Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

I did the USATF MN Cross Country Championship 8K CC race last weekend out at Gale Woods Farm, and it was brutal. Here are 4 final notes:

• ONE: I thought a friendly group of women out there were cheering for me, but they were cheering for someone else. I'd run past and they'd say "Looking good YOU!!" And I thought it was a sweet and generic way to cheer for someone whose name they didn't know. But then a DIFFERENT group said something like that as well. In the results, I placed 2 spots in front of a man named Yu Wu. So they were all cheering for "Yu" out there and not "you" (AKA: me). D'oh. Ha!

• TWO: I "settled in" to the race after less than a minute, and then I only passed one person after that. No one passed me, and I passed no one else. And in my race report where I noted wanting to pass this person at about mile 1.5, I noted someone coming up behind me at that point as well. I think that was Yu from the first point above.

• THREE: Cross country races as SO MUCH EASIER on my body! I went out for a very normal run yesterday, and forgot ALL about my previous run being a race... because my body felt totally normal. I might be doing more running on grass as I get older... my splits will suffer, but my body will thank me!

• FOUR: The results show no ages, but I did some digging to see how I fared against others in my age group. From glacing at the age group awards list just after the race, I knew I was 5th out of 7 in my age group, but that info is no where in the online results. So I went to Mtec Results because you can search by name for results (and they do a lot of the local races like Victory, Brian Kraft, and the TC 10 Mile / Marathon until the last year or 2), and I found everyone who did the race except for 2 names. Here's some of what I found:

- The VAST MAJORITY of the 28 runners in front of me were in their mid-20s to lower-30s. Babies. :)

- Brian D who finished 2 spots in front of me (who I chased ALL race) was the first finisher older than that (besides the few in their lower 40s from my age group), and he's 51! I didn't realize he was that old! As I was trying to chase him, I was afraid he was in my age group (40-44).

- And the guy right behind me (between me and Yu) was 62!! So we had 51, 44, and 62 year olds finishing within 4 spots of one another after all younger finisher in front of us (except for 4 men in the lower 40s in my age group).

- I finished 29th (31:46), and in my age group, the finishers were 9th (28:09), 11th (28:21), 16th (29:08), and 18th (29:51) in front of me. So I was 2 minutes behind the nearest in my age group, and over 2.5 mins from earning a medal! That's a gap! (And then the remaining 2 in my age group were 34th [32:59] over a minute behind me, and 40th [36:02].)

• FIVE: There's PLENTY of elevation change out there! My "normal" 5+ mile loop along the river (which has small rollers and a big climb back up from the river) has about 180 feet of elevation change. This hilly 8K had 3x the elevation change with 549 feet:

It was a cheap fun race, and I'm glad I did it! I only wish I could have walked away with some hardware like I did 2 years ago. If you missed it, here's my 2025 race report from a few days ago.

Back with some "Friday Funnies" tomorrow!

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Yesterday was the USA Track and Field Minnesota Cross Country Championship race. It was an 8K around hilly Gale Woods Farm out past Lake Minnetonka. I did this race in 2023 and made it a point NOT to look back at the race report before this year's race (as I noted in a pre-race post a few days back). I knew I wasn't going to be as fast as I was 2 years ago, and I just wanted to turn in a hard "tempo effort" this year.

Here are 3 pics from my 2023 race report that show the course and the hills on the "out and back" section to get out to the loop:

I got to the race site and laughed at this permanent sign that's installed as there are lots of CC races held out here (and I was out here 2 times already this year for CC meets for Henry):

Notice that photo: I started in my tank top jersey, but then took that off to go with a thin long-sleeve top (as it was 45 degrees). And I ate a little oatmeal on the way out there. And I wore my mittens (foreground) as I was warming up. And yes, that's a Menards rebate form in my cup holder... I'm midwestern afterall.

I talked with Rob E, Kirt G, Jeremy R, and Brian D pre-race, along with teammate Eric P. We were all NOT looking forward to running into this wind! About 3 minutes pre-race, I took one final photo of people lining up, and then I shed my hoodie, mittens, and phone:

We lined up and we were off!! I was instantly pretty far back in the race - there are a lot of speedy 25-30 year old guys at this race. I did a good job of settling in pretty quickly: I got into my position and held that for 1.5 miles without passing anyone and without letting anyone pass me!

The wind was pushing us out, so I knew my ONLY fast split would be this opening split. I tucked in behind a slightly broader guy who I THOUGHT I could pass, but I used him for 2 reasons: first to keep me from going out TOO hard; and second, to help cut through the wind when we turned into it around the first mile marker.

