MCA was watching out for me yesterday in Fargo, as I had to keep reminding myself that a fast time wasn’t worth blowing the chance to run New York in November. The knee pop injury I suffered on Thursday at the TC 1 Mile had me seriously doubting my ability to finish marathon number twenty, but I was going to at least try.

During packet pickup at the Fargodome, I talked to Kris from Sweaty Bands, who recommended I visit the KT Band booth and get my knee taped up. She said all the high school track kids are using it and if I didn’t like it, I could just pull it off. I don’t like trying new things so close to a race, but I decided it was worth a shot.

The guy at the booth had about six people waiting in line, but it didn’t take long. He was very knowledgable, asking where it hurt and describing what was involved in that region. After a little shave, my pink band was in place and it felt good. I don’t know the science behind this, but I do think it helped me finish the race. Oh, and did I mention it was free? Thank you KT Band!

The whole setup at the Fargodome was pretty awesome – Thursday and Friday it hosts the expo, while on Saturday all of that was gone and the main floor transformed into finish line central: the actual finish, food and refreshments, bag pickup and lots of places to sit and meet family members. Colleen said this was by far the best race ever for spectators, with ample free parking right next to the dome and good seating in the stands around the finish. Lots of bathrooms and open refreshment stands too.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Fargo, which was quite a ways from the Fargodome, but right across the street from West Acres Mall, where multiple race shuttles picked up runners. The hotel had a nice pool area for the kids and the rate was decent ($135/night), but the walls were paper thin – not a good thing with a crying baby next door.

The whole Fargo area had lots of signs up welcoming runners, including our choice for pre-race pasta, Happy Joe’s on University. The baked spaghetti was just what I wanted. We went looking for Jigg’s Diner in West Fargo after the race, but it’s apparently now called TNT Diner (and was good too).

I took an early shuttle to the race and ended up sitting around for about two hours. The 10K started first, followed by the half, then the full. There was a brief thunderstorm that moved through while I was inside the dome, and it dropped temps much more than I expected. It was in the mid 90Fs on Friday and the forecasted low was 67F, but I saw a bank sign that said 53F – perfect! It stayed cloudy most of the race with a decent wind, but it never rained and the sun did peek out for a few minutes.

The course was flat (as advertised) and there were spirited spectators along the way, but quite a bit fewer than any other race I’ve been to (with maybe the exception of Eau Claire). The finish line made up for that, though, as I felt like an Olympian coming down the chute to the cheers of the Fargodome crowd for my slow, barely sub-5 finish (official chip time of 4:57:49).

This is billed as a music race, but I think some of the bands must have skipped it due to the weather forecast. With me running slow, though, maybe I just missed them. The marathon course itself was mostly residential, but did pass through downtown and across the Red River into Minnesota for a half mile or so. Several miles run parallel on the same streets, which I would have liked more if I was running faster.

Speaking of pace, I ran without a watch and just planned to listen to my knee. I wanted to stay at ten minute miles or slower if I could, despite a competitive urge to speed things up. The first mile was uncomfortable and I was doubting my ability to finish. I bought the damn poster, though, so I needed to finish. The knee actually felt quite good around miles 6-10, but I had to listen to MCA and keep it slow the rest of the way.

Looking at my official splits, I did stay in the 10:00 range for most of the race – 5K in 32:04, 10K in 1:03:57 and the half in 2:19:09. I did feel a little more pain in the second half and slowed the pace down accordingly (although I never did take any extending walk breaks). Stopped twice for bathroom visits (unusual for me), and roughly hit every other water station. Couldn’t resist a sprint at the end when I saw the clock – so glad the knee didn’t pop during that moment of indiscretion.

Overall, I thought this was a good event. I still like Twin Cities and Grandma’s the best, but you can really tell the community supports this event and I think they realize it’s an up and coming race on the national calendar (voted best value by Runner’s World). Fifty Staters will do well to pick this as their ND race (it was state number five for me) and those looking for a flat course will love it. I found the religious undertone a little odd (bible quotes on the race poster and medal, blessing before the national anthem), but everyone was very nice and welcoming. Even the governor and mayor showed up to wish us good luck.

Nothing else planned now until New York on November 4. I’ll take a few days off and see how the knee does in recovery mode.

And congrats to Courtenay (www.autopilotlegs.com), who ran her first ever half marathon – way to go Twitter friend!

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

I’ll have to hustle from my last work meeting and drive straight to the starting line in Minneapolis tomorrow. Thankfully they have packet pickup on race day, but that will still be a hassle to get the stuff, run back to the car and get back in time. Looks like I’ll either do the masters wave at 7:24 or the open wave at 7:39. Two goals for this year: 1) beat last year’s time of 6:20 and 2) beat Megan. I’d really like to get a sub-6, but I don’t want to risk injury before the marathon.

The whole family is going to Fargo and we plan to get the kids out of school early and start driving around noon. Google says a little more than four hours to the Fargodome, where packet pickup is located. We have until 9 p.m. to get there, so we should be fine. We have reservations at the Fargo Holiday Inn, which has a big pool area for the family to hang out at until I get done running.

Mentally, I feel ready for both of these. My running log has been a little light this month, but the 2012 year to date totals haven’t been awful. I’ve done a fair amount of cross training this month too, so I should be fine. No pressure on the Fargo time, so I’ll just see what the weather dictates. In fact, I don’t think I’ll even run with a watch this time…

Before the race, I had the chance to meet a few local Twitter runners in person (@autopilotlegs and @lifeisfunner), which was very nice. Every year there are about 8,000 people at Minnehaha Park for this event, but I never seem to find any of the people I know are there running.

I couldn’t find my watch this week, so I was running without knowing pace. My 10K PR is 44:47 and the more I think about it, the more I wonder if that’s going to be it for me. Last year I stayed sub-50, but wasn’t even close at 48:23. The race organizers (who are awesome, by the way) had people yelling splits at every mile marker, which helped. I think I was roughly 7:25, 15-something, 22:30, 30:00 and 37:25.

During the race, the rain never picked up too much and I didn’t have any problems clothing wise (very glad I wore winter tights and a shell, though). I was a little sore the first two miles, but the pace (and runner spacing) was good throughout. It was a little disappointing not getting a 45-something, but overall I’m happy with the 46:03 (7:25 pace – official MTEC results page).

Up next: the TC 1 Mile on May 17, followed by the Fargo Marathon two days later…