Ethan Cannon

6:49 pace on east river road. Not quite a deluge but some solid rain. Felt a little cramping in my upper gastroc area again. Could be related to my hamstring issue from earlier. I stretched it afterwards. Gotta take care of it because you really don't want to be worried about your health during a race. You want to be focused on the race. The forecast is calling for almost an inch of rain on Saturday in Duluth. Yikes. We had a weather miracle last year at that race so maybe we will have one again. 

Unique run for several reasons. My other shoes were still SOAKED from yesterday so I wore Triumphs and put both by the fan afterwards as these became soaked as well- from sweat. I had my wife ride my new bike while I pushed the stroller. It was like 70 degrees yesterday evening but already in the mid 70s this morning, with a dew point close to 70. Wind and clouds helped. I pushed the stroller and the girls had a great time. I ran 6:45 pace to keep it moving- the bike is so good that my wife was hardly sweaty when we got home, which is crazy. We ran to west river, then came back on east river and looped around the stadium. I was sopping wet, but other than that we had a good time, except my left gastroc which started feeling pretty tight only near the end. This was quite dissapointing with a race coming up. I bet it has to do with overcompensating during my hamstring issue. I can only hope and pray it will be ok by Saturday, and that I can still get in enough speed that I don't feel flat by then. 

Much cooler today. I notice my calve felt not quite like a typical overuse injury, but the type of thing that kind of comes and goes. Overall that is a good thing, but I need to work on getting better as I would bet that running 5 minute mile pace for a half marathon would be the exact type of thing that would make it come on bad, and that would not be good for me. In addition to exercises, I rolled out today and boy did that feel good / painful. I ran straight up Hendon to Como park, then to the other side of the lake. 6:42 pace. No strides or anything. 

Easy run towards boom island. Then a few hard one minute runs to get the legs moving again. 

Cloudy but no rain today! Getting to the station, driving to Duluth, running in Duluth, or walking around it. That is appreciated. I enjoyed my bus ride up here- Minnesota is a lot of trees, lakes, and fields, which I like a lot. I ran a better route this year on the lake that reminded me of a better version of what they had in Chicago. Legs felt fine. 

Another great day in Duluth! This is a fun experience I’ve been lucky to have the past couple of years. It’s good to see northern MN, be surrounded by other runners (albeit rich ones if they aren’t fast enough to get free stuff like me), and see old friends. The forecast called for lots of rain but we got another Bjorklund miracle and had a dry day yesterday and modest sprinkles during the half today (last year the smoke cleared out just in time). The rain started coming more later in the race. One thing I loved about last year was how helpful it was to run with other people and help push each other. I had talked with three guys I knew-Jack, Danny, and Tom, who all seemed to be about the same fitness as me and I thought I might have a good group. I did have a good group, though didn’t run with them much. We had a nice tail wind which was great. Perfect cloudy weather. I knew I was going to get a worse place this year due to all the guys around me, but I appreciated being able to run with them. 26th is actually better than the 30th I had estimated. Calve felt a little sore at a couple points but thankfully didn’t progress. Don’t have much to say about how the race went. Went in with low expectations and more relaxed than I usually am by a lot which usually bodes well. After some fast early miles I became just a tiny bit optimistic, and kind of like the UW 5K I ran, I got tired and worried I would fall apart a few times but was able to hang on and keep clicking the miles off somehow. I feel like if I don’t feel like that during a race I’m probably running too conservatively.  It’s really helpful when the course is just straight and you can just say “if I can just make it as far as I can see then I’ll be a lot closer to the next mile marker”. Mile 8/9 is a turning point when you know you’re getting close. This time I was more prepared for the long finish (into the wind, too!) 

Here were my splits: 4:58, 4:56, 4:56, 5:03, 5:06, 4:56, 5:07, 5:09, 5:00, 5:06, 5:07, 5:03, 5:36. The splits are very similar to last year, but I'll note that I ran miles 1-3 9 seconds faster than last year and the final 1.1 4 seconds faster. The middle was a wash. I got to 10K in 31:05, faster than I ran at Get in Gear! This was my fourth 1/2 and fourth time running 1:06. Idk if I’ll ever run 1:05 but I’d like to.