MILE 1: 6:10 (3:01 and 3:08)

In my pre-race post, I noted have no real goals. But OF COURSE my mind ended up working through some scenarios on the way to the race, and I figured I could run 6:20s to finish around 31:40 (that would be about a minute slower than 2 years ago). So finishing the first mile in 6:10 felt good. I was holding back a little to keep that guy in front of me to cut through the strong wind.

From the start, I saw Brian D about 4 places in front of me. I'd already made him my rabbit. Some runners around him got past him, so now it was the guy right in front of me being my wind break, then a big gap, then Brian. About 1.5 miles into the race, I checked our difference, and he was exactly 20 seconds in front of me. I wanted to work to slowly close that gap!

My next half mile was slow (3:16), so even though we were about to turn straight into the wind on the straight section back towards the finish line, I figured I couldn't keep "bleeding time" behind this guy. So I used the downhill as we came off the loop (seen in the 2nd photo from the top of this post) to fly past him, just as another runner was getting ready to pass me (but didn't). And luckily, the next uphill was so steep that we didn't feel the wind in our face right there. I booked it back towards the start/finish line only to turn around again.

MILE 2: 6:24 (3:16 and 3:07)

I gave back SOME of that cushion from my first mile split, but was happy with where I was. I counted at the turn-around that I was in 29th place - 2 years ago, I finished 34th out of 60, but there seemed to be fewer runners here this year.

Now we were back out on the loop for TWO more loops before heading back to the finish. It was kind of a depressing place in the race. I tried to keep Brian in sight as my rabbit.

MILE 3: 6:22 (3:11 and 3:11)

That BEAR of a hill in the back of the loop was feeling worse and worse! Here's a screenshot of that place in the race, and it was 3 times of turning south into the wind and hitting a nasty hill, so my pace shows all blue (AKA: slow):

My splits here weren't horrible. And I checked my gap behind Brian again: it was 20 secs at mile 1.5, and now it was 10 secs at mile 3.5. But I was running out of space! We had one more loop to do, then back to the finish. Brian seemed to be slowing on the uphills (he's a tall and broad guy), so I told myself I needed to pass him on the final big uphill with about 0.3 miles left so that I could build a little gap for the final kick. Because I wasn't going to have a kick!

MILE 4: 6:15 (3:08 and 3:07)

Those splits weren't bad! It felt good knowing we were at the "back corner" of the race, but we just had a mile left and just needed to get straight back to the finishline. I REALLY tried to use the downhills, but I was running out of gas. That hill in the back corner was nasty the final time, and I had another 3:16 half-mile split. Yikes.

Brian caught someone, and I worked my way up to that guy on the hills on the straight stretch back toward the finish. I never quite got past him though. And neither of us caught Brian. He was a GREAT rabbit for me to chase though!

MILE 5: 6:17 (3:16 and 3:01)

EXTRA TO THE FINISH: 0:15 (0.04 miles)

At this race 2 years ago, I made it a point to run the tangents well, and I was happy to finish with 4.99 miles on my Garmin for an 8K race (which is 4.97 miles). So I was a bit shocked this year to have mile 5 beep when I was still 0:15 from the line! I realized that when I was "tucked in" behind that broad runner from mile 0.4 to mile 1.6 that I wasn't paying ANY attention to the tangents - I was just making it a point to be behind him. I think I added some distance over that mile. D'oh.

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel
M, 44, St. Paul

31:46.4
6:23.58 pace

29 out of 47 overall
5 out of 7 in the 40-44 age group

[Garmin: 31:46 for 5.04 miles (6:18.18 pace)]

Post-race I looked back at the race from 2 years ago, and I finished in 30:46 when I was hoping to break 32. So to be 61 seconds slower this year was perfectly acceptable. I'll take that.

But yeah.... the biggest letdown was finishing 5th in my age group when I won my age group 2 years ago and left with a gold USATF medal. Dang. But I was happy with my effort this year. Running my time from 2 years ago would have put me in 23rd place overall, and I don't know what that would have done to my age group place as ages aren't shown anywhere in the results:

So I'm happy with my effort, satisfied with my time, but a bit bummed about my place. I'd love to be able to see age group results, but that doesn't exist for this race - I'm curious where the other 40-44 men ended up, and if I could have caught any with a better race strategy. But that also wasn't the point: I just came to run hard.

Back with more shortly!

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This morning I decided to register for a race tomorrow:

It was on my mind, but it wasn't any sort of "A-race," so I put off signing up in case something came up. But after lots of Halloween junk food over the last few days and an easy run yesterday, I feel like I'm set to go.

