It was a perfect morning for running and I really like the course. I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of myself for this race. I've been dealing with a few nagging injuries that have kept my mileage low. I have only averaged running 27 miles a week over the last 3 months. I've been adding to that with around 13 converted biking miles a week. Luckily things have been feeling better and I was able to average close to 40 miles the last 3 weeks and got in a couple pretty good tempo runs [still well below what I would have liked]. I ran this race last year in 1:34 and it was the only 1/2 marathon I had done. I felt confident I could beat that and had a goal of 1:30.
For the first 5 miles I was averaging around 6:47 pace. It felt very comfortable and I was tempted to speed up but I wasn't sure what to expect in the later miles given my lack of mileage so I played it safe. Around mile 5 I started getting a pain on the side of my right knee that I soon recognized as IT band trouble.I had a lot of trouble with this on the same knee 3 years ago while building mileage for my first marathon but I hadn't had a hint of trouble with it the past 2 years. I don't know why it struck then expecially after only 5 miles. I was wearing some Brooks ST racers that I have only worn a few times in a few short races. They are a control shoe and I am a neutral runner. My other shoes are all neutral. I did run a 10 miler last week and a 5 in them this week without any problem so I'm not sure if the shoes could have contributed. It continued to get worse and at around 7 miles I stopped and stretched it which seemed to help. The discomfort came back fairly quickly. I stopped again and stretched it at the aid station around 8 miles. Up until that point I had felt very comfortable [other than my knee]. I pushed it up the climb into the subdivision to try and make up some time and pass a few of the runners that had passed me while I was stopped. This was the first time I started feeling some discomfort [other than my knee]. I had only run more than 8 miles 3 times in recent weeks the longest one being 13 so I kind of expected this. I was able to keep my pace up and stopped and stretched again at the aid station that is around 11 miles. I picked up the pace again and picked it up some more when I thought I was getting close to the finish. I guess I left home Thursday before getting the E-mail about the course change at the end so when I could see the finish up ahead I started my kick. I passed several runners in that stretch and wondered why nobody seemed to be picking up the pace until I crossed the bridge thinking I was within yards of finishing and saw the route to the finish had an orange fence blocking it and I wasn't done. Running your kick at the end of a race and expecting to be done then knowing you have to dig in and find some more to keep going really sucks. I had no idea how far it would be so I just tried to maintain a decent pace for what seemed to go on forever [It was actually .35 farther]. When I finally passed the 13 mile marker I took off again and still had a good kick left considering.
splits
1 -6:49
2 -6:49
3 -6:28 some downhill
4 -6:47
5 -6:54 uphill
6 -6:39
7 -6:46
8 -6:52 stopped and stretched
9 -6:53 stopped and stretched and uphill
10-6:39
11-6:52 stopped and stretched
12-6:43
13-6:28
.22-1:14 [5:36 pace]
My garmin measured the course at 13.22 and everybody else I taked to with garmins got 13.17 to 13.31 so I'm not sure what's up with that. Mine has never been off that far before but the course was certified. I went back over the new finish afterward with my garmin and figured the course was .35 mile longer than last years finish. So last years must have been a lot shorter than everybody thought.
I was happy with the race. I was first in my age group and beat last years time by 7 minutes if you figure in the extra distance [I would have finished around 1:26:20 with last years course finish]. I look forward to doing a race properly trained some day. I seem to be making a habbit of cramming at the last minute and this has probably contributed to some of my problems.
It was fun getting to meet some of the bloggers and hope to see you at some other races. We went to Zions and did some hiking the next day and it was beautiful. The IT band was a bit sore expecially on the downhill but not too bad. | 