http://connect.garmin.com/activity/301184247
My first race of the 2013 season was the Fort Dodge Half Marathon, run on April 21, 2013. I ran this race at the conclusion of my Winter Training mainly as a check to see how my run was coming along. I wanted to be a little rested in order to have a good run, but it was not a major "A-race" or anything of that sort.
This year I started my focused training on Jan 1, again with the Endurance Nation group, on a 14 week high intensity cycle ending April 7. The next week was strictly low intensity running and riding plus swimming, with my first longer rides the weekend of April 13-14. I pumped up the intensity again for the first half of the week of April 15 because I knew I would not get my long ride in. To be rested enough for the race, Friday was swim-only and Saturday was off.
Weather predictions for the race were rather dicey. It looked as if it could be 40 degrees and raining. Ugly. By early race morning, we upgraded from "definitely ugly" to "might be ugly". So that was a step up!
I got up about 5:15 am to get out the door at 6:00. That would get me to the race site by a little after 7:00. The race was to be a point to point affair, with a shuttle running every 30 minutes to the start. I needed to pick up my packet, so I wanted to be sure not to have any difficulties and I gave myself plenty of time. The race was to start at 9:00.
As it turned out, the drive and shuttle worked out with ridiculously good timing, so I ended up being one of the first racers there. I got my number without incident and was very happy that we got to wait inside a school cafeteria instead of standing outside. By now, it seemed that the rain would stay abated, but it was pretty darn breezy and fairly cold. Waiting outside for 90 minutes would have been painful.
The race was fundamentally a "test" for me, so I wanted to adopt a pretty sensible strategy that would give me a good time, but also be fairly low pressure. I wanted to make a real honest effort, but not trash myself completely. Given my 5K times in the 19:30ish range during the winter, I wanted to run sub-90. I had been doing a 12-16 mile run once a week consistently, so I wasn't concerned about endurance, per se, but it was going to be a question of whether I could hold the Vdot pace at the longer distance.
I resolve to run the first 4-5 miles mainly by RPE and heart rate, knowing that a "solid" race would require me to keep below threshold. I knew the best I could reasonably even hope for was a 6:45 pace or so, so for the first few miles, I would also be keeping an eye to make sure I wasn't abusing that. But I wanted to run as close to even splits as I could. Nothing fancy on a reverse split, and no heroics trying to save something that was fading fast. I figured the middle miles would take care of themselves, and I would allow myself to go over threshold for the last 5K or so as necessary.
The course is shown on my Garmin output. It was basically flat or very gently sloping except for one depression and corresponding hill near the half way point. It ran through open areas for the first few miles, then mostly suburban residential, and then along a trail through and then along the edge of a park. The wind was shifting direction, but generally from west-and-south. In park areas, it wasn't noticeable at all, except the last few miles along the park edge. Surfaces were sidewalk, road, and well-groomed trail. I dislike trail running generally because I don't like the uneven surfaces. However, the trails here were well maintained...just a little slower than running on a road.
I warmed up about 25 minutes before race time to make sure I gauged the temperature and got over that initial horrible out-of-breathness that I always get if I just start raw. That worked out well.
The race got off at 9:03. I didn't know how many people were there at the time, but it was obviously well under 100. It wasn't too hard to guess who were the serious runners likely to win. I didn't see any women that looked like they would beat me, but you never know. There were about 10 men that looked like they were pretty serious and 2-3 who I was pretty darn sure would dust me. Sure enough, at the very start of the race, a pack of about half a dozen took off. I could have kept up with them, but I was pretty sure I couldn't for the whole race, so I let them go. I was content to be the guy behind the first pack who would pick off anyone who fell off its back...or at least so I rationalized. :-)
I ran in tights, under armour top, hat and gloves. The first mile (going east) was really into the wind, but everyone (including me) was pretty excited, so the pace was pretty quick despite this. I ran 6:42. The second mile retained most of this early excitement and I ran about 6:37 with the wind at least partly at our backs.
By about 10 minutes in I decided to double check that the heart rate was under control and start thinking consciously about how fast I was going. The pack up ahead was still there, although it was spreading out a little. My HR was around 160-161, and I thought my threshold was about 165, so this was fine. It was time to just run smart and wait for a little rough spot...and get through it.