I'm not going to kill myself at this race. I don't have any real goals. I'm treating this like a tempo run as a way to get in a hard 5-mile effort. I did this race a few years back, but I'm making it a point NOT to look back at that race report and instead just going as hard as I can this year (knowing that I was in better shape a few years ago, so I'm not wanting to try to keep up with that pace and then die half way through those hills).

Check back for a race report shortly!

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Two weeks ago was the USATF MN 8K Cross Country Championship out in the western suburbs. A few days ago, USATF MN posted a few photos on Facebook. Here are a few I wanted to share:

Here's my race report if you missed it.

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If you missed it, I posted a race report on Monday from the USATF MN 8K Cross Country Championship Race. It was a fun and hilly race. Here are 7 final thoughts:

• I was ready for the race to read a little "long" on my Garmin, but I was also actively working to "run the tangents." An 8K is 4.97 miles, so I was quite happy logging 4.99 miles - I was going to take it as a "win" if I got back to the line before my Garmin beeped for mile 5. With a course that looks like this (running the "straight" section 4 times [out-and-back and then out-and-back] and the big loop 3 times), I knew I'd have to hold a decent line to avoid running too far:

• There were a LOT of speedy people there! I finished in the bottom half of the race! That doesn't usually happen. I was 34th out of 60. As I noted in my race report, I was counting how far back I was from the leaders around mile 2 (on the out-and-back section), and it was easy for a while: 2 guys here, 3 guys there, 1 more guy here... But then there was a PACK that came through well in front of me. There were a lot of finishers around 27 minutes, which is faster than 5:30 pace (and my 5K PR pace for a ROAD race was around 5:33 pace - and that was on a pretty flat PAVED course, was nearly 2 miles SHORTER than this race, and I was in my 20s when I did that!). FAST FAST RACE!

• Here's how close I was to people around me. I noted that I was SLOWLY gaining on a guy in front of me, and that the 2 of us were gaining on someone else a bit faster. I NEARLY came up along side the guy in front of me with about 0.15 miles to go, but then he pulled away again. I was just over 0:02 behind the guy in front of me at the finish, and he was about 0:04 back from the guy in front of him. But there was quite a gap between the 3 of us and anyone in front of us, and also a decent gap between anyone behind us:

• My even splits treated me well. I had a nice comment from Rob on Facebook after the race. He's a running coach and finished exactly a minute behind me:

• It was hilly, and I had to look back to my last CC race to compare. I actually was curious about hills AND pace. For reference, my normal 5-6 mile loop along the river has about 170-190 feet of ascent. I did Rocky's Run 6K CC race in 2016 as my last CC race - I didn't remember that one being as hilly, but it had 318 feet of ascent, and I ran that 6K (3.81 miles according to my Garmin) in 24:03, or 6:18.7/mile.

This past weekend's 8K was 4.99 miles (according to my Garmin) in 30:45, or 6:09.7/mile. And it had 422 feet of ascent.

So proportionally, they had the same amount of elevation change / mile, but 42-year-old Steve ran a faster pace on a longer course than 35-year-old Steve back in 2016. I've been feeling good about my running lately!!!

• Speaking of the hills, my Garmin noted I went up a lot of "flights" on Sunday! When I had been at the race course and walked around for a while, my Garmin buzzed when I was back at my car at one point to let me know I'd climbed my 10 flights for the day. And then just after I finished, I noticed that I had 60 flights! So yes, I "climbed more flights" than I'm used to climbing in a day:

• My legs felt GREAT after this CC race! I tell ya... running on grass is a bit slower, but it's SO MUCH EASIER on your body! After all those hills and working so hard for 5 miles, my legs were just a little "tired" later that day. And they seemed totally fine the next day. My calves should have been SCREAMING after those hills, and my legs would have been MUCH more "beat up" if it was a road race. Maybe getting-older-Steve will be all about the CC races!

Again, if you missed my race report, click here to check it out!

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I knew this race was coming up, but I finally signed up for it just a few days ago. I hadn't raced a cross country race in 7 years! Time for some fun.

Suzie told me that she overdressed in a t-shirt, so I was going to strip down to my team's tank-top. It was a beautiful 50 degree November day! (Just a bit breezy.) She told me there was only really 1 bad hill on "the loop" and that there were some hills on the out-and-back to get to the loop. I was ready to suffer on some hills:

I was about to jog the out-and-back section, and during the race I'd learn that the "bad hill" on the loop was just to the left of where it says "Large loop" on the map. But it was all rolling hills with very little "flat" areas.

