The goal of the week was to prepare myself for a tough run at the Shamrock Half Marathon. Given this was my first half marathon race outside of a half-Ironman triathlon I intended on putting forth a good effort despite my minor injuries. I had trained hard this off-season and a good race was going to be my payoff.
When race day arrived the weather took a turn for the worst. The forecast was miserable with temperatures in the 40s and 15-20 mph winds. Luckily the rain ended before the race began. I registered a time of 1:45:00, which I felt would be a great achievement since my PR from the Duke Liver Half triathlon was 1:57:13. This time put me in the first coral with some serious distance runners. I decided not to toe the line with them. Instead I huddled with a mass of individuals that appeared to be more my speed. The plan was to draft off the pack as long as I could before braving the wind alone.
Once the horn sounded the pack separated rather quickly and I chose to stay with two particular guys. I had spoke to them pre-race and knew they were shooting for 1:40ish. When I reached the first mile marker I was surprised to see 6:57 appear. The pace felt good, almost unchallenging, so I decided to keep it although it was out of my planned range. Before the second mile marker, the small pack began to separate when someone blew past. I thought we had slowed down too much so I made a move. My second mile came in at 6:51, which was much faster than I wanted to go, but I was feeling great. I continued to click off 7:00 or so miles to the halfway mark. I thought once I had the wind at my back I could ease up and coast home at the same pace.
At mile eight I began to feel my hip tightening and my IT band soon followed. I noticed I had begun to lean forward from exhaustion. The poor form not only hurt my legs but my back as well. I had to concentrate on my posture for the remainder of the race. Once I reached eleven miles I was ready to walk but didn’t want to ruin a good race. I had somehow managed to run a 7:00 pace for eleven miles so another two and change was nothing. A guy noticed me laboring and tried to coax me to break 1:30 but I wasn’t having any of it. I didn’t want to blow out my knee on the first race of the season.
I ended up finishing with a PR of 1:31:33 (7:00 pace). I placed 25th out of 380 in my age group. Not bad for my first half marathon. My splits were as follows: 6:57, 6:51, 6:59, 7:00, 7:05, 6:55, 6:59, 7:00, 6:59, 6:55, 6:59, 7:55
By the end of the week I logged 4100 yards swimming, 6 miles biking, and 17.1 miles of running in 3 1/2 hours. If I can manage to get my biking up to par I should be good for the Smithfield Sprint in two weeks.
When race day arrived the weather took a turn for the worst. The forecast was miserable with temperatures in the 40s and 15-20 mph winds. Luckily the rain ended before the race began. I registered a time of 1:45:00, which I felt would be a great achievement since my PR from the Duke Liver Half triathlon was 1:57:13. This time put me in the first coral with some serious distance runners. I decided not to toe the line with them. Instead I huddled with a mass of individuals that appeared to be more my speed. The plan was to draft off the pack as long as I could before braving the wind alone.
Once the horn sounded the pack separated rather quickly and I chose to stay with two particular guys. I had spoke to them pre-race and knew they were shooting for 1:40ish. When I reached the first mile marker I was surprised to see 6:57 appear. The pace felt good, almost unchallenging, so I decided to keep it although it was out of my planned range. Before the second mile marker, the small pack began to separate when someone blew past. I thought we had slowed down too much so I made a move. My second mile came in at 6:51, which was much faster than I wanted to go, but I was feeling great. I continued to click off 7:00 or so miles to the halfway mark. I thought once I had the wind at my back I could ease up and coast home at the same pace.
At mile eight I began to feel my hip tightening and my IT band soon followed. I noticed I had begun to lean forward from exhaustion. The poor form not only hurt my legs but my back as well. I had to concentrate on my posture for the remainder of the race. Once I reached eleven miles I was ready to walk but didn’t want to ruin a good race. I had somehow managed to run a 7:00 pace for eleven miles so another two and change was nothing. A guy noticed me laboring and tried to coax me to break 1:30 but I wasn’t having any of it. I didn’t want to blow out my knee on the first race of the season.
I ended up finishing with a PR of 1:31:33 (7:00 pace). I placed 25th out of 380 in my age group. Not bad for my first half marathon. My splits were as follows: 6:57, 6:51, 6:59, 7:00, 7:05, 6:55, 6:59, 7:00, 6:59, 6:55, 6:59, 7:55
By the end of the week I logged 4100 yards swimming, 6 miles biking, and 17.1 miles of running in 3 1/2 hours. If I can manage to get my biking up to par I should be good for the Smithfield Sprint in two weeks.
2 comments:
Nice breakout performance Widdy! Glad you were conservative, and it sure paid off. Must feel gret to have a new PR in the books. Now heal up, and get ready for tri season!
Nice PR! You have to shoot my PR for the half marathon 1:24. I ran that last Oct with not much training. Hope you IT band heals up. I'm going through that right now and what a pain! Good luck with your tri season.
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