8:30 am race in Fort Ben State Park in Lawrence, IN (Indy). 45 deg. and raining (lightly). I ran this race bandit since it was 85 dol. and they didnt want to take debit card at day of registration. I decided to run this race last night, but had been toying iwth the idea since Sept.'s Marathon, and started planning the Monumental training.
Half PR on this course! Since it has 2 nice climbs in it, and the splits really suffered in those segments, I'm thinking a flat course PR might be faster.
To start this race, you climb starting from about 0.5 miles up through mile 3: 6:13, 20, 27 (end climb #1).
Miles 4 thru 10-11 are flat, so: 6:06, 01, 05, 06, 05, 04, 09, 24 (hill#2), 6:06, and a strong finish. I didn't realize it the whole race, but the numbers were really down this year, so I wound passing the 3rd place guy with about a half a mile left: 0:55.6 for last 0.16mi.
1:21:07 on Garmin, but my numb fingers wouldn't press the button after crossing the line. I looked down at a 1:21:05 as I crossed.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/392518385
This race is usually soft, and was even more so this year. The winner only ran a 1:20:0X - the usually winner is in the 1:15 range at least. The full marathon winning time was 2:44:XX. This race is well done and run by organizers, but is scheduled at a bad time - its right in the middle of the early fall Boston Qualifying races and the late fall NY and IMM races. It is in a good spot to run the half in prep for IMM for me.
A lot of positives today for me - learning some things that worked for me that can be translated to the marathon in 2 weeks: I know I can run low 2:50's with good weather, but the correct fueling has got to be there, both before and during race. Today, I hit alot of the gatorade stops and was really making sure to get calories/carbs in every 30 minutes (minimum). I did not do that great in the week leading up to today on the diet, but the main thing that really was different was the amount of time allowed before the race with food. Light on the coffee intake and a banana (at most) about 1.5 hours from the start.
Not feeling too sore, either - so I think the fueling was good. It really helped that it was below 50 degrees, also, I suspect. 5k race tomorrow will be a good indicator of how hard today really was on me...
Pics at finish line - The compression sleeves make me look like Arnold ...
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