The Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon Race Report...Did she PR again?

Hi everyone! Before I get into my half marathon race report I would like to share that I drove up to St. Cloud on Saturday to run with my running group.
I knew that I wanted to go up and run with them because it has been three weeks since my last group run. Knowing that I had a half marathon today I decided to keep my run short.

Shortly after I parked my van I saw that Denny was also running:) Denny is my St. Cloud River Runner dad...I sort of adopted him...he had no choice:)

These next pictures are just random pics that I took before our run.

This was about 30 seconds to a minute into our run.

There were different distance groups and I ran my first two miles with Deb and Joni. After mile two I looked back because I was looking for John who also was planning on keeping his miles short too. John and I spoke before the run and both wanted to run about four miles. I met with John and Kurt...we ran an additional two miles. John and I walked the fifth mile... we were both fine with this as the wind was kicking our butts:) After the run we all met back at Brigitte's to have a little breakfast.

Here I am with Deb:)

This is Arvid, Denny and John. I enjoyed chatting with all of them:)

This is Kalli and Valerie:) The group run was great and I am glad that I kept it short. I needed to save energy for today's Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon.

My alarm went off at 5AM and I got ready for my race. I had my bib, timing chip and pacer goal wrist band setting out on my table. I still was not sure at this point what I was going to do about today's run. Would I run it as a training run or attempt to PR and get a faster time? My PR from the Earth Day Half Marathon was 1:56:35 and I was thinking of shooting for 1:55:)

Yes, I know I look like crap I and am looking a little tired too! My bib number is 2301....I am not sure what to think about this one...it is missing a lucky number seven.

I pulled into the Bay Center parking lot at 6:45 AM! I love making it to a race early and scoring a great parking spot. I walked into the shopping center and used the indoor restroom. I also walked over to the Minnesota Pacers table:) I call them the pacer dudes!! I chatted with them a bit and one of the girl pacers remembered me from Earth Day. Funny thing, she was not my pacer:)

This picture of me shows you that it was a little windy this morning.

About 30 minutes before the race this is what the Biffy line looked like...very long and slow going:)

There was about twenty minutes before the start and I made my way to the starting area. I located my pacer dudes....we shared a photo moment:) This is Allan, me and Steve. I decided that I was going to try to beat Earth Day's PR. I was a little nervous and told them not to let me choke. They were both super nice and told me that I was going to do great. I was very nervous about the wind and the crazy hills that I was hearing horror stories about!

Today's race had three waves and I was placed at the beginning of wave two. This is a picture of wave one about 15 minutes before start time.

This is a picture of the people behind me. Right before the start I decided to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist. This was a smart move as I warmed up fast:)

This picture is the tail end of wave one hitting the mats. We eventually made our way up and started a few minutes later.

Pacer Allan:)

This picture was taken about one minute into our race. My pacer boys were making fun of me because I was taking pictures during the run:) They were worried that I was going to drop my camera. I laughed and told them that I was a pro at taking pictures when running:)

This was such a beautiful course and gorgeous day! It was windy in some spots but it was doable.

These next few pictures are just shots from the first four miles.

Here is the shot of the down hill to the first water stop. I found the first mile challenging...it always takes me a few minutes to get into the groove:) My pacer dudes were chatting and asking me how I was. I ran between Allan and Steve for most of the race. There were a few times when we were running on an active road and we ran bottle neck style.

This is pacer Steve:)

A picture of beautiful Lake Minnetonka! I told myself even before I started that I was sticking like glue to my pacer dudes. I really wanted to take at least one minute and thirty seconds off of my time! I really don't remember the details of every mile. I did not look at my Garmin once:) I just told myself to stay with the pacers and to keep moving even when I felt like slowing down. There were several rolling hills and a few of them were challenging. There were at least three of them where I really wanted to slow down. I did not....I stayed with my pacers. My pacers were wonderful but did not chat as much as Deb:) Well, they did but it was different because they were guys! Deb, if you are reading this...I missed you and our girl chats...I could of used you during all of the hills:) I had several really good running sections where I felt fantastic and running seemed easy. My pacers kept on telling me that I was doing great and that I appeared to be running strong:) In addition to struggling with a few of the hills there were some open areas where the sun was shining...I was feeling very warm:( At mile nine I really felt like slowing down.....I toughed it out and eventually it got easier. Allen and Steve were always letting us know where we were for time. We were consistently 20 to 27 seconds ahead of pace:) This made me feel good! At mile ten they said, we just have a 5K left....we are almost done. Usually this is the hardest part mentally for me...the last three miles. I just kept moving and thought about something that Meg had posted in her blog. She wrote about how we always have about 30% of energy on reserve:) I used two Strawberry Banana PowerBar Gels for this race. I love how they taste and they really seem to do the trick!! Steve announced when we had one mile left...he encouraged anyone to move ahead. He said, "Julie, are you going to start to make your move?" I thought about it and made the choice to wait until the last 400 meters. I started to pull ahead and I could hear my pacers talking about me and how fast I was running:) LOL, I was going up a hill:) Julie and hill does not make going fast! I smiled when I heard this:) I ran up a hill and continued making a few turns until I could see the finish line!! I started sprinting and passed several people again:) I know that I had the biggest smile on my face.....I did it!! I finished this half marathon in 1:54 something!! Woo hoo!! What a great feeling!! I was so proud of myself because this was weekend four of racing and I was pretty tired. I found that last 30% of energy to finish strong and flipping take time off of my race again:) I would really like to be at 1:50 to 1:45 by the end of the season. I am hopeful and will keep the faith!

Here I am with my personal pacers Allan and Steve!! I say this like they didn't have anyone else in our group:) We had the second largest pacing group! Thank you guys!! If anyone reading this lives a Minnesota and you have a chance to run a marathon or half marathon and the Minnesota Pacers are there.......I encourage you to use them:) Every time I have used these pacers I have had an excellent experience:) They are all professional, fun, encouraging and they are experienced runners!! They will help you to stay on task and keep you smiling along the way:)

This last picture is of me after the race...that is gorgeous Lake Minnetonka in the background. I sat there just looking out onto the water for a few minutes....I rested and cooled off:) Today was a great day! I was able to pull it together when I put my mind to it:)

I found my official results....here are my my stats.

I placed 870 out of 2,466.

I placed 314 out of 1,384 for women.

I placed 65 out of 241 for my age group.

Final time 1:54:34 at a 8:46 minute mile pace!! This is almost a two minute PR from my race two weeks ago:)

I hope that everyone has a great week! Happy running, biking, swimming and lifting!! Cheers:)

I will post everyone's giveaways shortly! Also, I know that I am so far behind on blogging and catching up on everyone's posts:( I will try very hard to catch up on Monday!!

MissZippy is hosting aRunning Chicks running tops giveaway!

Angie is hosting The Barefoot Running Book giveaway!

Psyche is hosting a Blackhawk T-shirt giveaway!

Rad Runner is hosting a Bradford Tonic giveaway!

Angie is hosting a Whooha gear giveaway!

Erica is hosting a Banana Blossoms Press card and t-shirt giveaway!

Molly is hosting a I Can't Believe It's Not Butter giveaway!