Securian Run Half Marathon

Saturday was the Securian Run Half Marathon (AKA the "Winter Carnival Half Marathon"). This WAS my longest race streak - this would have been my 6th straight year doing this race had I raced it. But (1) Pharmie worked so I was hanging out with Henry all weekend, (2) I'm not putting any pressure on myself to race 10 Grand Prix races this year, and (3) I don't have a ton of recent longer runs logged - I could have injured myself if I had raced it. After all, this was the race that caused my big heel problem 2 years ago.

So, with no hesitation, I sat it out. I thought Henry and I might swing by the turn-around point to cheer on some race buddies! We bundled up because it was around 10 degrees:

Henry's boots are still comically big - they go up to his knees.
They're hand-me-downs from his cousin, but he still needs to grow into them a bit more.

We got to a side-street near the turn-around...

Minnesota is dead sexy in the winter.

... and I expected to see a FEW people running by. We were just after the 7 mile mark, and it was 9:40 (40:00 into the race), so we'd be seeing people who were running 6:00 / mile. But there still was no one in sight. The race must have started a bit late.

I wasn't going to wait in the cold with Henry, so we drove down the race course. After a half mile, we saw the lead cop car and the first runner in the distance:

He went on to finish in 1:12.


A pack of runners on the other side of I-35E.


I always HATED coming back up that hill on the way back to the finish.
(I'm sure I'm the only one...)




Getting more crowded near the grain elevator.


Long line of people coming out of downtown, with some cones marking the
turn-around of the 10K (and people running back towards downtown at that point).

(We slowed up to take those photos... Shepard Road was DEAD except for a lot of runners in 1 lane!)

So I DID sign up for the Grand Prix, but more as a show of support for the great organization known as the MDRA. You can see I'm in 6th after the Meet of the Miles track meet, and I'll fall farther back after not doing this race.

I'll probably update Grand Prix results after their races, but I'll probably only race 5 or so of the series races.

Check out my last post about my tentative 2013 race schedule.

Back tomorrow with a true story about frostbite and a skin tag. Really.