I woke up at 6 am on race day, 45 minutes before my scheduled alarm. This race was generous with its start time: 8:30 am, a nice departure from the usual 7 am start times. It was good to sleep until 6 am, but truth be told, I didn’t have a very sound sleep. I was restless most of the night probably with some race nerves and thoughts of Purple Rain and the Mall of America swirling in my head.
As promised, the morning weather greeted us with a frigid 37 degrees, and the temperature was on the way down. The winds were whipping at around 15 mph or so. Not exactly the lovely fall weather I was hoping for. Andrew was a trooper to join with me on this one. We drove to the parking area for the race which was really close to our hotel, and then we didn’t want to get out of the car. The walk to the starting line was super windy and cold, a sign of what we were in for. We stopped at the porta potties on the way, and ended up in the corral line up with only about 15 minutes to spare. That was fine with me, as this was not a day to be hanging around outside for long periods of time. We took a quick selfie and briefly admired the lake and surrounding area. It was really pretty, but I don’t think we really took the time to appreciate it. With all the cold, all thoughts were just on getting started, and more importantly, getting done.
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| Cold people in front of a lovely lake. |
The race stepped off right at 8:30 am on a paved walking path near the Normandale Lake area in Bloomington. There were some large office/corporate buildings in the area, but as we rounded the corner and up the hill out of the starting line area, we passed a recreation area with a ski jump. That’s something you don’t see every day!
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| View from starting corral. Pretty fall colors. |
We crossed the street from this recreation area and headed in to a nearby nature preserve called the Highland Lake Park Reserve. We ran along a paved path all through this, and surrounding us were lovely wooded areas and prairie grass. (Click on the imbedded link to see how lovely the grassy topography was.) The path was curvy and had rolling hills all throughout the park. One thing I noticed once I got moving was that I warmed up pretty nicely, and largely throughout the course, we were protected from headwinds. That was good. Don’t get me wrong…I could still feel the wind loud and clear, but often we were protected by hills, berms or trees. That helped tremendously. It was cold, but at least the wind wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Around mile 4 I spied a few sparse snow flurries. Yikes!
It was hard for me to keep track of exactly where we were with this route, as there were many loops, turn-arounds and out and back spots. The topography throughout was very similar though; landscapes of beautiful autumnal wooded and grassy lands. I just wish it had been about 10-15 degrees warmer so I could have enjoyed looking around more. By mile 8 we exited the Highland Lake Park area and headed back toward the start, but we took a left turn on to another paved walking/biking path for an out and back stretch. It was only about two miles or so for this part, then we headed back toward Normandale Lake where we began.
At this point, we entered the Normandale Lake area on the recreation road access and ran along for a bit there before turning and looping back and then out to run about three quarters of the way around the lake in the opposite direction of the start/finish zone. For me, this was the most difficult part of the race. As our running direction shifted in this part, the wind was in our faces for the majority of the last few miles. This, with a few late mile hills plus cold and fatigue setting in made for slow going. Again, it was beautiful terrain running along the lake, but I just couldn’t appreciate it as much as I would have liked with the weather being what it was.
I pushed as much as I could to get on to the finish line. The last 100 meters or so took me past a beaver dam! That was pretty cool. On to the finish I went, crossing in 2:04:31, good enough for 6th place in my age group. Not my fastest time, but respectable given the conditions. I collected a bottled water, coffee mug and my medal and headed straight for the hot cider station. As promised by the name of the race (Hot Cider Hustle) the finish line included hot cider for all runners, a perfect finish line spoil. Andrew was already waiting in the parking garage (it was way too cold to hang around outdoors after sweating for two hours…).
We met up and traded race stories. He finished in 1:53! Great job, cousin! Back to the hotel we went, and I think a hot shower never felt as good as it did after this race. We relaxed a bit as we enjoyed a late check out time. Andrew had an earlier flight than I, so we said our goodbyes and he left around 1:00 pm or so.
I decided to research a restaurants in the area to see what might be close by and super yummy so I could have lunch before I went to the airport. I found a place called Hazelwood Food & Drink, but I didn’t realize that when I put the restaurant’s address in to Waze, I neglected to put in the address number. I jumped in the car and soon found myself in the middle of Minneapolis, not anywhere near the restaurant which was supposedly near the Mall of America. Oh well, I figured I’d just give up and head to the airport for whatever I could find for food there. Lo and behold, as I drove along Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis, I saw a really cool looking neighborhood establishment called The Howe. Named for the neighborhood where it resides, the restaurant looked crowded from the parking lot and people were coming in and out, so I decided at 1:45 pm on a Saturday that this place was worth checking out.
It was a super cool restaurant/bar with an edgy vibe. Loud, hard music played, the bar was backed by lots of shiny bottles, sports were on the tvs and tons of locals were enjoying a late lunch. Billed as a Bar & Kitchen, the menu was breakfast and pub centered. I settled on the spicy benedict, which was awesome! It was like an eggs benedict, but with jalapeño bacon and chipotle hollandaise sauce. Um, YUM! It was spectacular post-race food. I left full and happy, on to the airport.
After fueling my rental car, I returned it and made it through airport security in a snap. Thanks Minneapolis for a lovely, albeit FREEZING half marathon and some pretty special local attractions. I would love to explore more of this land of lakes sometime in the future.
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