May Try: Racing a Half-Marathon

This is based on what I posted on my running club's message board last week:

Last month was drum lessons. The try for this month (there might be others, but at least I got this out of the way first), was Race a Race. So that's how I approached the Eugene half-marathon on May 3.

Racing is tough for me.

(I think it's because I did so many as training runs when I was doing my first marathon--when I was living in Hoboken, I did a lot of New York Road Runners races because if you ran a certain #, you were guaranteed entry for the NY marathon. Only thing is: You have to be a member since January of that year. I joined in April. Thus: I am an idiot. But my point is not so much that but the fact that these "races" weren't races, they were ways for me to get a run in.)

I am tired of telling myself I don't get "race face." I tend to stop at races if I'm feeling poorly; I rarely break on through (to the other side), though on the once-in-a-blue-uninjured-moon I will, and am rewarded for my efforts.

This time I decided: I would put on my race face. At the same time, I would run this course smartly. I would go in...not conservative--but judicious. And so I'm happy with my race, partly because of the physical and the time (i.e., I took more than 3 minutes off my PR, though I missed going sub 1:50 by 10 lousy seconds), but also the mental (i.e., putting brain & body on a continuous loop reiterating that this was tough and I had to push through it and I was capable of it). It was a mental PR, and I'm more happy about that than anything else.

Last time I did a half was almost two years ago, and it's been a tough two years in a lot of ways. Conditions wrt weather were fabulous, though I will admit when I woke up at 5:30 and was surprised to learn that the noise I thought was water gushing down a gutter was actually water gushing from the skies. But things cleared up before the start and it was great weather; overcast but sprinkles at times. It cleared a bit for the marathoners, I think; it might have even been warm for the 3:30-plus group or so. I was also surprised that there was no wind.

I have to say, I was surprised that there was no 3:45 pacer. I'm going to email them and suggest that. I was around a lot of women around my age who wanted to qualify for Boston. Maybe I should have seeded myself further up in the crowd to find a group who was going to go out around 8:20 (the pace I wanted to average) but I wanted to go out about 8:30 and increase the pace later. I was pleasantly surprised to do minimal weaving in the first mile, and I didn't encounter any walkers, which I was really happy about. Was pleased how that went. Ran with a friend from my running cub for the first 2 miles (he later dropped out because he was fighting a cold) then got into a nice rhythm.

Was running for about 10 miles with this one 38-year old woman who was trying to qualify for Boston -- she was super-nice; occasionally I'd draft off her, and then she'd draft off me, and we talked about signs and running backpacks, etc. Around mile 5, she was like, "I wish you were running the full," and I said "there's still time to change your mind," and she said, well, I've been training for this 2 and a half years. I had to laugh. I know how that goes. (Side note: I watched the marathoners come in, and I was real sad to see her come in at ~3:50ish pace. But then I wondered when her birthday was and if she had a shot after all; but I guess that's more likely if you run a fall marathon, right?)

I loved the course. It's pretty, interesting, there's enough going on, varied. Thumbs up! Just downloaded my Garmin data and I'd had no idea the hill from 4-5 was as tall as it's saying it is. It was such a gradual climb that by the time you were like, hmm, am I working harder than usual?, you were going downhill. I like hills. I think I run them well and it's such a great feeling passing folks on the downhills who are recovering! The hill at mile 8 seemed steeper, but it was shorter and it's not unlike a hill by my house that I often finish training runs with, so I kept telling myself "it's just the Clinton Street climb..." and it totally worked.

That said? I think my favorite distance is about 15k - 10 miles or so. I wish there were more races out there like that. My best miles feel like they are usually run around miles 6-9, so by the time I hit mile 11 or so in a half-marathon, that's kind of the dead zone for me. And especially when my new friend and I split up at the half/full splitting up point, I had fewer people to draft off of.

But I made roadkill! There was this one woman I was running with for a bit -- she was in front of me, then I drafted by her shoulder...and then I passed her. You don't understand. I'm usually the kill in roadkill. But now, well, now I was the road. That last mile felt endless. My time was 1:50:09. I had really, really wanted to round that bend and see a "4" in the minutes area. But hey, it's a PR by over 3 minutes from the Flat Half 2007, so I'm happy with that.

I also didn't feel pain during the race; I got some glimmers of a side stitch that might have become more of an issue if I'd been running the marathon, but everything stayed in check. Breathing was good. It was a PR, and it also was a PR in that I felt totally dialed-in and totally consistent, very present, and, for lack of a better term "with it" during the race. I didn't stop once, didn't walk once during the race--though I ran through all the aid stations but one, and in that case I had to walk for like 10 steps because I can't Gu and run at the same time. That's probably what cost me that damn 10 seconds, but whatever. Maybe I'll try a fuel belt, but I'd always thought those would be tough on my back. Maybe I'll just increase my pace.

I was very finished at the finish. I'm happy with how things went. The day was great. I did things right and it showed. That was good. And now, I want to get faster. I know I have a mid-1:40 half in me. At least. Also, I had kind of wanted to train for a race based primarily on building mileage. I think I topped out at 47 miles a week. I haven't been doing much speed training; I've done maybe 5 tempo runs all year. But now that my mileage is gettign higher, I feel better about adding more speedwork to it. I'd like to do more long tempo runs, I think. Make training a little tougher.

Oh yeah, splits, because I thought this was interesting:Avg pace, 8:24, 8:40, 8:15, 8:33, 8:30, 8:28, 8:00, 8:22, 8:29, 8:37, 8:10, 8:33, 8:17, 8:23, 7:08.

So that was my race for May. May also will be the third try: Go to Asia.

We are going to Japan this month.