OC Half Marathon 2011

So, a year ago, I ran my first half-marathon, finishing in 1:39:54. Not sure where I came up with the "break 1:40" idea last year, other than it sounded like a nice round number. This year was a little different. I did several 5K tests. Those 5K tests can be converted to an equivalent half-marathon. My most recent 5K test result was 20:13, which suggests a 1:32:55 half-marathon (7:05 pace). Since that was about 20 seconds a mile faster than I have even run a 10K, I was a little skeptical. But after soliciting some advice (Thanks Max!), I decided to see what happened if I tried to run 7:05 a mile. For those who don't want to read this whole post, the answer is: I cracked just after mile 9 and staggered home in 1:33:31, wondering why I signed up to cause myself that much discomfort.

Pre-Race: Some articles about Ironman and Half-iron nutrition suggest that you want to be sitting on the start line with your glycogen stores full, but your stomach empty. Since most races start early in the morning, that can be tricky. So, they recommend getting up at 2 a.m., downing a liquid breakfast and going back to sleep until it's time to get up for real. I was a little nervous about that before an "A" race, so I decided to try it out for the half-marathon. That meant I woke up at 1:45 to drink 2 naked juice smoothies for about 500 calories. They left me a little bloated and I had some trouble getting back to sleep. But I managed to "do my business" in the morning at the house rather than at the race site, so that seemed to work. I might try to experiment with other smoothies that are a little more calorie dense next time.

Mini-Rant About Pacers: Last year, I had hoped to just under 1:40, but the 1:40 pace group runner was out of my sight the whole time (that was in part because I started about 200 meters behind and took almost 2 minutes to cross the start line). This year, however, I started about 10 feet behind the 1:50 pacer and 20 meters behind the 1:40 pacer. 1:40 is about 7:38 a mile. I ran the first mile in 7:15, and he extended the lead to 100 meters (I should have passed him). I ran the second mile (heavily downhill) in 6:46, and he moved about 200 meters out (he should have been about 1 minute behind me). He kept running farther away and by 3 or 4 miles in, he was gone. The 1:40/3:20 pacer ran the first half in less than 1:30. That's almost 1 minute a mile faster than he should have been running. What was he doing? A few of us were chuckling at this guy. It would never have affected me because I was pacing based on my Garmin, but I had been relying on him, I would be pissed right now.

Race Execution: Last year, I was really pleased with my pacing. With the exception of the 1 mile dead downhill and the final mile, I ran everything in 7:35-7:35. This year, I ran a lot less evenly, in part because my goal pace proved to be a little hot. The first 3 miles were just about right (21:05). I went through 6 miles in 42:04, and half-way in a shade less than 46 minutes -- almost perfectly on pace with the hills coming in the second half. But I was a little worried because I was already tired. The hill in mile 7-8 was nothing really, but it did slow my pace to 7:15. Mile 9 was okay, but I knew I was in trouble because the math and bargaining started. My thoughts went something like this:
(1) You only have to run another 35 minutes, you can do that, right?
(2) What pace do I have to run to still break 1:35?
(3) You only have to run another 34 minutes and 55 seconds, you can do that, right?
(4) How bad would it be if you stopped to walk for just a second here?
(5) You only have to run another 34 minutes and 50 seconds, you can do that, right?
I had hoped that I would feel strong running miles 9-12, but that didn't quite happen. By the time I finished mile 9, I was in full-on survival mode. The next 3 miles were ugly -- 7:22, 7:19, 7:17. Those 3 miles pretty much ended my attempt to break 1:33. I really had to fight the urge to walk during this period. I don't usually need to attempt to dissociate from the discomfort, but it became necessary here. When you are more than 10 minutes from the finish line and repeating to yourself "it is not me who is feeling this pain, I am observing someone else's pain," you know you are in trouble.
I did regroup in mile 13, passing a runner who had hovered just out of my reach for most of the second half. I thought with a quarter mile to go that I had dropped him. But my legs were so full of lactic acid that I had no closing sprint at all. When he came back at me, I attempted to surge again, but my body wasn't having it, and he went by me (as did another runner I hadn't known was there). The pictures of me finishing are going to be interesting. Getting passed in the last 200 meters is getting kind of old.
I crossed the line in 1:33:31. Although that wasn't quite what I had hoped to do, it was still a huge PR. So, I view it as validation that my training is going in the right direction. Of course, there's still a long way to go since many middle of the pack age groupers run faster than that, off the bike, in tougher conditions. But this result gives me hope that I might be able to run 1:38 or 1:39 off the bike in October.