As I write this report, I cannot remember why mile 3 was as fast as it was, but looking at the map, it appears this was the most open area going north, so my guess is that this was a tailwind issue.
On the race map, there is a big left turn just short of the 4 mile mark. This is where "local race" came into play. The girls staffing the water table were chatting away, and directed me into someone's unpaved driveway instead of the park trail. Fortunately, the driveway was short. :-)
During mile 4, I spotted my first "victim" from falling off the pack. I could have just run by, but I resolved to stick at my pace, and it was PAINFULLY slow to catch up with him. After turning left at the mile 4 mark, the wind was pretty much a non-factor as I remember. Mile 5 was my first kind of rough spot. It passed, as I talked myself into believing it was from the unpaved surface. At about the half way point I was passed by a guy apparently in his early 20s. He would be my foil for the rest of the race. He blew by me fast enough that I couldn't understand how he was behind me to begin with. We passed another guy falling off the back before we exited the park. We traded back and forth a couple of times, but it always seemed to me that it was I who was going steady and he was erratic. In retrospect, the data bear this out.
The half way point was marked by a very nasty hill in a suburban neighborhood after way too much turning. According to Garmin, it was only 80 feet up, but it was really tough. Mile 7 is what killed any chance I had at my PR, too. Going up that hill and then recovering it cost me. 7:20. Ugh.
At that point, I actually got kind of worried. As stated before, I didn't want to absolutely shred myself, but I wanted to do well. 23-year old guy kept stopping and walking and then running by me again. I resolved to pick it up and experiment with a balance of pace, RPE, and HR and settled down by the mile 8 marker...and this basically worked out to a 6:50ish pace for the remainder of the race. After mile 8, I was just focused on getting to the next mile marker without going slower than 7:00 and without spiking the HR. And if I could get 6:45 again without really hurting myself, that's what I wanted.
As it turned out, there would be no more 6:45 miles. It was a 6:50 world and I was living in it. A modest hill here and wind in your face there, and that made it a 6:55 world a couple of times. But I was very much in "just grind them out and count them down" mode. I caught one last guy - a high schooler. I'm sure he could run a 5 K minutes faster than me, but he didn't have the endurance to make it all the way through 13.1. Mr. 23 stop-and-go got his act together and stayed ahead of me.
In the end, though, this was a very satisfactory race.
- HR was 161 2 minutes into the race. At the 10 mile mark, it was 164. Over the last couple of miles it bumped up into threshold range, and I finished in the upper 160s. Almost perfectly as planned.
- Final time was 1:29:31. (I forgot to hit my Garmin for a little while). This was less than a minute short of my PR from a couple of years ago. That was on a nearly perfect day on an entirely blacktop course with no single big hill. So the PR still stands, but I have to think this was a nearly equivalent effort.
- Cadence was essentially constant at 91 ± 1 except for that hill.
- There was a positive split, but ignoring the big hill mile, it wasn't really that bad...maybe not perfect but ok by me.
- According to the Vdot tables, a 1:29:31 half marathon corresponds to a 19:31 5K. Spot on. Run training validated.
Here are the mile splits:
| 1 | 6:42.3 | 1.00 | 6:42 |
| 2 | 6:36.6 | 1.00 | 6:37 |
| 3 | 6:34.7 | 1.00 | 6:35 |
| 4 | 6:43.8 | 1.00 | 6:44 |
| 5 | 6:46.3 | 1.00 | 6:46 |
| 6 | 6:43.1 | 1.00 | 6:43 |
| 7 | 7:20.0 | 1.00 | 7:20 |
| 8 | 6:50.9 | 1.00 | 6:51 |
| 9 | 6:54.6 | 1.00 | 6:55 |
| 10 | 6:51.6 | 1.00 | 6:52 |
| 11 | 6:54.6 | 1.00 | 6:55 |
| 12 | 6:57.6 | 1.00 | 6:58 |
| 13 | 6:51.7 | 1.00 | 6:52 |
| 14 | :55.7 | 0.11 | 8:22 |
The guy that won the race was one of the two or three middle aged men you would pick out of the crowd for sure. He was 49 but looked every bit the part of "fast runner guy". The next two were my 23 year old foil and another guy his age. Then me.
As I write this, it's two days later. I am a little disappointed with how sore my legs remain, but I am optimistic that I will still be ready to go by next weekend. I can always swim.
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