Race Report: DC Half, September 18, 2022

I ran the DC Half Marathon today, finishing in 1:34:05.  This was a personal worst for the distance, and yet I'm OK with it.  Wistful, not upset.  I ran pretty much to my potential today, and you can't do more than that.

I signed up for this race a long time ago as a tune-up for the Chicago Marathon.  I like to race a half-marathon three weeks out from a full, and my choices were this race or the Philly Distance run.  This weekend is usually warmer than optimal with high pollen levels, and I knew I wasn't going to be setting a PR this weekend, so it made much more sense to stay local and not have to spend for a hotel or deal with travel.

(as it turns out, it looks like Philly wasn't that much better weather than DC, so definitely the right call).

Since this was a home race, things were easy - I left home at 6:15 and was parked in Georgetown by 6:30.  It was roughly a 1.5 mile jog to the start area, with a portajohn conveniently located half-way (I didn't know about that in advance - it was just good luck).  

Once I got to the starting area, I did my standard warm-up of 3:00 at marathon down to half-marathon effort, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, and 4x10 seconds at mile effort (aka as fast as my legs will let me go right now).  It's a bit more than I used to do before half-marathons - I used to just do the 3 minute segment and 2x30 seconds.  But I need every bit of warm-up I can get these days.  I finished that up at about 7:15, which gave me 15 minutes to jog a bit more and then enter the corral.

Like always, I wanted to start this half off conservatively before easing into pace. So I lined up near the 1:40 pacers.  I didn't plan to run with them, but that was the best indication I had of my appropriate place in the corral.  I stood in the corral for about 10 minutes before the race started - enough time for my legs to get really stiff and lock up.  But I decided to try some high knee lifts in place, and that seemed to help keep me loose.

***

At 7:30 they started the race.  I was worried about how I would handle the first few minutes of tightly packed runners, but it turned out to be a non-issue - the course quickly widened enough that I had space to do my own thing.  

The course was a pretty simple one (and fast) - one loop around Hains Point, and then around the Tidal Basin and up Rock Creek Park, before turning around and heading back down Rock Creek Park and back around the Tidal Basin to cross the Start/Finish line.  It wasn't perfectly flat, with some mild undulations, but still a very good course.   On a cool crisp day this could be a very fast course.  

After the first mile, I starting easing the rhythm up slightly (like always, I had my watch blanked so that I couldn't see splits).  I increased gradually until I felt like I was just under my edge, and then held it there and rolled through the miles.

I know most of the course like the back of my hand, which is good and bad.  The bad part is that I'm not used to running the tangents, since I don't usually do so when running here (that whole "stay on your right and to the side thing).  I had to repeatedly remind myself to do that - this was a race!

Other than that, the race just flowed.  I was rarely comfortable in my pace, but I was holding steady and reeling people in, so that was good.  Things definitely warmed up, with the sun shining brightly, as the race progressed, and I was grateful for my conservative start.

The heat did finally catch up to me in the last mile, and when things got really tough I tensed up and my legs started to lock.  So that's something to fix for next time - I always close my races best when I remind myself to relax and flow forward, but I forgot about that trick here.  Next time.

***

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:26
Mile 2: 7:14
Mile 3: 7:07
Mile 4: 7:00
Mile 5: 7:10
Mile 6: 7:03
Mile 7: 7:08
Mile 8: 7:09
Mile 9: 7:13
Mile 10: 7:09
Mile 11: 7:09
Mile 12: 7:12
Mile 13: 7:19
last bit: 44 seconds.

I would have liked to finish stronger than I did, but I think part of that was the rising temperatures.  Unfortunately, I forgot my heart rate monitor strap this morning, so I don't know what my heart rate was in those final miles - that would have been interesting.  (yes, my watch has a wrist-based heart rate function, but it's so inaccurate as to be borderline useless).

Other notes:

• I carried a water bottle with me - my plan had been to toss it at mile 11 or so (I could then pick it up when jogging back to my car post-race).  However, I was still drinking from it then, so I just carried it to the finish.
• My Garmin read 13.30 miles for this one - I suspect that this was mostly due to screwy signal under the Kennedy Center.  Yet another reason never to rely on Garmins for pacing.
• The race was a bit warmer than ideal - starting temp of 66 with a dew point of 64; ending temp of 76 with a dew point of 65, plus bright sunshine.  After training in dewpoints between 70 and 75 all summer, it didn't feel awful, but it didn't feel great either.  Hopefully Chicago will be better.
• One big positive is that I averaged the same pace for this half-marathon as I did for the Broad Street 10 Miler in May.  This course, though fast, is not as fast as Broad Street, and Broad Street had better weather.   I am making progress - very slow and hard fought, but progress all the same.
• I wore my Puma Deviate Nitro Elites for this race - I had been considering wearing them for Chicago.  However, the toe box definitely got too small in the last few miles when my feet started to swell, so that my neuromas started burning a bit.  I think I need a different shoe for a full marathon.
• It was so good to see my teammates and other running friends at this race, both before and after.