’t able to watch them. Luckily my brother-in-law watched all four kids while Kristy and I ran Sunday morning.
I laid low at their house on Saturday afternoon, and then made a chicken and rice dish for dinner. I got ready for bed right after that and had the lights out at 8:30 p.m. with my alarm set for 3:30 a.m.
Luckily I slept pretty decent. (I was quite a bit less nervous for this race than most races! I think I just felt so confident with my fitness.) I only woke up a couple of times and fell asleep quickly both times. When my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m., I didn’t feel too sleep-deprived. Luckily I had gotten up at 4 a.m. for a couple recent runs, so this hour didn’t feel too foreign. I took a shower, got ready, got my things together, and then made myself some coffee and had a Nature’s Bakery fig bar and some graham crackers to eat. I also brought some Bonk Breaker chews that I ate on the train ride to the start.
We left my sister’s at 4:45 a.m., parked at the finish line area near the capital, and then boarded the train at 5:20 a.m. for a 30 minute ride to Minneapolis for the start. We got there early but were too cold to sit down, so we started warming up and quickly found our friends Maddie and Bree. The races where I have friends to “run” with–even if it is just seeing them at the start and finish, are so much more fun!
It was really cold warming up. I think the temperature was close to 50 degrees, but it was windy, and it just felt cold, even jogging around. I ran 2 miles, and then used the bathroom before doing some dynamic drills and strides before they ushered us into the corral. I kept my sweatshirt on as long as I could as I was still cold just standing there. (I was totally find once I got running, and temps right around 50 degrees are my absolute favorite for racing.)
When the gun went off, I tried to run the pace I wanted (6:15 min/mi) and not get caught up with what everyone else was doing. I settled into a good pace right away and felt really comfortable at 6:15.
Mile 1 – 6:14
Mile 2 – 6:15
Mile 3 – 6:28
Mile three is the first big climb, and the one you can really see as you approach it. It’s pretty daunting just looking at it with 94 feet of elevation gain, but I did my best to stay with the people I was running with and maintain the same effort on the way up. Once we were up the hill, most of the rest of the course is rolling hills for the first 7 miles.
Mile 4 – 6:07
Mile 5 – 6:22
Mile 6 – 6:30
As I crossed the half way point, I did a quick calculation to double my time and knew I would really have to work my pace down over the next few miles if I wanted to run a 1:02:45. I saw my pace dip a bit at mile five, and it reminded me I should take my gel, so I took my Gu Roctane Espresso gel during mile six. But mile six was the other mile where I slowed down and lost just a little bit too much time with 82 feet of elevation gain. I actually had to use Google maps to go back and review this part of the course because I didn’t remember this climb. But once you’re to the top, after mile seven, then it’s all downhill to the finish.
Mile 7 – 6:20
Mile 8 – 6:12
Mile 9 – 6:12
Mile 10 – 6:01
During last mile I was giving it all I had. You lose 87 feet of elevation, which definitely helps your pace. You can see the finish line from the top of the hill, which is encouraging, and I was just pushing as hard as I could. As I approached the finish line, I saw the time click over to 1:03, which I figured would be the case. My official time ended up being 1:03:06, but I was still proud of this.
After seeing the stats on my watch, I ran an extra 0.07 mile, which I knew I would be slightly over as my watch was beeping before the mile markers at the end of the race. But my watch also had me running a pace of 6:16, which was only 1 second per mile slower than what I wanted, so if anything, I was more proud of this effort!
After the race I grabbed a Mylar blanket and waited for my sister to finish. I thought she might be running about a minute per mile slower than I had, but after a good 15-20 minutes of waiting for her, I still hadn’t seen her. I was getting worried I had missed her and I was having flashbacks to the NYC Marathon. I left the finish chute and started walking toward the bag pick-up area hoping to find her there. I scanned the crowds but didn’t see her, so I took a seat to try and stay as warm as I could because it was cold, windy, and after sweating for 10 miles, I was shivering. Luckily within a few minutes, she came over to the area and we found each other! We did a very slow two mile cool-down, trying to warm up, as the wind was very gusty.
After our cool-down we took a couple pictures, grabbed our warm clothes, and made our way back to the car. We were on our way back home by 10 a.m., but it felt like we had lived an entire day already. Ha!
The Twin Cities 10 Mile just be my favorite race. I often know a handful of other people running, I love the distance of 10 miles, the scenery is great, there are usually a lot more people cheering than a lot of the other races I do, and the weather is often really ideal (except last year when it was so hot they canceled the race). So needless to say, this race will be once I sign up for frequently!
Now just a few more weeks until the Indy Marathon!
