I ran the One City Half-Marathon yesterday, finishing in an official time of 1:34:11 1:34:05 (the race results were corrected, which is cool, since the corrected result matches what I had on my watch).
This is my second time running this half-marathon. I mostly repeated last year's pre-race logistics, since they had worked so well. I left my house at 7:45 am on Saturday to drive down and avoid traffic, and stayed at a hotel in the Hampton Convention Center area (10 minutes from the parking at the finish line). Grabbed my bib, grabbed Chipotle, and then did some yoga, stretching, foam rolling, and reading before hitting bed.
Like last year, I also woke up at 3:45 am to give myself enough time to eat, digest, and stretch. However, I waited an extra 15 minutes before leaving my hotel (5:00 am instead of 4:45 am) because last year I had arrived at the start line a bit too early and had frozen for 20 minutes before it was time to start jogging.
Leaving my hotel at 5 am meant that I had parked and made my way to the start line buses by 5:16. I got on a 5:25 bus, which got me to the start line at 5:55 am (I note all of these timestamps because it's really helpful to look back at these notes in future years, or to point others towards these notes when they ask me about a race).
There was one notable change from last year - the high school gym was open! Had I known this, I would have left my hotel much earlier, so I could have gotten to the race start and then done my stretching and mobilizations. Noted for next year.
I did hit one snag, which was waiting for approximately 5 minutes outside a porta-john before realizing that it was unoccupied but locked from the inside. Fortunately, I was able to find another one with no line and do the needful. The quest for porta-john entry did cut into my warm-up time, but I actually found that I didn't need that much today (just a bit less than 3 miles).
Then I lined up at 6:50 for the 7 am start (one nice thing about smaller races) and we started right at 7.
***
One of the challenges I have when trying to race with neuro issues is that my legs don't behave themselves well when I start running. My ankles get really stiff and locked and it usually takes about 10 minutes for things to start working correctly. Unrelated to the above (or at least it was until now) I have an ankle strengthening exercise I do a few times a week where I do two sets of 45 seconds of each of the following - walking on my toes, walking on my heels, walking on the outside of my feet, and walking on the inside of my feet.
I've noticed at the gym that after I do this exercise my ankles and feet feel really good. So, I decided to try it on race morning. When I arrived at the race, I walked back and forth in the parking lot on toes/heels/outside/inside for about 6 minutes before putting on my Vaporflies and starting to warm up. I looked very odd, but I am very odd, so it mapped and I didn't worry too much about it.
And...(returning to the race start)....it seemed to help. The first mile of the race was still challenging, but nowhere near as bad as it was last year. I felt much more stable, which meant that it was easier to handle the chaos of the first few minutes of the race, as well as the gentle inclines and declines.
***
As always, I paced my race by feel, rather than looking at pace, heart rate, running power, etc. (I actually wear a heart rate strap and a pair of foot pods because I think it's fun to look at that stuff later, but I ignore it for the race). My plan was to ease into the race over the first mile or two, then hold at just below my lactate threshold (which I can feel like a bright red line) before pushing over that line in the final miles. I've run my half-marathons that way for years and it's always worked well; the only thing that has changed is the paces.
It took about two miles for things to really smooth out, and then I hit a rhythm and held it. I have to admit that I didn't feel awesome - my breathing was tight during those middle miles. Post-race, several other people told me they felt the same, and Accuweather indicated that mold levels were high, so I suspect that may have been at play. Whatever - it was what it was.
The middle miles passed without too much of note - there were a few literal speed bumps on the road that I had to navigate (two of them I was able to avoid by running to the side) and a recurrence of my favorite sign ("you are very far from the finish" - accompanied by a recliner and a six pack).
I was running with a water bottle and hadn't yet drained it, so there was no need to grab my water bottle at the elite water stand, but I did so anyway for the heck of it. At this point in my running "career" (said jokingly since I lose money every year on the endeavor), opportunities to run in an elite field are dwindling. So I wanted to take advantage of all the perks, even if I didn't need them. I was less than graceful in accomplishing this task, and it probably cost me 2 seconds, but it was worth it for reasons independent of hydration.
Then we hit mile 10 and it was time to slip above the red line for my final approach to the finish line.
I had mapped out the course and knew particular landmarks that correlated to distances from the finish line. The gentle turn from Warwick onto Huntington was about 2 and 2/3rds of a mile from the finish line, and a mark to open up a bit more.
About this time, my right shoe started to feel loose. Annoyingly loose. I briefly considered and retie it, and then I decided that would be a silly decision, and that I needed to keep going unless the laces actually came undone. I was close enough to the finish that the 15 seconds spent fixing my shoe would exceed any loss in speed from the loose shoe. I did my best to ignore the shoe and push forward.
Another right and then a left marked 1 mile from the finish line - my cue to empty the tank. I passed one woman and focused on another just ahead, while also counting down streets (every 5 streets was a quarter mile) and trying to ignore my right shoe.
I made up ground steadily on the woman ahead but wasn't able to quite reach her before we hit the final turn to the finish line about 100m ahead. She found another gear after that turn, while I was already at my top end speed, so that was a battle lost (but still worth the fight). Then I crossed the finish, noting 1:34 and change on the clock. I was a bit disappointed but also satisfied. I had hoped to run faster than my recent workouts predicted (and faster than I ran here last year), and instead I ran pretty much what I would project from my workouts. But...I had run a well-executed race and gotten a solid tune-up for Boston, so there was a lot to be satisfied with independent of time.
Manual splits ended up being:
Mile 1: 7:36
Mile 2: 7:10
Mile 3: 7:13
Mile 4: 7:06
Mile 5: 7:20
Mile 6: 7:17
Mile 7: 7:12
Mile 8: 7:13
Mile 9: 7:12
Mile 10: 7:08
Mile 11: 7:03
Mile 12: 7:01
Mile 13: 6:48
last .11: 48 seconds.
So pretty much according to plan, with 1-2 miles to ease in, 8 miles at a hard effort, and then the last 3 miles building to a hammer (my heart rate chart also indicates this pacing plan pretty clearly, I think). I just wish those middle miles were closer to 7 flat. (I actually wish they were closer to the 6:30s of a few years ago, but such is life).
Overall, a fun day, and I'm glad I did this. Additionally, I get a really big fitness boost from racing half-marathons (I respond really well to tempo work, and a half-marathon race is the ultimate tempo workout) so hopefully I'll be reaping the benefits from this race in the final weeks of my Boston training.
Other notes:
- The weather was perfect for a half-marathon - high 40s to low 50s with a slight breeze. Unfortunately, it warmed up slightly for the full, which was a shame.
- Once again, I ran the last 5K of this race faster than I ran a standalone 5K three weeks ago (21:40 versus 21:59). My last mile of this race was also faster than any 1600 I've been able to run on the track this year. Just how my body works these days - that's why I'm prioritizing the longer races.
- Once again I ran this half-marathon at the exact same pace I ran for a 4 mile (6400m) tempo during training. Like I said, I pretty much ran exactly what I would expect based on my training.
- This race performance age-graded to 77.4 %. One of my goals is to get back above 80% for age-grading (I was 82-87% a few years ago, depending on the distance). Not there yet, but it seems in reach with work and luck.
- I took 17 back home instead of I-64 to I-95. Yes, it might add 30 minutes onto the trip if there aren't traffic back-ups on I-95 (which is unlikely to be the case). But this route is just so much mentally easier and smoother and more enjoyable than the near certainty of sitting on I-95 in stop and go traffic on a Sunday afternoon.
