Race Report: Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon, September 17, 2017

I ran the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon this morning, finishing in a time of 89:03.  Which was good enough for second masters female.  For the fourth year in a row.  Each time to a different person.

Oh well, better than 3rd master, right?

I have to admit, I didn't go into this race with the best attitude, and I think it showed in my performance.  I've just finished my peak 6 weeks of marathon training, and I'm tired.  Mentally as much as physically.  I find it hard to shift into a racing mindset when I haven't raced in a while - it takes some work to rekindle that fire.

But that's exactly why it was a good idea for me to race this morning.  I knew that the race itself would likely not be my best performance for several reasons: accumulated fatigue, lack of focus on this race, and weather (today was pretty muggy).   But physically it would be a good hard lactate threshold workout, and mentally it'd be a solid kick in the rear.  And three weeks out from the marathon was the perfect slot for both.

Before I get into the race itself, I have to take a moment to praise the race organization.  I've run this race four years in a row now, and each year I've noted changes that were made in response to the feedback from previous years.   There used to be a problem with the 5 miler and the half-marathon runners interfering with each other - the courses were rerouted to fix that issue.   This year, the expo was moved to the DC Armory area - much easier to access than the previous location at Nationals Park.  I also noted that the race shirt this year came in a true women's XS - in previous years the womens' shirts, even the smalls and extra-smalls, were tents.  It seems like many races have a "my way or the highway" attitude towards their runners, so it's nice to run a race that really does value and respond to feedback.  The race isn't perfect. (which race is?)   But they really do try, and they improve each year, and that's worth a lot in my book.

***

Race morning dawned muggy - this type of weather has become a near tradition for this race, so I wasn't too upset.  It was what it was, and we just had to do our best.  Because of the weather, I kept my warm-up on the short side - 2.5 miles with one hard segment of about 90 seconds - and also finished my warm-up with enough time to let my body temperature settle back down.

Then I hopped in my corral, handheld water bottle in hand, to join my teammates.

The gun went off (actually a bell, as I remember) and I went out riding the brakes.  This race and Cherry Blossom have similar first miles and people make the same mistakes at both - hammering up the initial hill and then letting the subsequent downhill lure them out too fast.  Mindful of that, I proceeded carefully.

Somewhere during that first mile, I synced up with teammates Brent and Jason.  I'd run with them for the next 8-9 miles, before getting separated at a water stop.

Thanks to Elizabeth Clor for this photo.
Jason is to my left, and Brent is to
my right (hidden by me).
Other teammate Jamey is behind me,
as is the woman in blue who would
finish first master female.

For the first few miles, I tried to hold a steady rhythm, with the exception of one surge to get behind a taller person as a windblock (we had a very modest headwind for the first 2-3 miles).  I had noted another masters female at the start, so I was also keeping an eye on her - ideally keeping her in sight so that I could chase her.  Around mile 4 or 5 she came back to me and we passed her, so that was good.  Of course, soon after another woman who looked like she might be my age passed us.  I debated going with her, or at least keeping her in my sight, but opted not to.  She was going too fast for me this early in the race.  Either she'd come back to me later or she wouldn't, but blowing myself up now wouldn't accomplish anything.

I held my pace up to the turnaround in Rock Creek Park, but things were getting rocky.  My breathing honestly hadn't been great the whole race (not full-blown asthma, but slightly tight), and I was also starting to feel shaky.  I had drained my water bottle, so I slowed up to refill it, and lost contact with Brent and Jason.  That was just as well, as I sensed that they were in shape to hammer the race home, while this was evolving into survival for myself.

The last four miles were not fun.  I had originally hoped to hammer these, but I was in no shape to do so - my balloon had no helium.  So I struggled home, mentally and physically.   I'm annoyed that I didn't fight harder in the final miles - if nothing else, I could have at least broken 89 (though honestly that doesn't matter much at all - it would have still been way off of my fitness).  But I think the fact that I have a marathon in 3 weeks weighed heavy here - as horrible as it sounds, when I have a goal marathon on my mind, I just don't care that much about the tune-ups, and it shows.

Splits were:
Mile 1: 6:55
Mile 2: 6:44
Mile 3: 6:46
Mile 4: 6:41
Mile 5: 6:41
Mile 6: 6:45
Mile 7 6:44
Mile 8: 6:47
Mile 9: 6:54 (hill+ refill water bottle)
Mile 10: 6:46
Mile 11: 6:52
Mile 12: 7:00
Mile 13+last bit: 7:27 (6:39 pace)

So basically, I just raced a half-marathon not too far off the pace I've been training at as "marathon pace."   Normally this would be concerning, but I'm not too worried.  Between the weather (high 60s and 100% humidity), accumulated fatigue, and my lack of focus, I don't take too much from the time.  It is what it is, I'm done, and now I get to taper for the marathon.

Other notes:

• Took one gel on course, a Blueberry Roctane.  I felt nauseous afterwards, but I think that was due to deydration, not the gel.
  
• Speaking of dehydration, it was definitely a factor here.  I felt nauseous and shaky in the last miles of this race and for a while afterwards.  And despite tossing down many many bottles of water post-race, I'm still unable to pee.  (TMI, but it's a running blog).
  
  I'm not sure what I can do about that - I was definitely well hydrated going into this race, and I drank as much water as I could have tolerated during the race.  In 100% humidity, it's impossible not to get somewhat dehydrated when racing this long.  And the fact I had to go back on my antihistamines a few weeks ago for ragweed season didn't help - Clarinex is a great drug for allergies, but very drying.  Oh well, it is what it is.
  
• Amusingly, though this time was far off of what I would normally hope to run for a half-marathon, it's still by far my my best performance at this distance while preparing for a full.  So that's nice.  And it's also just more evidence that I don't race half-marathons well off of full marathon training.
  
  Over the years, I've noted that some people can race great half-marathons approaching them from the endurance/marathon side - they do most of the marathon workouts, but just avoid the 20 milers.  Those are also the people that generally run better half-marathons as tune-ups for a full.   For myself, I do best at the half-marathon distance when I approach it from the 10K/speed/stamina side - focusing on the track workouts,  avoiding the marathoner workouts, and really limiting the long runs.  That's what I did this spring for Shamrock and Grandma's, and I'll use that strategy again when I next target a half as my goal race.  Marathon pace work is my strength, but the more I do it, the more I get locked into that marathon pace range, and the harder it is for me to find and hold a pace that's just a bit faster.
  
• Arrived at the race at 6:00 am for the 7:08 start, which was just about perfect.  I did have some trouble finding parking at first - there were many many open spots along Constitution Avenue and the surrounding streets, but they were all marked with temporary "No Parking" signs.  It was frustrating.  Until I realized that all the No Parking signs were for Saturday (when we had umpteen marches and gatherings, including one for President Trump supporters and another for Insane Clown Posse fans).  And that was how I scored near-rock star parking.   Reading isn't just fundamental, it's also parking-tastic.