Goldy’s Run 10 Miler: Part 2
Here we go, we’re about to start the race…any minute here…eventually
Yeah, it took 4 minutes between when the race started and when I crossed the start line. For whatever reason, they had a choke point between the start corral and the race course; even though they both went the full width of the road, the timing mats were not so wide, so they had to narrow the space abruptly and it slowed the release of runners down. Which, I suppose, helped with potential congestion, but it was mildly annoying for the race to start and not be moving when there’s only 2000 runners. But I got there and got going. And very soon had to step off onto the sidewalk to re-tie my shoes because they felt sloppy.
Shortly into mile 2, we passed the Weisman Art Museum, which I’ve only ever seen from a distance. This was 8:39am (this is relevant for a reason that will be revealed later)
This was at the start of a giant long hill that seemed like it would never end. It also happened to go right past the University hospital, which felt appropriate because I thought the hill might kill me
I actually did well in the mile, but I’m not sure how. After a couple more miles, we crossed the Mississippi and I got this shot of downtown Minneapolis. The crazy plunge and subsequent jump in elevation is kind of funny to see on my run stats.
There was a pretty mural along the West Bank of the river. The text in the middle says “What will sustain us?” and the artist is Xena Goldman. I didn’t catch what the text on the right side said, and it’s not legible when I zoom in on the picture.
Here’s the Weisman again, now seen from the west bank of the Mississippi. This was 10:11am. So it took me 1 hour and 32 minutes to make my way along the course to get back to the Weisman.
I spent the entire race playing leapfrog with this one older gentleman, in an orange jacket and a Minnesota Gophers hat (complete with Gopher ears) who maintained a slow, but steady, pace the whole time. On my run intervals, I’d run up to him, or slightly past him, then I’d hit a walk break and he’d zip past me, and then I’d catch up again on my next run. The only time I stayed ahead of him for more than a minute was on the downhills, because I ran down them to bank time to walk up some of the nastier uphills. And he also made a pit stop at the last opportunity around mile 8.5. It didn’t take long for him to catch me after that one because it was right before an uphill where I lost my breath and had to walk even though it wasn’t that steep.
Next, there was a wicked steep uphill right at the beginning of the last mile that was a particularly sadistic thing for the race organizers to include—there had to be a better way to get there. There was a college kid standing at the bottom of the hill with a sign that said “Murder The Hill”—it was almost the other way around, that thing was short, but terrible. And then we got up to the mostly flat campus at the top, where I thought I’d be able to kick it up and kill my PR. But the wind picked up and the rain really started coming down, and the wind tunnel effect from the buildings made the rain blow right in my face no matter what direction I was facing. I thought for sure Orange Gopher was going to pull ahead for good with his persistent pace, but I managed to at least keep him in sight.
We hit a narrow alley-like bit and the rain and wind got worse, so I put on a little more speed to get through it and passed him. I was also hoping the end was around the corner, but I was wrong, and he passed me again. Then we got close to the stadium and started going around it. This is where a new obstacle was introduced: little runners (and their parents)! Some fool of a race organizer decided it was a good plan to have the kids’ race start before the 10 milers were finished, and to run said kids’ race using the same course. Suddenly, I had to not run over little kids or barrel though families of four all running hand-in-hand.
I managed to weave through, pass the Orange Gopher, and hit the hill downhill into the stadium and onto the football field. I could barely tell where the finish line was because there were people standing around everywhere and it was, frankly, a dangerous disaster area. Also, I definitely didn’t get any finish line shots (if there were any still cameras) because of the crowd.
Here’s a screen grab from the livestream video. About 5 minutes after I finished, they moved the camera position to before the start line, so it was a better view for the last 50 or so finishers. I added the arrow so you could find me. On a positive note, my outfit for the MW 10K was perfect for this.
I fought through the crowd to find a medal volunteer, and then looked around to say hello to the Orange Gopher, who couldn’t be far behind me (30 seconds, according to the official results) I congratulated him on a good race and said it was pleasure to play leapfrog with him for 10 miles. He asked how often I passed him and I said “oh, about every minute or so” Then I went off in search of food (major fail, how hard is it to have an unflavored option for chips?) and water (Dasani—gross, but wet) and my bag. I switched into dry shoes, and peeled off my gold shirt (which kept almost all the rain off my white shirt) and put on my warmest runDisney jacket. I headed to my car and it took 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot (which is better than the hour it took to leave Hot Dash 2 weeks ago). I met my grandparents for lunch at Culver’s so I didn’t die of hunger and went home to take a hot bath.
Here are my official race results:
Here are my splits, pace, and elevation data from the Runna app. I like that I can see the extended walk or run segments matched up to the hills (and the two apparently sudden drop/rise bits from crossing the river) I also really really like how even my splits are, despite the occasionally extended intervals. You can also see how in the last mile, the weather kind of kicked my butt.
Here are the splits from Strava to show the GAP
And here’s my cute Goldy medal!
One other sort of neat thing about the Runna app is that you can share your run and it puts this graphic together (you can add your picture, like I did)—I do think there’s room for improvement on this function, and shared my feedback ideas with the creators.
All in all, I would do this race again, despite a couple wicked hills and the attack of the littles at the end (which could be avoided if I were a bit faster) But I think it will be the same weekend as Springtime Surprise next year, so it’ll have to wait until 2026.
. Does the honeycomb collapse on impact like the On pillows?
) that was also not fun to run on, but better than the cobbles.
), tomorrow night we have a show at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre (Beautiful: The Carol King musical) that was supposed to be 2 weeks ago, but my grandparents had to go out of town, so we rescheduled. Saturday night, I’m going to the Fall Out Boy concert. Sunday morning is my 10 miler race. In my defense, when I registered, I thought the race was Saturday morning, not Sunday, which would’ve been fine. But now I’ll be practicing for Disney by running on not enough sleep 
