The goals were simple: 1) beat last year’s time of 6:20, 2) beat Megan and 3) don’t get hurt before the marathon. That last one “snapped” into effect half-way down Nicollet Mall, as I heard and felt a pop behind my left knee. I gimped my way to the finish (with one additional snap during the home stretch) and finished nine seconds slower than last year (but 13 seconds in front of Megan – sorry, kiddo).

I’m trying to tell myself that if it was serious, I wouldn’t have been able to do so much walking afterwards. It’s not really painful – just awkward and uncomfortable. I’ve got ice on it now and took some Advil, so we’ll see how it feels in the morning.

The evening was a little warm (upper 70s?) and there was a pretty strong southerly headwind the whole race, but overall it wasn’t bad. Megan and the Allina crew raced in the second wave, while I waited until the Masters wave. The start of the race seemed fine – no crowding, I skipped wearing a watch and tried to keep a relatively relaxed pace. I was breathing with little stress, but that changed by the midway point and was worsened by what seemed to be poor air quality conditions.

My quarter split was around 1:28 and I hit the midway point right around 3:00. The first snap happened shortly after that and I sort of hobbled by the 3/4 mark around 4:45. I came around the final turn, saw Megan cheering and tried to pick up the pace, which caused the second pop. I was actually quite amazed to be anywhere near 6:30, which at least gives me hope that sub-6 won’t be too far off.

Megan and I both felt like we had smoker’s cough for a while afterwards. We walked most of the way back to the start so we could get everyone’s stuff out of my car before returning back to The Local for post-race drinks. The outdoor dining scene was really hopping – too bad Megan wasn’t up for any of the food options.

Team Allina had a new member this year and she really kicked butt – Lauren Chucko placed 14th among women in 5:35 (one place in front of my former NWA co-worker Bonnie Sons). I saw a few other familiar names on the results page too (Hi Brady!), although it would be easier if Twitter names were listed for all of the MNrunnerds.

Fingers crossed that things will feel OK in the morning. Laundry and packing, then we hit the road to Fargo around noon…

2012 TC 1 Mile Searchable Results Page