Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Horsetooth Half Marathon

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Location:

Fort Collins,CO,

Member Since:

May 15, 2003

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Unaided PR's:
5K: 14:48 (Track - 2001)
10K: 30:45 (Track - 2001)
10K: 31:32 (Bolder Boulder - 2013)
Half Marathon: 1:06:09 (Duluth - 2013)
Marathon: 2:17:54 (Grandma's) - 2014)
Marathon: 2:19:47 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2013)
Marathon: 2:19:49 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2010)

Aided PR's:
10K: 29:38 (Des News - 2011)
Half Marathon: 1:05:30 (TOU Half - 2011)
Marathon: 2:18:09 (St George - 2007)
Marathon: 2:17:35 (Boston - 2011)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.

Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.

Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.

Personal:

1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek

Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Saucony Trail Shoe Lifetime Miles:						247.50
Hoka Clifton Lifetime Miles:						491.50
Saucony Type A6 Lifetime Miles:						186.50
Saucony Zealot Lifetime Miles:						478.75
Saucony Kinvara 6 Lifetime Miles:						433.50
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Lifetime Miles:						358.75
Brooks Pure Connect Blue Lifetime Miles:						337.25
New Balance Trainers Lifetime Miles:						314.50
New Balance 1400 Racers Lifetime Miles:						65.00
Brook Pureflow Lifetime Miles:						99.50

Sun, Apr 13, 2014

Race: Horsetooth Half Marathon (13.109 Miles) 01:12:58, Place overall: 3

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Crosstraining miles	Total Miles
2.90	0.00	13.10	0.00	0.00	16.00

Horsetooth Half Marathon. This was my 3rd time running this race, and the 41st year for the event overall. Although technically my slowest time, still a better race than my first year, just because of conditions. We had temps around 32 degrees, a 10mph headwind, and pellet-like snow for much of the way. Plus I took a good digger on a snow-covered wood bridge along the bike path...landed straight on my stomach and almost knocked the wind out of me.

Mike, Hunter, myself, and one other guy formed a pack of 4 for the first 5 miles. We dropped the other guy on the downhill before Bingham Hill. My legs were feeling pretty beat down from the hills by the time we got to Bingham (Mile 7), but I was sticking to Mike and Hunter okay, and helped shared the lead through mile 7.

As we left Overland and got onto the Poudre bike trail, we did a sharp hairpin to get on the trail and I did not take it well, and the two other guys got about 10 meters on me right there. I started catching them a little on the bridge, but did not realize how slick it really was. Also, flats are called "flats" for a reason. Completely wiped out and landed straight on my belly. Got up pretty quick, but almost fell again on the next little turn. I've been on ice that is more grippy than a slush-covered wood pedestrian brige.

Finally jogged off the brige (it is very long, goes over wetlands), but now Mike and Hunter had about 50-75m on me. I spent the last 4 miles trying to catch Hunter (Mike ran away with the race), but couldn't close any ground. I did not feel too bad today...felt like a hard tempo at times...but just couldn't go any faster. The cold and wind did not help with the turnover. Not quite a bad as 2009 Striders Half, though.

So it was an okay race, but not great. I'm not in as good shape as I was at this point last year, but I already knew that. Things are heading in the right direction, though, and as long as I stay healthy I feel optimistic about Duluth...still a long ways off.

Mike won with 1:12:08, Hunter 2nd in 1:12:29, and then myself in 1:12:58. Without the fall, there's a chance I could have given Hunter a better run 2nd, although he looked pretty sharp today.

Splits were 6:37, 6:30, 5:13, 5:39, 5:27, 5:01, 5:32, 5:17, 5:28 (with fall), 5:13, 5:28, 4:50 (short), 6:00 (long)

Saucony A5 Flat Miles: 16.00

Comments

From Stacy on Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 16:04:45 from 63.155.214.137

Enjoyed reading your race report. I grew up in the Loveland/Fort Collins area. My mom graduated from Collins in '54. I spent a lot of time at Horsetooth. Sounds like the weather was not the usual sunny Colorado weather. :) You mentioned Duluth. Grandma's? It was my first marathon and one of my favorites. Good luck there!

From Paul on Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 16:23:29 from 67.6.188.195

Thanks Stacy. We've been in Fort Collins for about 3 years, and absolutely love it here. The snow was unfortunate...but it's spring in the Rockies, so anything goes. We had 70s all week.

Yep, am running Grandmas in June. I ran the half there last year, and liked it so much I wanted to come back for the full.

From Jake K on Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 16:10:33 from 199.190.170.29

Still 10 weeks until Duluth - like you said, LOTS of time.

Sounds like quite a storm... glad you didn't hurt yourself on that fall.

From Jason D on Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 18:22:35 from 24.1.80.94

Strong race, Paul. I confess I "cheated" and looked up the results in one of the Colorado newspapers. Sounds like your course record still stands!

Good to see you are in one piece after the fall. Not too many people on the blog can fall and still knock out a 5:28 in the middle of a half marathon!

From Sasha Pachev on Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 16:48:40 from 72.250.218.114

I noticed that as I got older (it screamed at me at the age of 39, but may have reared its ugly head earlier) I became more sensitive to the cold. Tempo run pace dropped by 20 seconds per mile if I was underdressed even with temperatures as warm as 25 F, and I had an incident with hypothermia from running 13 miles in the rain and attempting a tempo. I ended up finding a business to get warm in and calling Sarah to pick me up - this is the only time in 29 years of running I recall not being able to finish a training run.

Do not know how it will be for you, but you might be experiencing something similar. If so, dressing up a little warmer than you normally would might help. In my case, I have been able to hit normal speeds in workouts even when it was cold when I had some extra clothes.

Come to think of it, I actually noticed this for shorter distances as early as 2008, so age 35.

From Paul on Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 16:51:21 from 207.224.39.118

So far the only thing I'm noticing with age is more ear hair.

But I did wear tights this last race (first time since high school), and I'm glad I did. I've actually gotten better in the cold as I've aged, but perhaps that will regress. I used to be a total baby in the cold when I was young, and now I don't mind it much.

From Superfly on Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 09:57:09 from 74.211.21.81

Sound like a tough race and day. Good job man.

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