Somehow managed to turn a half-marathon into a 13-mile MP run. Not that there's anything wrong with an MP run, but I hoped for better. Legs didn't loosen up properly, but I didn't push through it. And I'm not happy with it.
The Hogeye course is an out-and-back, at least the half marathon is. First half is net downhill, second half, therefore, is net uphill by the same amount. And it's a significant amount; high point to low point is nearly 300 feet, and the start/finish is just about at the high point. And for all intents and purposes, I ran even splits -- meaning I ran the 300-foot uphill as fast as I ran the 300-foot downhill. That STINKS. I'm reasonably happy with my effort in the second half, but not with my first half.
I thought I might have a chance for age-group honors on this course, and if I'd run about a 1:35, which is what I wanted, that would have been the #2 time in 45-49. As it was, I finished fourth, my best age group finish. A decent first half certainly would have gotten me into the top three.
Splits:
1 -- 7:46. Lot of traffic, net downhill. Still should have been faster, even with the glutes not wanting to loosen up.
2 -- 8:15. Big uphills and downhills. Lousy effort. Probably gave away 30 seconds here.
3 -- 7:23. More like it. A lot of downhill here.
4 -- 7:43. Pretty flat section.
5 -- 7:58. Flat to downhill and I still didn't take advantage. Gave away more time here.
6 -- 8:04. Slight uphill, but not much. Bad effort. As my high school coach would have told me, I didn't compete; I was jogging.
6.55 -- Halfway point. 4:22 for the 0.55, slightly under 8:00 pace. Slight uphill. I'm starting to get upset with myself, with reason.
7.55 --7:40. Better.
8.55 -- 7:49. Pretty good uphill in this mile past Razorback Park Golf Course, so this was a better effort. And I'm starting to catch and pass some people.
9.55 -- 7:48. Fairly flat mile, still reeling some people in.
10.55 -- 7:49. Consistent. Biggest uphill of the entire course, so that was good effort to maintain pace. And I'm still catching people. This is pretty much the high point of the course.
11.55 -- 8:24. Big downhill followed by an even bigger uphill.
12.55 -- 7:36. This one had better be pretty fast, because it's mostly downhill.
13.11 -- Not sure of my exact split here, because I forgot to stop the watch at the finish (and because this was not a chip race, so my official time includes six or seven seconds before I got to the starting line). I estimate about 4:30 for the 0.56 miles.
The good news is that this is easily the hilliest course I've ever run a race on, and I have not trained much on hills because, well, Newport only has one, and I do most of my training on RT which is similar to the Newport course. And that even with my sucky effort and the hills, I ran a half fast enough that the pace would get me a BQ. The bad news is that hills or no hills, I left a LOT of time out there on the course by just failing to compete. I have to compete for 26 miles to get my BQ. And it could have been a lot worse -- the big winds moved into Fayetteville about 20 minutes after I finished, and slapped my car around on the freeway for three hours going home.
Also, the Oxysox were great -- no calf issues, no blisters. The 5-mile warmdown run was badly needed, getting the kinks out after a half and a three-hour car ride.
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