Mid 60's and something like 90% humidity - we are off to the Zoo now so I will put in a full report later. I am pretty disappointed as I thought a 1:23-1:24 was a possibility. I guess I will take the 1:25 and live to fight another day. I started out right were I wanted but faded in the last 3. More details to follow. Overall pace was 6:32 according to the Garmin. RACE REPORT:
I woke up at 5am, downed a bottle of Gatorade Prime Pro, got
my stuff together, and then headed out the door. I knew it was going to be a rough morning
when I went out to the car and it was drenched in moisture – and it hadn’t even
rained.
I don’t know San Antonio that well so I decided to drive to
the shuttle location. It took about 10
minutes to get into the parking lot because of traffic. They had arranged everything well and getting
on the shuttle was not a problem, as short wait in line and then we were
off. The shuttle ride took about 15 minutes. I had about an hour before the race. I had to find the gear check in. There were 26 UPS trucks arranged by last
name. Since the race end was not near the
beginning they trucked all the gear over to the finish.
I warmed up for 1.5 miles and then made my way to
the 1st corral. When I registered
the day before the computer assigned me to corral 5. Changing it at the Expo was not a problem,
though. It didn’t really matter since no
one was checking anyway.
I met up with Matt, a guy that I try to keep up with in
training. He said he was going to shoot
for a 1:20 – 1:25 – I thought that was a wide range. I said I wanted to go for a 1:23-1:24 but
would be happy with a 1:25. I thought I
would try and stay with him but we got separated at the start and he passed me
about the ½ mile mark and I knew I could not keep up. He finished n 1:23 BTW.
My main strategy was to keep the splits around 1:25 but at
least under 6:30’s. I was hoping I could
pull off strong finishing miles like I did in the 10 mile race but the weather
kept me from doing that. I drank a
Gatorade Prime around mile 2-3 and got a surge off of that. I felt pretty strong until mile 5-6 when my
heart rate started to rise. My mind was
playing tricks on me, too, thinking about how I can barely run a 5 mile tempo
run @ 6:25’s – how was I going to run a half marathon at that pace? At around mile 8 I took a 2nd
Surge gu and almost choked – it burned my throat something awful. I had been fighting something lately and did
not realize my throat was that sore. It
took everything I had to keep from walking at that point. It was probably another ½ mile or so before I
got some water. It was very hard to get
my breathing back under control. They
were handing out Cytomax and I choose not to have any. Too many bad memories from Steamtown marathon. I should have probably done a better job with
my nutrition strategy. I don’t know how
much it would have helped but it may have made it less painful.
Miles 10, 11, and 12 - I really started to fade big time –
again, it was mentally taxing just to keep the legs moving. At this point I am telling myself to finish
and to save it for the marathon in 3 weeks. I don’t remember much else. I do remember there was a pretty good hill
climb with about ½ mile to go. Somehow I
was able to pick up the pace a tad on the last mile and gave it everything I
had when I turned the corner and saw the finish in the distance. I was not going to be denied a 1:25.
They say to double your half marathon time and add 10
minutes – so I should have a shot at a 3:00 in 3 weeks if all goes well.
I am not sure how to handle the next 3 weeks training wise –
I have never raced this close to a marathon before.
Splits: 6:27, 6:24,
6:25, 6:26, 6:37, 6:30, 6:35, 6:31, 6:29, 6:40, 6:40, 6:46, 6:33, .13 @ 5:04. Jogged .5 mile from the shuttle back to the car.
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