Earth Day Half Marathon Results

The SCSU Earth Day Half Marathon with a bang on Saturday morning. Rain was in the forcast but we didn't get a single drop. I ended up taking 2nd overall with a time of 1:13.38 and my once teammate, and longtime friend John Heitzman won the race in 1:13.08. John and I are shoulder to shoulder in the picture above on the far left on the the starting line. Here is a link to the St. Cloud Times news article about the race and a brief interview with John and myself.

http://www.sctimes.com/sports/2014/04/19/heitzman-holt-win-earth-day-half-marathon/7906283/

John and I went to the Unversity of Wisconsin La Crosse where we won the NCAA Mens Division III National Team Champioship in Cross Country in 2005.  It was a totally, amazing, adventure.  Since then John and I meet up once or twice a year at the same races.  Typically Grandmas Marathon in Duluth or the Twin Cities Marathon.  John runs 7 days a week and about 115 miles per week for the past 3 months, training for this years Grandmas Marathon. I run about 3 maybe 4 days a week and my total milage is around 35 miles per week.

My last 2 miles in the race went quick, I ran a 5:14 and then a 5:11. So it was good honest effort and great early season race.

Up next a family trip to sunny Florida! More on that later.

13.1 Sounds like fun!

Is it spring yet? It was last week but this week not so much. I have the St. Cloud State University Earth Day Marathon this Saturday morning.

This race is a spring classic and it is run on a pretty nice course, a few hills but nothing to nasty.  Lots of turns but never confusing.

I have taken 4th at this race the past few years, this last year I came in fifth but ran a minute faster then usual. So long story short if I go under 1:12 it will be a good day and my own personal course record.

So a true test of my fitness will be displayed at this race, lets hope for decent weather and maybe this year I will get to run in shorts.

irock run results.

From the left: Chris Tatton 2nd place overall, me 1st overall, and in the bottom corner thats not a bear, thats my son Harbor.

It was a sunny windy day in Coldspring and they changed the course a little from last year. This race is unique in many ways, you run past solid granite cubes bigger then SUVs. Then they make these custom bronze overall winner photos, that are really cool. They take a few weeks to make so when they send it to me in the mail I will upload the pic.

My first mile was 5:07 and I felt fine, we had a slight cross wind. The 2nd mile another 5:07 with gail force head wind. Then 3rd mile was 5:12 it was on fresh soft gravel and also had a strong headwind. My overall time was 15:55 almost a minute faster then last year. 

Chris is cool, he did Ironman Wisconsin last year in 10:50 and has only been doing triathlons the last 2 years. This was also the second 5k Chris has ever ran.  He and I are both coached by Derek Lindstrom of Beyond Performance.