I have to admit, I couldn't wait to write this post. I'm very excited about my New Prague Half Marathon results; not only was it a massive PR, but as a fitness measurement it demonstrates that I finally am within striking distance of going sub-3 in the marathon. Let me indulge myself with a brief race report:
As all of you local Minnesotans already know, yesterday was a picture perfect day; one of a handful we get every year. The race started at 8:00 and the temps were a a comfortable 49, dry, calm and sunny. I was feeling good at warm-up, but not particularly confident. I was determined to go out fast and hold on for as long as possible. I tend to go out on the half too conservatively, so I was going to get to goal pace (6:30) as soon as possible. Of course, the first two miles were 6:45, but lots of hills, so not too bad, but I was a little mad at myself for being so careful. It wasn't until mile 5 that I recorded my first sub 6:30. This course has no big hills, but is one medium-grade hill after another. Steep enough to slow your pace going up, but not too steep to stop you from really flying down the other side. So it would be 6:50 going up and 6:12 going down. I hit the halfway point at 43:30, which was kind of disappointing and was thinking that a 1:25 was not going to happen. I took a gel at mile 7 and something happened. The next few miles were going to get faster and faster. Mile 7 was 6:26 (blah) mile 8 was 6:22 (WTF) mile 9 was another 6:21, mile 10 was 6:19. Now here is where it really gets good. I hit the 10 mile mark at 1:05:21 and realized that I needed a sub 20 5K to make my goal. I can remember that running a sub 20 minute 5K was an admirable goal in itself, now I was about to attempt this within a half marathon! I knew at that point I could do it. I passed a guy and asked him, "are we going to break 1:25 today?" He thought I was being a smart-ass and kind of grunted at me, so I moved on. Mile 11 was 6:23 (uh-oh this isn't going to be as easy as I thought) and hilly mile 12 was 6:26. Damn this isn't going to happen after all. But mile 13 is a downhill, so I opened up with everything I had and ran a 6:05! I could see the finish line and the time read 1:24 something! I was about to break 1:25! I ended up with a 1:24:45 (6:28 pace) 3rd in my age group, 10th overall and a brand new PR at 50. Cool.
I've been at this sub-3 quest for a long time. Building off of each previous training cycle, learning by my mistakes and logging lots and lots of miles. Just one more smart and injury free training cycle and I can finally do this!
Happy Running!
Rick
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