Wheeler Farm Loops

Pre-Race
My parents dropped me off at the PF Chang's restaurant on Mill Ave in Tempe around 6:30am (that was the staging area for the elite race). Warmed up 3.5 miles including a half-mile at 5:15 pace and some shorter accelerations.

Course
This is a loop course that starts and finishes on the ASU campus, with most of the race up in Scottsdale. The first 10 miles have a gradual uphill gradient, and then you come back down in to Tempe in the last 5K. A very fair course and deceptive due to the gradual elevation gains. I told Andrea beforehand that my ideal pacing would be to hit 10 miles in ~50:30 and then run 15:15 for the last 5K, so I was determined not to go out too fast.

Race
We started right on time at 7:50am. I tried to stay out of trouble as we ran about 150 meters and then made a sharp left turn on to University Ave. I saw my parents around a half-mile into the race and I was in 8th place at that point. I felt like I was jogging at marathon pace yet still hit the first mile in 4:54. 

Some guys went out too fast as I suspected, and even though I purposely backed off the pace over the next two miles (4:59, 5:02) I moved up to 5th place by the time we hit 5K (15:27). Glenn Randall (remember him from Boston?) was just up ahead but the top three guys were considerably further up. I saw Derek and Allison just as I was passing Glenn around mile #4 (4:58) and then set my sights on the next guy, and caught him by the 5 mile mark (5:10 - noticeably uphill, but it was a good opportunity to move up to 3rd place). Now I knew I was on the podium, but the two guys ahead of me (Scott MacPherson and Danny Mercado) had a big gap. Mile #6 was 4:57 (very encouraging!) and I hit 10K in 31:13 (I love a good palindrome split).

I was down 25 seconds to Danny at this point. He seemed really far off but I just kept telling myself - keep it consistent until 10, and then you never know what might happen. So I just plugged along the gradual uphill for the next 4 miles (5:12, 5:05, 5:05, 5:06) and I could tell that Danny was slowly coming back to me. I felt like I could have thrown in a surge ~9 miles and caught him, but I wanted to wait until mile 10 as planned to make my move. I split 10 miles in 50:33 (although the clock on the road said 50:20, so I thought I had a PR in the bag because of that). Then I made a move on the downhill. I was 8 seconds back from second place at 10 miles, and made up that gap in the next 2 minutes. By 10.5 miles I felt like I already had good gap on Danny. Mile #11 was 4:53. Then I went into "finish this d@mn race and no miles over 5:00!" mode and ran 4:59, 4:55, :34 to close it out in 2nd place, 1:05:55. My last 5K was 15:22. At 12.5 we merged w/ the "mini marathon" (walkers) which made the final stretch a bit of a fiasco. Otherwise, the course was well marked, turns were obvious, and having a bike alongside me for the last ~5 miles was very helpful. Amidst all the people, I did hear my parents yelling for me close to the finish.

Post Race
The first priority after finishing was to find my parents and get them some wristbands for the VIP area, so they could chill out and take advantage of the breakfast buffet while I went out for a cool down. I find that if you finish on the podium, you can usually ask for that kind of stuff and get it. Bryce Peterson (who many of you know) was there to watch... he and Glenn joined me for another 3.5 miles. Then we had some breakfast / lunch... lots of free food :-) We chatted with Connie Teague for a while... she finish 3rd in the 1/2 at 1:16-high, a nice PR. Her running is very similar to Andrea's and she has the same goal (OTQ).

Eventually it was time for awards, which RnR makes a big deal. Frank Shorter was there to hand them out! I got flowers from Frank Shorter! How can you beat that? Picked up a decent chunk of change for my efforts as well.

