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Abilene Half Marathon

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Location:

San Antonio,TX,

Member Since:

Dec 13, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K PR - 18:01 - Nov '14

10K PR - 38:37 (workout) - Oct '14

Half-marathon - 1:22:43 - Jan '14

Marathon - 2:58:43 in Boston! - Apr '13

50 mile - 7:49:30 (2nd) - Nov '15

Short-Term Running Goals:

- Balance

- Run more trails, volunteer, more social running, run with a team

- Race a lot more.  learn.

Race results / possible schedule:

Apr 2 - Hells Hills 25k trail - 4th

Apr 9 - Toughest 'n Texas 20-mile Trail - 2nd

May 7 - Paleface - Trail Marathon - 3rd

May 29 - American Hero road 25k - 2nd

Jun 25 - Pedernales Falls 30k nighttime Trail - 5th (sick)

Jul 16 - Muleshoe Bend 30k nighttime Trail - 3rd

Jul 23-24 - Fossil Valley 9-hour nighttime Trail - 2nd

Aug 6 - Colorado Bend 30k nighttime Trail - 4th

Aug 27 - Reveille Peak 30k nighttime Trail (entered)

Sep 10 - Franklin Mountains 50k (entered - not all-out effort...I hope)

Sep 17 - Lighthouse Hill 20-mile trail (entered)

Sep 24 - J&J 50 mile trail

Long-Term Running Goals:

Compete in a few more ultras without going off course (again)

Sub-18 in a 5k

One.  Good.  Marathon.

Personal:

I started running at age 30, in late 2009.  I have 2 daughters (10 and 8 yrs old).

  

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony A5 Lifetime Miles: 1054.70
Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Lifetime Miles: 1551.08
Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Lifetime Miles: 1244.23
1160s Lifetime Miles: 888.70
Saucony A5 Red Lifetime Miles: 565.10
Saucony A6 - Yellow Lifetime Miles: 214.00
Saucony A6 - Red/blue Lifetime Miles: 61.50
NB MT101 Trail Lifetime Miles: 302.00
Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Lifetime Miles: 286.50
Fastwitch 6 Red #2 Lifetime Miles: 267.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
47.6814.1161.79
1150s Red #2 Miles: 27.721150s Red #1 Miles: 9.18Saucony A4 Miles: 24.89
Weight: 0.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
20.000.0020.00

52F, S 10 mph.  First 20-miler in months.  I questioned going this long since I am 6 days out from an important race, but decided if I kept it slow and easy it would be fine.  I wore my newer pair of cushiony trainers to hopefully mitigate any pounding effects.  7:50 AP.

It's so nice that 20 miles is not a big deal anymore; it used to really leave its mark on me for days.  Although, in a couple weeks I'll start throwing on 10-12 miles at GMP and maybe it'll be a different story.

1150s Red #2 Miles: 20.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.090.004.09

42F.  9:08 AP.  Sorry about the lack of details lately, things are busy...

1150s Red #1 Miles: 4.09
Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.720.007.72

59F, S 14-22 mph.  8:11 AP.  I was going to do 12, but my legs were totally dead today.  Normally I'd just suffer through it but with a race in 4 days, I turned around early.  That is exactly what I get for all the big talk about how 20 miles is no big deal.  While it was easy at the time, it definitely still leaves its mark.  I knew it felt wrong when I was typing it!  Anyway, I think a little rest will recover them enough to be ready to run on Saturday.

Oh yeah, weather.gov is predicting the winds at race time to be SSW 26-37 mph.  The course for the half is fully exposed (no trees, houses, etc) and the first 5 miles will be into the wind.  Let's just say I am shopping around for another HM.

1150s Red #2 Miles: 7.72
Weight: 0.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Just checked and my last day off of running was Oct 11.  So now is probably a good time for one.

Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.141.007.14

35F (w/c 27F), NW 11 mph.  short sleeves and shorts, oh yeah!  I did have gloves and a hat though.  7:25 AP, which included strides and 2 x 0.5 mile @ HMGP.  Felt really good today coming off the rest day and probably the perfect running temperature for me.

It also helped that I hadn't just rolled out of bed - I had to be at work for something at 6am, but then ran after that.  Just jumped right into 7:30 pace; normally it takes several miles before I can approach that if I've just gotten out of bed.

So, feeling good for the race.  Temp should be upper 40s with the south wind at 20-25 mph.  I'll just do what I can; all the headwind pretty much comes right up front in the first 5-6 miles.  If I have to accept 7:30/mile on the first 5, I can still at least break 1:30 by averaging 6:30 the rest of the way.  It's a stretch, but worth shooting for.

Saucony A4 Miles: 7.14
Weight: 0.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.090.005.09

29F.  My first run in the 20s this season, not too bad since the winds were calm.  I actually went with long sleeves.  8:40 AP.  Ready to run tomorrow and take whatever the wind gods will give me.

1150s Red #1 Miles: 5.09
Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Race: Abilene Half Marathon (13.11 Miles) 01:29:31, Place overall: 3
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.6413.1117.75

51F, SSE 22-31 mph.  no kidding.

Short version - Really happy with this one given the wind.  When I felt the wind before the race, I thought it might take a miracle to break 1:30, but it actually happened.  No telling what this time would be worth on a normal day (and I'm not gonna guess) but I think I'm right on track with my fitness.

Obviously the splits are all over the map with the wind.  The headwind legs mostly came up front and were absolutely brutal.  When it gusted, it felt like I would almost come to a complete stop.  The tailwind legs were fast, although the damage had already been done.  Here are the splits/commentary, with HW in red, crosswind in black and TW in green (although I'm sure it'll be obvious).

1 - 6:52 - It started out with a little loop, and I stuck with the 2 leaders.

2-5 - 6:51, 7:27, 7:21, 7:29 - Mile 2 was neutral until about 1.6 and then the hell started.  When I felt what the headwind was like, knowing that we would have to endure it for 4 miles, I almost mentally gave up.  The two leaders hammered it and I was left by myself.  I was completely smoked trying to hold 7:20s and thought I was done.

6-10 - 6:48, 6:53, 6:41, 6:35, 6:33 - At about 5.2, it turns off the highway to a crosswind, and the slippery gravel begins for the next 3 miles.  My breathing was really starting to recover even though I was going a lot faster.  Mile 7 was about half headwind.  Mile 8 was a nice tailwind but probably had the worst gravel, really slippery.  Miles 9 and 10 were crosswind but the gravel ended and the asphalt began; I was starting to find my stride and had recovered from the headwind legs.  The second place guy was about 0.25 miles ahead after mile 5, but I had closed to about 0.15 miles by mile 10 (I would see him pass a landmark, then look at garmin to see how long it took me to get there).

11-13.1 - 6:19, 6:27, 6:36, 0:39 (5:45 pace) - Now the part I had been waiting for - I actually did the last 5K in exactly 20 min.  I closed to within 30 seconds of 2nd place but couldn't catch him.  Mile 13 we lost a majority of the tailwind and I really redlined trying to catch up to 2nd place.

If you break up the race into 2 halves, I did the first 6.55 miles in 46:39 (7:07 pace) and did the second half in 42:52 (6:32 pace).  The funny thing is it might have been a positive split effort.

Afterward I ran the race opposite direction until I saw Danielle, and ran her in.  She got a 10-second PR, despite the wind.  So we are both feeling pretty good.

results (it seems 5-6 seconds was added to everyone's time; I'm sticking with my watch time since I could not have been off by that much!)

Saucony A4 Miles: 17.75
Weight: 0.00
Comments(17)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
47.6814.1161.79
1150s Red #2 Miles: 27.721150s Red #1 Miles: 9.18Saucony A4 Miles: 24.89
Weight: 0.00
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