Woke up to a beautiful morning for running a half marathon - upper 50's, a bit breezy, and mostly sunny. I felt refreshed and rested as I readied myself for the day's run. Treating the race as a semi-long run, I felt none of the usual race day excitement, rather, just a desire to get out and run for a couple of hours.
I arrived at the race site without problem, registered, ran a slow mile, and walked to the start line. I saw Mike I., and we talked for 5 minutes about running. He invited me to run Forest Glen with him sometime. I told him I don't own a car, so he said to email him and we could plan for him to pick me up and drive me there. I have never been to Forest Glen, from Mike's description it sounds like a tough and beautiful trail run.
We started off the line at 7:00am, and I ran comfortably slow the first mile. I was surprised to hear the 1 mile split at 8:15, it felt more like 9:15. For the next 6 miles I remained on cruise control, running between 8:05-8:15 pace.
When I could I ran on the crushed gravel edge of the asphalt country roads, but sometimes the edge was just high grass, so about 2/3 of the race I ran on the hard road. I wore my Puma 4 ouncers, deciding to test my foot strength. These shoes have just a thin sheet of rubber pasted to the bottom of the mesh , no cushioning and not much of a heal. It is close to running barefoot, and I am happy to say that I had no problems with the asphalt surface, my foot strength was good, and the shoe comfortable.
At mile 7 I started to accelerate my pace without trying, as I had caught a bit of trance energy and flowed with it. I am guessing my pace dropped to 7:30-7:45, and I held onto this through miles 8-11. The final 2 miles I dropped the pace further to 7:15-7:25, just that natural urge to run hard during the final minutes of a run.
Before I knew it I was crossing the overpass hill which leads to the high school track, and I sprinted the final 300m, coming into the chute in 1:42:40, for an average pace of 7:50. I had no struggles in the race, it was just a smooth flow of running which felt good the entire way. After the hard 300m my breathing returned to normal in 10 seconds.
During the race I compared how my mind grasped distance from a few years ago, and today. 2006 was the last time I ran a half marathon, and it was on the same course. Then the miles seemed longer and more strugglesome, especially the final 3. Today I did not begin to feel warmed up until mile 10, and was disappointed that the run would soon be over. Having run a few ultra distances this year, it stretches the mind to believe that 20 miles is short, and 13, real short. In 2006 I finished in 1:47, so I took 5 minutes off that time with minimal effort.
After eating a banana and a biscuit with honey, I decided to walk the overpass to Lake of the Woods and run some trails. I ran at my normal long run training pace, which is 8:30-10:00 per mile - nice and easy. After 5-6 trail miles I packed it up and went home.
Overall a good training day, 19- 20 miles total, 13 being moderately hard. My knee never bothered me, so it is a hit or miss injury, some days it feels weak after 5 miles, on other days normal. Not sure what to make of it.
The 50 miler in Hell, MI is in 3 weeks. I will plan on running 20-27 miles next Saturday, then begin to taper off with shorter, quicker runs. | 