Gusher Half Marathon (Beaumont, Texas)
21.5 total little over 3 wu/5.35 cd
1:22 4th overall/1stAge
great tempo run. Went out very conservative and focused on pacing today for Boston. Really like where I'm at. So enjoyable to run injury free. Little disappointed I didn't reel second and third place back in. I'll give a full report later.
The plan before I went into this race was to make it my first race. I wanted to focus on pace. I figured I would just go out conservatively and hold steady. I ride with my Dad to the event and convinced him to take a bike and follow the course during the race to where he could give me some fluid in a few spots of the race. The weather seemed really nice. The humidity was high though so I knew I would need to hydrate differently. The temp was 56-62 with a 10mph wind the whole time. The last mile it turned into a 15 mph wind.
We took off and it became very quickly decided who was going to lead. There were 5 guys that took off around 5:50 pace and I just let them go. I treated this start as a marathon start toget out slow and focus on holding pace. This guy stayed with me the first mile and I looked at him as he talked with me that whole mile. This guy was ripped. He didn't look like a runner and I thought hmmm how long will this guy stay with me. He seriously looked like he was in good shaped but in shape like a football wide receiver. I was impressed that he stayed with me til mile 3. This guy was super nice and cool. This is why I love running because you never know how inspiration and help someone accomplish so much. This guy ended up going on to win the marathon part of this event in 3 hours flat. There were only probably 100 people for the marathon part of the race. The half had around 2,000 with the 5k around a 1,000. Not a big event but well organized and done none the less minus the awards.
So I'm cruising along and just focused on maintaining pace. My goal was to go out at 6:20's and drop from there. My first mile was my slowest mile the whole race followed by my second mile. I'm really pleased with this reality because it tells me that my training is effective and I know where to improve now as a standard. This course has 3 underpasses with a net gain of 30 feet the whole race. Miles 8-10 are at a steady incline that you don't realize til you're running the route. All in all it's really nothing compared to what I run every day in Utah so the course easy. The middle section had a lot of turns and two times we went around a cone to go in a different direction. These two cones are by historic landmarks that they purposely implement in the race. I guess the cones keep it interesting though as one of the cones is mile 6 and the other right before mile 12. The course starts at Lamar University and goes around the whole campus. I thought the course was actually pretty cool, weird but cool.
As we headed into downtown Beaumont, I was in 6th place. I didn't think at all about winning a race prior to the start. I have no business winning a race right now. As we got going I could see the leader with second close behind and then 3 guys together about 1/4 mile ahead of me. All the separation was done very early. I kept telling myself just hold steady and all these guys will come back to you. I told my Dad as we went by my mom, sister and nephew at mile 4 that I felt very good. No matter what I thought I should do though I knew the goal today was to get in a good tempo workout of 6:10-6:20 and make this effort feel really comfortable. So I held steady as we entered doentown. The humidity made me sweat a ton early. I grabbed water every chance I could from mile 2-10. Mainly to take 1-2 sips and douse my head. I started reeling a few of the guys ahead of me during this part of the course. Just before mile 7, I went by one of them. Now we are headed back and again there are 2 guys still a 1/4 mile ahead of me and then the two leaders. As we headed out of downtown which were miles 5-8, we headed back down a main road called MLK. From 8-10 you're in a good headwind and a slight incline. I still felt good here and really thought ok it's time to get these two guys in front of you for good. I knew at mile 11 if I still felt good that's where I would make the real move to go. I was able to get the 2nd place guy and passed him about the sane time these two guys directly in front of me passed him around 9.5 miles. He must of just died because he finished 2 minutes behind me. I need to learn patience when it comes to some running mindsets and this was a good scenario to practice this. As soon as we got off MLK we turned right for about .2 miles and the wind completely died and it felt like I entered a hot spot. Pretty weird that you could feel this. Then a quick left and back into the wind. I kept thinking I would continue to make ground these two guys ahead of me but they kept gaining momentum themselves. As we came up to the second cone and turn around( this is right next to Spindletop oil rig-the first oil was founded in my hometown so this is a big landmark. The rig was moved to this location 40 years ago and so this is where they get the name The Gusher. The leader and the other 2 guys see me at the turn and we are all right there and they all told me later that it motivated them to push a little harder to not let me pass. I thought I could still get them but when I turned right to head back the wind suddenly changed to a gust of like 20-25mph and now all my effort had to double which I did. I pushed harder to try and get them but I guess they still had enough in the tank to hold me off. I passed about 80 5k participants in the last 1/4 mile which started at 8 and finished with the rest of us. We started at 7:30. I finished well and thought my closing speed was there. It's just not that fast yet this finishing 4th.
I was able to talk to the 3 guys that finished ahead of me. All of them are running Boston this year. The winner won the marathon last year and so decided to do the half as a training run this year. He is from Austin and actually was diagnosed with a brain tumor 2 years ago. Very nice guy. Seriously a cool story in itself. Good runner and very humble guy too. He pushed his kid in a stroller last year and ran 2:53 to win the marathon last year. Oh yeah and has a brain tumor. What's our excuse not to run I guess I would say.
The third place guy was from Austin as well. He trains with a good crew he said. Decent runner and he and I did about 5.3 miles cd. I enjoyed talking with him and hearing his running journey. It made the cd easier for sure to run with somebody.
I really enjoyed this event. Mostly because this is where I grew up and I cannot remember the last time I raced in my home area. So it was fun to run the streets where I grew up. I'm glad I did it. I'm really pleased with the consistency of my splits. No pain whatsoever and I feel really good today. All very good signs. I cannot believe how fun running is when you're not injured. I have really enjoyed the last 6 weeks. Hope it can stay like this for awhile.
Splits: 6:23.7, 6:23.1, 6:20.5, 6:10.1, 6:12.5, 6:20.6, 6:08.7, 6:15.4, 6:21.2, 6:22.6, 6:20.6, 6:16:4, 6:10.7, :41-1:22:51
Today was a fun day. Ate la house after. Glad my Dad could ride along the race. I enjoyed talking to him and having him experience the race that way. He was fun and great.
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