Wednesday, May 6, 2015

MOAR Fitness stuff!

This past weekend I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles). I have run full marathons twice before, so while I have run this distance in the past while training, this was the first actual race I have done at this length. Thinking about this a little more, I've actually only ever done races that were 5ks (3.1 miles) or marathons (26.2 miles), ha!

I hadn't run much over the winter, so we (my wife also ran in this race) started training about 8-9 weeks before the race. I always feel like the majority of my training is spent trying to build my endurance up to the necessary length, rather than being able to focus on speed work. Throughout most of my training I didn't have a time goal in mind - I just wanted to run, be comfortable, and finish. About 3 weeks before the race though, I started to notice my training runs were under the ten minute mile pace. Given my lack of focus on timing and lack of water/gels on my longer runs, I started to wonder if I could break 2 hours. A 2 hour half seems to be a pretty common goal for half marathons so in my head I made that my goal. I didn't really tell anyone because I wasn't sure it was possible and didn't want to disappoint myself if I had to tell 18 people that I failed.

Going into the race I thought I would miss it by about 3-4 minutes, which would have been about a ~9:30 pace. 2 hours is closer to a 9:10 pace (it's kind of crazy that just 4 minutes translates to a 20 second faster pace, isn't it?!). I figured having gels (basically easy to ingest carbs with some added sodium and electrolytes; who knows how effective they really are, but psychologically they help, if nothing else) and the frequent water/gatorade stops would be enough to allow me to push the pace.

We got up at 4:30 (UGH), and drove an hour to get to the race. It took us half an hour to get from the highway to the parking lot because of the crazy lines, and then we stood in line for the port-a-pots for another 20 minutes. So with just a few minutes before the race was supposed to start, we finally made it over toward the starting line. At this point, the street was packed. We tried to weave up closer to the start, but basically couldn't move through the mass of people. Most races try to arrange people so that those who are shooting for faster times are in front (that way once the race starts they aren't weaving through all the slower people); I don't know if it was because it was so busy, because people didn't pay attention to those signs, or because most people were too optimistic in their times, but we got up to the 2:40 sign and couldn't get any closer.

The race started, I started the MapMyRun app on my phone (so I could see my splits for the entire race), and then walked veeery slowly toward the starting line. I then spent the majority of the first mile trying to weave between people I was trying to pass. If memory serves me correctly, I hit the first mile at ~10:30, but then didn't see another time display until around mile 6. Every time I saw a timer I spent the next 4-5 minutes trying to do the math on my splits to see if I was going to make the 2 hour mark. I got a couple of donut holes at one of the first water stops (thanks Dunkin Donuts!). They're delicious! I used my first goo at mile 4.5, and by the time I hit mile 7 my thighs were already starting to burn. I guess my body wasn't used to that pace? I knew I could push through soreness, I just needed to not get any cramps. I used my second goo at mile 9, and as I started to get close to mile 12, I saw a big group of runners with several pacers in their midst. As I caught up to them, I could hear some of the pacers tell onlookers that this was the 2 hour pace group.

As we hit the 12 mile mark, I saw the third time display - 1:50:xx. I was going to do it. All I had to do was run a nice slow 10 minute mile and I would break 2 hours, especially considering I hadn't started right as the gun went off (each runner's personal race bib includes a chip that times you, so it doesn't start until you actually cross the starting line). The choice was: a nice easy last mile ... or kicking it in as fast as I could. I chose the latter:

Map my run splits
I crushed my last mile - 7:30 pace!! I also completely forgot I had MMR running on my phone until a bit after I had crossed, so the final mile time and distance aren't exactly accurate (nor is the first). Here is my official time / race splits:

Official results
Barely in the top half of my age group, but I was solidly in the top 25% overall. I passed 140 people over the last 3 miles, at a pace of 8:19! Overall my pace was ~8:41. I was really happy that I was able to break 2 hours (and pretty handily, too!), but many were my legs sore afterward. Still are, in fact!

It still seems kind of crazy to me that I didn't catch up to the 2 hour pace group until the last mile. It took me twelve miles to catch up to a group that I ended up beating fairly handily, time-wise. If I ran ~30 seconds faster per mile than they did, then they started 6 minutes before I did ... but my time at the first mile marker was only 10:30. So I'm not sure how that worked out. My next race is a 10 miler in June, and I haven't quite decided what to make my time goal yet!

Any suggestions?

2 comments:

  1. How hilly is the 10 miler? If it's equivalent and you can keep up the training, I bet you could make 8:10-8:15 minute miles without much trouble. But don't over train and risk another knee/hip injury! And run a variety of courses, some flat, some hilly, some very hilly :)

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  2. No idea, lol! I think it might be rather hilly.

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