AM: Boilermaker Half. Missed my sub-1:20 goal, but this was a workout at the end of my biggest week ever and if I said I was disappointed I'd also have to consider myself foolish.
Rainy and 42. My first race of perhaps 30 or so that it has rained (Beach to Beacon had a passing shower this summer). This is the second year of the race and the 3rd revision to the course, but I double checked to make sure it was still certified. Indeed it is. Timex it is. I wanted to run about 6:00 minute pace on the flats and work the hills by effort, finishing 1:18:30-1:20. I was running close to 6 flat for the first 6 or 7 miles, then the uphills started and I lost some time, which was to be expected. My real goal was to finish in the top 10. I was 9th for the first two miles (we were packed up, which was super fun), and a few guys fell off around mile 4 and I moved into 5 for most of the race, passing a young fellow at mile 12 to break into 4th (a top 3 finish would have required 1:18 something). I felt like I raced according to effort today, and kept it honest. I was pretty tired from mile 7 on, but I didn't feel completely dead-legged in the final 1-2 miles (just heavy). On a flat course I'm not sure how much faster my time would have been. The real goal is in two weeks anyway, so that is were I am looking. With 50-60 miles in my legs rather than 80 and a dead flat course, I expect a decent PR (of course not as big as the last jump).
2.25 up and 3 down. I started to bonk and get dizzy on the cool down (I decided to run without a gel for the first time in a half, took no water given that it was coming from the sky and it was cool). So . . . things I consumed while running my cool down: large cup of Gatorade recovery, a granola bar maybe 2, a banana, some rice cakes, 2-3 packages of fancy graham cracker things. Some other crap too I think. I felt better after that. Good practice for potential, future ultras too.
Rich, chocolatey goodness: 5:59, 6:03, 6:14, 6:00, 5:47 (quite downhill), 6:08 (slight hill toward the end) 6:04, 6:13, 6:22, 6:16, 6:11, 6:30 (hills), 6:02, ~33 seconds for the partial. It's a .1 steepish downhill, which I both love and hate.
My second fastest time for the half, so that's also good (a minute faster than my old PR last April)
About mile 8 I heard a young woman say what sounded like "they went out too fast." I almost gave her a Mr. Murphy lecture on being a good volunteer but I figured if I stopped I would roll back down the hill from campus into the Wabash river.
PM: 4.25 in the cemetery in just under 35 minutes.
My first 100-mile week! A PR in mileage by 5 or 6 miles I think. Maybe another one next week, but it's hard to tell. Definitely something into the 90s, a number that has served me quite well over the last 9-10 weeks.
Why do we lose good running form? See knee drive on #3.
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