I DID IT!! Finally, after 3 years of trying, and trying very hard (as this blog has made witness) I finally broke 1:20!!! And not only did i break it, i crushed it...up until the final 3-4k, i was on pace to break 1:19 as well! 1:19:20, a new PR by almost 2 minutes (old PR was 1:21:13. Here is the report: Pre Race Very interesting way to get to a race. Since I know live in Germany, the best way to travel is by train. So at 5:55 am, my wife and I got on the Deutsche Bahn to travel to the race in a nearby city. However, the train was FULL of drunk people..turns out the revellers of the night can party hard here. Once the sun comes up, I think that kind of kills the fun..but not for these people! Anyways, the first train ride was fine, then we made a seamless switch at our major stopover point...got the city of Rastatt at around 7:30...just like the DB said the train would (Ive grown quite accustomed to good ole fashioned German efficiency). Once in Rastatt, we took a quick taxi ride (although not cheap at 10 Euro) to the Mercedes Benz manufacturing plant that was hosting the race. Turns out this center is a major producer of 2 types of Mercedes and the Kundencenter (Visitors Center) was very interesting and provided a nice way to pass the time (since the race didnt start til 9:45). Got all registered and i think my name is backwards officially so it is listed as Flaws Jacob, but all is good...at least its spelled right..also I love racing here because the entry fee was only 8 euro for a first class halfmarathon...thats like 11 bux in the US...very cool. The Race Warmup went okay, felt decent and the weather was superb...mid 40s, almost no wind, overcast and just got done raining, so i went with arm warmers, racing top, shorts and a beanie. race started right on time (German efficiency) at 9:45 and i fell immediately into a rhythm...i felt really good even from the early stages. One interesting thing about international races is that there are no mile markers...everything is in KM's which i actually found i loved. Its very helpful to get updates on your pace every 3:40 instead of every 6:00. Very much easier to pace correctly...as a result, i paced this race near perfect. Here are my splits (in kilometers) my goal by the way was to hold 3:45 per km pace as this is very near 6:00 mile pace so that was my benchmark: 1- 4:06.2 (we did some weird loop at the start of the race, and so this marker was long and everyone pretty much knew it, i wasnt worried though) 2- 3:30.6 (7:36, this marker was predictably short, all is well as 2x3:45 pace is 7:30) 3- 3:38.9 (leveling off a little, 11:15, exactly 3:45 pace) 4- 3:42.6 (14:58, aim was 15:00) 5- 3:39.0 (18:37 first 5k, 6:00 perfect pace) 6- 3:45.0 nailed it 7- 3:42.0 8- 3:48.3 (29:52 for 8k, just under 6:00 pace, at this point i was battling a gentleman who would for the life of him not let me pass, everytime i tried to get around him, he surged massively and so i just tucked in..i have no problem drafting...each time i felt like he was slow, like the 8th km for example, i just tried to pass him and he picked it up..this worked til about 11k when i finally dropped him for good) 9- 3:42.7 10- 3:45.0 (another perfectly split km, 37:20 at the 10k...that is just under 6:00 pace, the 5k split from 6-10k was 18:43, i was shooting for 37:30-37:50 at the 10k and so i was well within range, at this point i felt good and knew that sub 1:20 was not only possible but probable...however this is when the real race began for me. 11- 3:40.9 12- 3:46.2 13- 3:44.3 14- 3:47.0 (between 13 and 14k i caught another gentleman who would later pass me, but here it gave me quite a boost as i was tiring and i was all alone for much of the 2nd half of the race) 15- 3:42.0 (56:00 for 15k split, right near 6:00-6:01 pace, 18:40 for the 11-15k 5k split), when i signed up for this race, i was going to use it as a 15k tempo and my goal through 15k was 55:55-57:00, needless to say 56:00 was right where i wanted to be, very very happy with this split..however, i was alone again and the last 6k was challenging because it was basically a solo venture) 16- 3:42.4 (59:43 for 16k, the 10 mile split was somewhere right after this so i was probably right around 1:00:00 even for the 10 mile, excellent pacing! ) 17- 3:52.1 (entering the hardest stretch of race mentally...the last 20 minutes...) 18- 3:50.2 19- 3:53.2 20- 3:43.2 (1:15:01 split for 20k, the last 5k from 16-20 was covered in 19:01, 6:08 pace, my slowest of the race, but the hardest too as i was all alone and have never held this pace this long...REGARDLESS, my game plan of 3:45's meant i would come through the 20k in 1:15:00...i was within 1 second of that...im very proud to say that i executed perfectly for the most part of my plan) 21.1- last 1.1 was 4:18.4 as i came in an was elated to see 1:19:xx on my wrist FINAL-- 1:19:20, 6:03 avg pace Post race Thoughts As I sit here and reflect, I am struck by one thing in particular..my pacing strategy. I have tried to execute this in so many halves since my first one in 2008, and today i finally got it right. I think this is because I was ready to PR, my training is at a whole other level now. I am running far longer, faster and smarter. The good thing is I still have room to improve in my training and thus my races. I feel like with this race I have finally learned how to run a half and I expect my time to drop further and further. Some interesting stats, for most of the race and even through around 16k i was on pace to break 1:19, if not for the brief lapse in the last 5k i think i would have been there (the older gentleman who i passed at 14k passed me at 20k and went on to hit 1:18:53 for example, i tried to go with but couldnt). I am going to celebrate this one and then get back to training this week and see what i can do april 1st at the Freiburg HM. Best stat for the day, first 10k- 37:20, 2nd 10k- 37:41, through 20k, from the first half to the second half of the race i lost only 21 seconds, a good accomplishment and one of the many positives I am taking from this race! A quick comment on the race, very well organized, very friendly people, only had 3-4 water stations...all was good though, very very flat, and actually a lot was on trails so in the states might have been classified as a trail hm, it was about half on bike trails that were paved and half on bike trails that were groomed but not paved...actually saved my knee with the soft ground and i didnt lose any speed on the trails.
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