3M Half Marathon 2007 - Race Report
I felt like a penguin in the movie, "March of the Penguins" when I got to the tent to drop off my hoody for after the race. There was a stand-up gas heater with people huddled around in a circle. I huddled for a few minutes, laughed and then took off to warm up.
As this race wasn't an "A race" for this year, I didn't have any goals set. I had run it in 1:55:20 last year so I plotted out a doable 1:54:00 from what happened in November's Motive Half Marathon. Although Motive happened at the end of the triathlon season and I haven't run since Motive. All cycling and lifting weights since mid-November. So 1:54:00 may have been wishful thinking.
I lined up for the 13th annual half marathon with 4081 other runners at 6;45. Everything felt good. I got up at 2:00 am to drink a Extra Protein Boost and went back to bed. Woke up at 4:30 and downed a yogurt and some toast and coffee. The stomach felt good after this routine and would prove to be no problem during the race.
In a spreadsheet I had targeted 9:30 for the first mile and 9:15 for the next two before settling into a repeat of 8:45 for the remainder miles until mile 11. At that point I'd increase the speed and initiate a kick toward the finish. Everything happened as planned. As you can see the splits below, they were pretty close, except for the kick. I didn't have anything at the end from the lack of running for the last two months. However, I was able to shave a few seconds here and there that allowed me to still PR by one minute, eleven seconds over last year's time. My prediction of 1:54:00 was off by nine seconds. Pretty cool.
Splits : 9:08, 9:16, 8:45, 8:23, 8:10, 8:14, 8:40, 8:36, 8:41, 9:03, 8:51, 8:36, 8:40, :56
I had a hard time walking after the race. It felt more like a marathon than a half, based on how my legs felt. I inverted the legs once I got home to let the blood rush out of them, took some CoQ10, E, C, Liquid Advils and some Miller Lites and felt great by the time the afternoon rolled around.
I was happy with the results, given I hadn't run since mid-November and had gained fifteen pounds lifting. It hurt to get this PR and I'll have to rethink my eating strategy or workouts better next year if I want to PR again.
tags: running, half marathon, 3M
Labels: 3M, half marathon
1 Comments:
My name is Robert Key and I am a runner from Houston, Texas. I saw your blog listed when I was looking through the RBF directory and very much enjoyed reading some of your entries. I will be at the Austin Marathon next month (my 4th Austin) trying to qualify for my 4th Boston (if I can get past a serious left leg shin splint). My 14 year old son will be there to run the half-marathon.
I have a web site at http://www.faithfulsoles.com that is inspirational stories for walkers, runners and athletes of all ages and abilities. A new feature I have recently added to the site is a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database where members of my site can find a blog of interest to them based on other walkers, runners or athletes of similar abilities, goals and interests. To my knowledge it is the only one of its kind specifically for walkers and runners on the internet. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to put a link to your blog in our Running Blog Database. Just click on "Link your running blog" under "Free Features" from the home page. If you want to learn more about my running background, just click on "Meet Robert" from the main menu , or to learn more about my involvement in the running community, click on "Faithful Soles in the news" in the left column under "Weekly Features". I also have a blog that I just started at http://faithfulsoles.blogspot.com, but most of my running information is on my web site. Also, if there is anyone else in your blogger network that you think would be interested in listing their blog, please feel free to pass this information along to them. Thanks and continued good luck in your training.
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