Capital City River Run
2009-09-27
Lansing, Michigan
United States
Impression 5 Science Center
60F / 16C
Overcast
Running
01:37:00 | 13.1 miles | 07m 24s min/mile
Entirely Z4/5. 59 min in Z4 and 49 min in Z5! Craziness! I guess I was running hard. Slowest complete mile was 7:47. Fastest complete mile was 6:59. Fastest single pace was sub 6.
Pre-race routine:
Not as much running as I should have been doing. I did a couple distance runs recently and some tempo runs.
Event warmup:
Basic stretching as I was 'running' behind after coming off of a 24 hour shift. I felt pretty good and was ready to race, but didn't feel like this was going to be a PR.
Comments:
I went out a bit too fast, as I always do. Found myself feeling great and running past the pacers (I started right behind the 8min pacer knowing I would pass him, but wanted to use him as motivation so that I would never be passed by him). Little did I know that I would quickly catch up to and pass the 7:30 pacer. I figured I would get passed by him and his group before too long.
HOWEVER, I was feeling great. My tempo runs have been pushing the 7:15 pace but only for 20 minutes and then I'd be whipped.... but after my last few distance runs I thought that pace was out of my range. Low and behold I looked down at my FR305 and saw a sub-6 pace. I completely knew that was out of my jurisdiction. So I *slowed* to a 7:15 and tried to stay there, but I was a horse chomping at the bit - so I cruised on the flats and downhills.
At mile 5 or 6 I expected to start feeling sore and tired and to slow, but I took a GU Roctane and took some water. By mile 8 I figured I'd be pushing the 8:30 pace but Not Today! I felt a slight rush, not the euphoric feeling, but probably the Gu taking affect.
Anytime I looked down and saw my pace fall below a 7:30 I picked it up. I did slow a few times to the 7:45 pace, but never to an 8. I passed the 9 mile mark and took a GU Chocolate. I didn't think that I *needed* it, but assumed that I would feel it like the last Gu. I grabbed a water at the next aid station and only sipped a bit.
At the 11 mile mark I had settled into a 7:30 pace but knew how close I was to my goal. I picked back up into a 7:15 pace and pushed faster on the last few straight-aways. The finish was up a slight hill but I didn't slow.
I saw the finish, my wife, daughters and family were there. I grabbed a high five from my wife and finished strong as they called my name and bib #. I was done.
I looked at my Garmin, 1h 37m. Earlier my goal was to be as close to 1h30m as possible. My last HM was 1h44m. Early August I started to focus on my speed and distance work for this race. But after 2 months of training runs I decided that an 1h40m time would be a more realistic goal. This past 2 weeks have been rough and I thought that there was no way I could break my last HM.
Today was a good day! My slowest complete mile was a 7:47 pace.
What would I do differently?:
You take what life deals. Sick children drain you, and over the last couple of weeks I haven't put in the work that I should have. But family first and training got put on hold.
I'm very happy with my results, but if I would have started training a month earlier and been able to stick to a plan, then maybe I could have been even more close to an 1h30m finish. But again, I'm pretty stoked with what I got after these past 2 weeks.
Warm down:
Easy walk and stretching. Food.
Event comments:
Great course with plenty of Volunteers to help out. Aid stations about every 1.5 miles. Good venue. Michigan Ave had unfinished construction so there was a brief bit through that mess.
No comments:
Post a Comment