A 4:13 PR today for 14th place overall out of 2,772 participants! I really wanted to break 1:20, but I’m really happy with this race for several reasons. My previous PR was my split at Grandma’s Marathon (1:24:30) as this is my 2nd official lifetime ½ marathon race. My first official was a 1:37 with two weeks of training coming off a 9 year break from running. I’m also happy because I got this PR on the highest single week and month of lifetime mileage I’ve ever run. I wasn’t planning for this race, but it’s something I wanted to add into my training to help me gain some experience going into the cooler months of racing where I’m shooting for my peak ½ marathon. I reluctantly decided to do this one on a 1 day taper. I was nervous about injury and didn’t really know what to expect. Fortunately, I have no injuries and feel very reasonable in terms of soreness/fatigue. I took a ton of positives and experience from this race, so if the only negative is I didn’t break 1:20 – I can live with that!
I started out my day with 4 hours of sleep due to a friend from North Carolina whom I haven't seen in years flying into town. Unfortunately, we couldn't meet up until around 9. I have no regrets about doing this and I know he would have done the same for me. I also was mainly doing this 1/2 as a high level workout. When my feet hit the floor at 4:30 am I was actually more awake then I would have been if sleeping 8-9 hours, so I don't really feel the sleep affected this race in a negative way. I'm really tired now though, so I'll need to get a good nap. My goal was to break 1:20, but in the back of my mind I didn't really know for sure I could do it. My best race to judge paces on was a 1 mile race (4:50) I ran about 3 weeks ago. Mcmillianrunning.com says I should be at 5:55-6:05 pace based on the conversion from 1 mile to a 1/2 marathon, so I tried to base my training on this pace over the past 3 weeks. However, more often than not I found 6:05 pace to be very hard in my training. Without a proper recent race distance and solid workouts at this pace, I just wasn't sure.
The race itself had a 1 1/2 hour delay due to lightning. The race directors made the right call though because the lightning and rain were very heavy. I can't imagine how hard it is to make those calls, but in this case it was good because we would have run the whole race in serious rain and wind. I ran down to the finish and grabbed a banana and water to help keep me from eating an arm off. The little bit of oatmeal I ate at 4:30 wasn’t doing much justice an hour into the delay. I wasn't sure if people use gels in a 1/2, so I brought one for good measure as a just in case thing. Well that plan failed because the gel fell out of my key pouch smack dab into the unforbidden abyss! Most of the participants found shelter in parking garages, which is where I found myself waiting. It was really cold! I was shivering waiting around in the garage, but happy it wasn't 80+ degrees w/high humidity like it normally is on Aug. 20th in WI.
The first mile I just tried to get out comfortable, but not too hard because it was mostly uphill. I hit the 1st mile in 6:09. I let a lot of people get out ahead of me. I decided it would be a smarter race for me not to get out too hard and chase people down (to to ensure a strong finish) instead. I thought the first mile was a good one, but wanted to test the legs to feel what 5:55 felt since again this was supposed to be the low end of my pace range. The 2nd mile was 5:53 into the wind and now heavy rain on mostly flat ground. That mile was a little too hard. The 3rd mile was more like I was looking for in 6:03. In the forth mile I hit 5:54 due to a surge to run with a large group of runners because the wind and rain was just slamming my body. The 5th mile was 6:05, and at this point I felt it was just the right amount of effort as I drafted behind the group. The 6th and 7th miles were mostly uphill through UW’s Arboretum. I was fortunate to have a runner who liked to surge on hills pull up next to me, so I went with him and my legs welcomed the change of pace. The splits were 6:03, 6:13 for the 6th/7th miles and I was still feeling good, so I decided to put a surge in to catch another runner on the 8th downhill mile and hit 6:02. The 9th mile was mostly flat splitting another 6:02. This is where I made my mistake. The 10th mile was uphill all the way, but I was still closing in on runners and I was pressing hard. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my hill surge friend to help me along though and I split a 6:22 (which cost me my time goal). The 11th mile was a 5:55 with a steep downhill section. The 12th mile was mostly flat and I was having fun picking off runners running a 6:05. The last mile a runner passed me so I surged to match his pace. I went with him and challenged him for a good half of the last mile. I wasn’t able to sustain the pace and he continued to surge. I think if I had more races under me I’d be able to sustain a longer kick, but today wasn’t the day to do it. However, I found myself using a kamikaze kick (something that helped me win a lot of races in college and the reason I stick with the weights) to take another runner on the downhill finish (last 100 yards) with a 6:03 1.1 mile split. I was really surprised to place 14th in that large of a race. In the last 3 miles I passed 7 people and was only passed by 1, accomplishing my strategy of finishing strong. This leaves me hungry for another!
My two friends whom I rode to the race with also gained PR's. I really enjoyed their company at the race and I was proud to hear of their accomplishments with the personal struggles they've faced over the past year.
PM: 4.1 mile shakeout (no watch) | 