I was catching up to Docherty on my warm-up, which was a bad idea. I let up and he did some strides to pull away. We went down that hill in the distance in that last photo, and then I snapped these 2 photos where I turned around:

All the men started congregating at about 10:55, and we were all lined up to race at 11:00 a.m. There was plenty of space on that wide starting line. I was in the "back row" which meant I had 2 people ahead of me. We got the gun and we were off!!!

I instantly bumped elbows with an older guy as I shot around him, but I kept it pretty easy starting off. We rounded the corner by the pig barn, and I was in the gravel road a bit - I preferred that over the grass on the out-and-back section (although the grass was in good shape so I can't complain!). I was slowly passing people here-and-there.

I didn't know what to expect for my splits, and I hit my first half-mile split after climbing the big hill to start "the loop." I was quite happy to see my first half mile was 3:03. I had hoped to be under 32:00, and that pace had me under 31:00, so I hoped I wasn't going out too hard. I eased up a LITTLE, but still found myself passing someone just after the first half-mile. Spoiler: I'd only pass 1 other person for the rest of the race! My next half mile was decent as well:

• MILE 1: 6:09 (3:03.9 + 3:05.9)

Just after that was THEE HILL that Suzie warned about. It wasn't too bad, but it was a real slow down, that's for sure. I actually MISSED my 3rd half-mile split (I don't know the last time that's happened during a race) and was now headed back on the out-and-back towards the finish line ready to start the route all over again. I tried counting what place I was in, and it was easy starting off, but then a BIG pack came through and I had to guess a little. When I saw the turn-around in the distance, I guessed I was in about 35th place overall. The 2 mile split came near the turn-around, and I did the math to see that I had a slow 3rd half-mile split:

• MILE 2: 6:15 (3:09.6 + 3:05.7)

I mean, those times were still better than I thought I'd be doing. AND ON THOSE HILLS. I was happy with this... and hoping I could keep it up. I was running a little scared as there was a decent sized pack right behind me at the turn-around, and some of them looked "older" like me.

I ran up that nasty hill to start "the loop" again, and I said something like "NOT HAVING FUN" to Andrea Haus who was cheering, and she said "Oh this is fun, right?!?" I shrugged my shoulders as I ran off. She added "...maybe a LITTLE fun?!?" So I gave a thumbs up to her behind me.

I caught the ONLY OTHER RUNNER of the race from mile 0.6 through the finish, and it was right after my watched beeped for mile 2.5. "Halfway there..." I said to him from just behind him. He surged a little, and then I did to, and I got around him shortly after. His breathing behind me kept pushing me hard, and I was working to find the best/fastest/shortest lines on this loopy course.

• MILE 3: 6:15 (3:09.3 + 3:06.6)

I was feeling OK, and my splits weren't suffering! It was time to see if I could start eeking the pace up a little. Unfortunately, the next mile started with that dumb hill. Here's split 6 (mile 3), and I was heading south up that hill, and you can see that all 3 loops were dark blue... AKA slow:

We finished the loop only to start the loop again for a 3rd and final time. I saw Andrea again and said "STILL not having fun!..." I was also OH SO SLOWLY gaining on the tall man with long blonde hair in front of me. I'd been trying to track him down for miles, but he just pulled me and pulled me. We hit all the lines similarly, and then we started passing some lapped runners on their 2nd loop as we were on our 3rd. This was a pretty fast mile:

• MILE 4: 6:08 (3:05.3 + 3:02.7)

We were at the farthest point on the loop from the finish, and we just needed to get back home! The first half of the last mile included that final trip up that bastard of a hill, so it wasn't fast, but then I really tried to bomb it to the finish. I ALMOST got up along side of the tall blonde man heading up the final hill on the out-and-back with about 0.25 miles left, but he kept pulling away: a GREAT rabbit... but I also would have loved to catch him. We had been coming up on another runner in front of us for the last 1.5 miles, but neither of us could catch him either. It was like a team effort to push to the finish line.

• MILE 5: 5:53 (3:08.5 + 2:48.1 [0.49 miles])

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 42, M, St. Paul

30:45.5
34th out of 60 overall
1st in 40-44 age group (out of at least 3)

I know I was faster than everyone in the 50+ age group (as the winner there was Rob E who was 60 sec behind me), but I'm not sure of the times of the guys in the 45-49 age group - if they were slower than me, then I was the overall masters champion as well! WILD!!!

Well, that was a fun way to end the running season here in MN! I'll update with more about this race if I learn anything else.

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