First of all, you guys have been a great inspiration and I have
enjoyed reading the posts here and learned a lot from them. Thank you!
Here is my RR: Before:
I set on the task to break my old HM PR last November. The last month
was quite horrible in terms of training as I was injured. My monthly
mileage dropped form the upper 40s to the lower 20s. But after so much
preparation and after running something like 700 miles, I decided to
bite the bullet and do this HM. Race:
Woke up at 6AM, ate light breakfast and took some ibuprophen and two
Hershey kisses. Weather was 60F cloudy and 90% humidity. About 2000
runners lined up for the HM race. The gun went off couple of minutes
after 8AM. The first 3 miles were a loop in downtown Raleigh. I
obviously went out too fast. The next 4 miles were a gradual climb up a
street which is on the border of NC State University’s campus. Then we
turned and after another mile we entered a nice paved trail that goes
behind some art museum. This trail included 3 major hills but also nice
down hills. I was alternating between cursing the race director and
then blessing him. Then at mile 10 we joined the same road we came up
on but now it was mostly a down hill. The HM finished in downtown
Raleigh again with a very nice ½ mile stretch to the finish. I was
kicking hard and zooming past a guy who dared to pass me half a mile
before. Time: 1:37:50 (unofficial) which means 7:28 on average.Here are the mile splits:
01 6:50 (shoot! this is too fast! it's not a 5K!!!)
02 7:05 (it's not a 10K either! slow down!)
03 7:20 (leaving downtown Raleigh)
04 7:30 (starting a moderate climb)
05 7:33 (still climbing...)
06 7:33 (I'm finding my pace but also starting to have doubts)
07 7:41 (having more negative thoughts and trying to ditch them)
08 7:17 (crazy down hill, I love the race director)
09 7:48 (two crazy up hills, I hate the race director)
10 7:50 (third hill and then flattening + gatorade stop)
11 7:35 (feeling good but a bit tired)
12 7:34 (seeing Raleigh's downtown approaching)
13.1 8:14 (7:29 pace including a nice kick at the end) After: Just a bit sore and only one blister but very happy about crashing my old PR (1:44:26) by more than six and a half minutes. Thoughts:
1) I’m wondering how my race would have looked liked if I wasn’t
injured for the last month. 2) How to solve the 'starting too fast'
problem and is it really a problem? 3) how to better mentally train
such that I will not have so many negative thoughts.
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