I started in the middle of the pack and of course got passed quickly. I found a rhythm and tried to focus on keeping my stride loose and picking up my knees a bit. As I passed the fisrt mile marker, I saw that my time was 9:21. WHAT? While that is great, I didn't think I could hold onto that pace for long. I slowed a bit on the gravel and tried to focus on keeping my HR down. Into the last mile, I was running with an older guy and we just chugged along. With a half mile to go, I calculated that I was going to come in around 30 min. I told him it was time to go and sprinted the last half mile. It hurt, but I got close to that 30.

Nothing. I'm super pleased with that run.

Transitions sure are easier on a relay. I found Jeremy, switched the chip and he was off.

Jeremy rode this so I'm taking this from his comments. He set out to pass as many people as possible. He passed 43 and got passed by 2. Pretty good. A couple of times he had to slow a bit because of bikes in front of him and cars back. The wind was in his face on Hwy 3 and that's a long road. That probably hurt the pace some.

Nothing. He gained back 4 places that I lost on the run.

Love relay transitions!

Nothing.

During Jeremy's bike, I drank a bottle of water and had a gel. I also stretched a bit and tried to sit as much as possible. I got to meet MNDiver who was helping with scoring. It was nice to have someone to talk to while I was hanging around.

I started the run and noticed my legs were feeling pretty dead. Guess I ran pretty hard on the first 5k. My first mile was 10:20; much slower than the first run, but still good for me. In that first mile, all the fast people were on their way back to the finish and it was nice to see them and cheer them on. It seemed like a really long time between the first mile marker and the turn-around. Much more than a half mile. By the time I saw the turn, I was hurting bad. Basically just shuffling along. I ate the two shot blocks that I brought with and took another drink at the last water stop. Then it was just another mile to go. This is where it's all mental. I had to keep telling myself that I could do this. Just 8 minutes to go. That "numbers game" is crazy, but it's what got me through it. I sprinted (or what passed for a sprint at that point) the last tenth mile and finished. Whew. That was hard.

Be more prepared for that distance. I had not run 6 miles before this race. My longest training run was 4.5 miles. Maybe more stretching during the bike leg, but that would only help if I was doing a relay.

Walked around and had some water and a cookie.


Nothing. I'm pretty happy with the race.


This was a distance PR for me and my fastest 5k in almost 2 years. It was also Jeremy's first race of any kind since high school swimming. We had no expectations except to have fun and finish. I'm happy with our performance. I'll put this one on my calendar next year as relay or a single.