Most of the athletes on the stage had extensive NCAA All-American / Olympic Trials biographies, so they had no idea what to say about me... the announcer had no clue who I was. That actually made me happy - I beat some very established runners with impressive resumes and credentials that (for now) far exceed mine. I was actually seeded 8th (once Scott entered the race), so this makes me very confident that I'm on the right track. Fast times are good, but racing well against competition is important too. Its nice when you can do both. I ran a smart race today - I stuck to my plan and almost hit my first 10 mile/ last 5K goal splits right on. Not a PR, but close... anytime you break 1:06 on an honest course you chalk that up as a good day, because its not an easy thing to do (trust me!).

 
I always race well down here in Phoenix, and I also tend to race well when my parents are in attendance. So I'm hoping that streak continues in 6 weeks for the marathon!

Top 10 Results (the second place female is 42 years old!)

Thanks for all the support everyone. It motivates me, and means a lot.

[Splits: 4:54, 4:59, 5:02, 4:58, 5:10, 4:57, 5:12, 5:05, 5:05, 5:06, 4:53, 4:59, 4:55, :34 (5K 15:27, 10K 31:33, 10 Mi 50:33)]. 3.5+ mi up/down, call it 20 miles total.

PM - 2 mile shakeout in ~18 minutes. First mile was close to 10 minutes and that's how I know I ran it right this morning. 

AM - 12 miles. Ocotillo + grass park loops. Walked for a while before I started slowly shuffling, and eventually picked up the pace all the way to what might be considered "jogging". It took about 5-6 miles to get all the kinks out, and then I started to feel normal again. Nice to be out in the sunshine. Back to SLC later today.

PM - 4 slow miles in the smog. 

AM - 8 miles up to work. Averaged 9:10 pace with a first mile of 10:30!

Got to work an hour early for a meeting that was cancelled. I could have run an extra 3-4 miles in that hour at the pace I was moving:-)

PM - 8 miles home. Had one or two miles slip under the 8 minute barrier. 

AM - 11 miles up to work, very easy again.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP, met Andrea along the way. 

I was looking at my race log and I've now run 10 half-marathons in the past two years. Here they are in time order...

1:05:40, 1:05:45, 1:05:55, 1:06:02, 1:06:03, 1:10:12, 1:10:52, 1:10:58, 1:12:36, 1:15:50 

Quite a dropoff after #5. I'm hoping to keep that 4 minute gap! :-)

AM - 10 miles. Another easy run. Roads started to ice up towards the end. Good timing, as I'm headed to San Diego for the rest of the week.

Spoke too soon about that "good timing"... got to the airport just as my flight got delayed, then later cancelled. Then the flight I was re-booked on eventually got cancelled as well. Nice use of five hours. I decided waiting on standby for the 5pm was a waste of time and I went home to run. I'm going to try and get on the 10pm flight later.

PM - 11 miles in the neighborhood. Andrea joined me for a couple laps around the tempo loop, and I finished by doing a bunch of 8-15 second strides/accelerations over the last 2.5 miles. 

AM - 13.5 miles. 2 up, 10 mile AT tempo in 53:29 (5:21 / mile avg), 1.5 down.

Almost a failed workout. Got into SD after midnight and only was able to get a few hours of sleep. Woke up pretty tired and it was pouring rain outside. I almost bailed a half mile into the tempo, but after 2 slower miles ~5:30 I got into a good rhythm out of nowhere and the rest of the run felt good. Mostly ran the loop on Harbor Island over and over... No traffic there. Happy to get this one in. Hopefully the conference I'm at wont be too boring!

PM - 8.5 miles. Still raining (all day!). I double checked to make sure I wasn't in Seattle. No sign of the space needle. Ran around the harbor, to Petco Park, etc. Just exploring around.

AM - 8 miles easy. Ran around the harbor again. At ~5 miles I got a weird cramp type feeling in my right quad, turned around and it wasn't loosening up back to normal, so I just decided there was no sense in pushing through. Stopped at 8 and walked back to my hotel. The pouring rain had transitioned to a light drizzle by that point so it was actually a relatively pleasant walk, minus the occasional fish smell.