D-News Half Marathon
Third half marathon in less than 3 weeks. Probably not the smartest thing to do. Especially for a guy like me who has a propensity for injuries when I overdue my running. However, I wanted to be part of the atmosphere of the event, was able to get half off on the entry fee, and was planning on getting 15 miles today anyways. I figured this would be a good way to get some quality miles.
After having run a half marathon (Timpanogos) just this past Saturday (5 days ago), I knew I wouldn't be at full strength today and shouldn't have too high of expectations for myself. I resolved to try and run hard, but not take it to redline. Mainly just try and keep things smooth and even and get in a solid effort. In the end, I feel I accomplished just that.
Aside from the recent 2 half marathons, one other thing I didn't have going for me was that at work yesterday afternoon we had a "storage room organization party" which basically was ~3 hours of lifting and totting a lot of heavy file storage containers. This probably had more of a mental impact than anything. I suspected it would sap some strength and cause me to wake up with a sore back. I took 200 mg of IB last night just as a preventive measure. Fortunately, the back was perfectly fine this morning and no noticeable fatigue from last night's moving exercise. So that was good.
Woke up at 3:50 AM and left the house pretty quickly. Just openning the garage, you could feel the warm breeze out of the south and is was apparent that it was going to be a warm one. On the bus ride up Emigration, the wind looked pretty fierce. Just as my bus got to the top, there as a quick bout of light rain that quickly passed. Spent about 15 mins in the potty line and then did a light warm-up up the canyon (~1.5 miles). Pretty soon it was time to roll.
The gun went off and the big dogs including Brett, Steve S, and Jason quickly took to the front. There were 3 or 4 others right up with them too. I quickly settled next to Clyde and Steve A. I really didn't not want to push the early miles, especially the first mile too fast. I was content to let Clyde and Steve pull a few seconds ahead. I went through the first mile in 5:07. Fast, but the effort didn't feel hard and the course was really conducise to a fast split. It ended up being my fastest of the race.
For the next 2-3 miles I trailed shortly behind Steve. Clyde was maybe 5-7 seconds up. There was definitely a headwind. Gusty at times. It certainly was making us work harder. Still, I wasn't pushing to hard. Just tried to run comfortably and let the wind do its thing. Splits 2-4 where 5:18, 5:20, and 5:30. Was a little concerned that the split times were climbing pretty quickly, but I wasn't going to worry about it. The wind and the rollers were definitely playing a factor. It was also quite warm, though at no point during the race was I particularly bothered by the heat.
Somewhere during about mile 4, I pull ahead of Steve. Clyde is still maintaining a steady gap of a few seconds on me. There is another younger guy who is slowly coming back to us. I eventually pass the young fella around Ruth's' Diner. Legs and lungs are feeling strong. I'm running just 'good' but not fantastic. I could probably go faster, but not much more so. I was content to maintain the same gap behind Clyde for a while longer. Mile 5 is 5:32. Definitely some rolling terrain and modestly strong headwind. In my mind I'm thinking today is probably going to end up 1:11 something. Maybe 1:10'ish if I can get something good rolling.
We hit the six mile just before exiting the canyon. About 6.3'ish I take my Gu. As you go by the zoo, there's a modest incline. I pull up along Clyde and start chatting with him. The headwinds are mostly non-existent at this point. I feel the Gu kicking in and next 2 miles are probably when I feel the best/strongest throughout the race. Mile 6 and 7 are both 5:24. I pull a little ahead of Clyde, but he sticks with me for a while. I definitely could have gone faster here, but I was intentionally slowing here a bit thinking to myself that I wanted to save some gas for the later miles.
During 8, you round right onto Foothill Blvd. My pace slows a little bit, but I'm still feeling fairly good. I stop hearing Clyde's breathing behind me. Mile 8 is 5:33.
Okay, less than 10K to go. Most of mile 9 is sceaming down past the U and Rice Eccles. By the stadium, I spot Brian Sommers watching the race. I ask him why he's not running and he's says something about breaking his ribs(?). Later, I also see him down at Liberty Park. The course turns north onto 13th. Mile 9 is 5:15.
10 starts on a slight incline, the a big dip and an up toward South Temple. The rollingness slows my pace and I was refusing to push very hard up the hills. Mile 10 is a 5:33.
Now on a nice straght gradual stretch down South Temple. I wanted to try and get a nice pace going the rest of the way, but my body seemed to have different ideas. Again, I was never pushing the redline, but I didn't/couldn't muster much speed. In retrospect, I wish I would have tried to push harder these last few miles. I think my splits could have been a little faster.
On a tangent thought, on these downhill half marathons, maintaining a decent speed for the last few miles has really been a challenge for me. It seems like that's been the case many years. Even 2012, my best year. That year, it wasn't until mid-August that I seemed to start doing a better job holding a more repectable pace to the end. Today, may have been a good day to try and practice that (i.e. really try and push hard at the end). But conversely, maybe its a good thing I didn't. At some point, if I want to improve, I need to do something that's going to help me build speed for the late stages of races. I think I view myself as a guy with a good aerobic base, but when it comes time to go over threshold, I really have a hard time holding it for any length of time. Given my training routines, I know I shouldn't be surprised by this.
Miles 11-13 end up being 5:27, 5:29, and 5:43. 1:09 for the last 0.19.
After crossing the line and getting some water. Clyde finished not too far behind and we cooled down for ~2.8 on the chipped trail around the park.
I think I ended up finishing 4th overall (Brett was 1st, Steve 2nd, and Jason 3rd). I haven't see the results yet though to confirm that. For a while, I was disallusioned that I had finished about 1:09:45'ish . I should have looked at my watch, because it turns out the race clock had started about 2 minutes late. Oh well... I'll take the 1:11 and change today. Nothing spectacular, but mission accomplished for the day.
Fritz dominated the marathon with a ~2:26. Josh E had a good race given the conditions (3rd). Cotter (2nd) looked pretty beat up. The heat and wind definitely impacted the halfers, but even more so for the marathon folks.
P.M. - Big Cottonwood ride to Brighton (~40 miles).
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