Dad on the run.
Hello All, me running a half marathn has been a long time coming. I've tried doing this twice before and both times I ended up with an injury that prevented me from completing my training and thus causing me to back out of the half. Not this time! This time training went pretty well, I had a few weeks that were really short of the scheduled miles but that life and my running will never come before my family. So, with all that said lets get on with it.
As most of you know my goal for the race was sub 2 hours. Those of you who are friends on Facebook already know the outcome of today's race and for those of you who are not you can read through the report or just jump to the bottom if you want to cheat. Looking back at my training and the fact that I got lazy with my speed work and kinda quit doing it about mid way through training plus the fact that I had several weeks where I didn't even break 20 miles the whole idea of a sub 2 hour was probably slightly unrealistic. That was my goal however and I was going to go out today and do my best to reach that goal!
The alarm went off at 4:15am this morning and to my surprise I slept pretty dang good. My wife got up first and hopped in the shower because it takes her forever and a day to get ready (love you babe). While she was in the shower Lucas decided to wake up and demanded to be fed. So after the "feeding of the baby" I hopped in after my wife got out (I know it's stupid to shower before a run but I can't help it, it makes me feel refreshed). Once showered I took care of the dogs, had 2 pieces of toast, some coffee, a banana and a bottle of water on the way to the race.
We arrived at the Super speedway around 6:30 and my nerves were on edge, so a quick stop at the potty and then we headed toward the packet pickup area. We hung around here for a while taking some pictures and letting the kids play out on the race track.
This little guy just couldn't hang in there. We weren't here an hour and already his sleepy!!
A few quick stretches and it's time to head out to the starting line.
In case anyone is wondering the boy hugging me is my nephew.
It's 7:30am and it's time to get our run on. The weather couldn't have been better, nice overcast, 60s and low humidity. I was excited about this run. The horn blew and we were off. Unlike most of my 5K races I tried to make sure I didn't start off to fast. 13 miles is a long way to go and burning out on mile 1 was not how I wanted to start. My goal was to stay under 9:05 that would ensure a sub 2 hour half. I'm going to give you my splits based off my Garmin but it doesn't quite match up with my actual run time but I think that has to do with us running through the grand stands and the fact that gps signal was low during that part of the race. I'll split this up into 3 mile increments.
But first a few pics of the start of the race
Miles 1 - 3 : The race started off great and all those butterflies I was having just seem to disappear once the race actually started. I felt great, my hamstrings were still a little sore from the squats I did the other day but nothing I couldn't deal with. These miles were mostly around the inside of the track, once we got to the other side we cut through and went out into the camping grounds.
9:07, 8:54, 9:01 So far so good
Miles 4-6 : Still outside of the track but coming back around to the main entrance. I'm still feeling great, I'm hitting the water stops and I've shot down a GU already at around mile 3. I'm still feeling really good about my pace, my breathing is where it should be, I'm just watching the people around me, keeping my shoulder's relaxed, my head held high, and just counting my breathes, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1,2.
9:00, 8:57, 8:56 Negative splits on these three miles. Where is this coming from???
Miles 7 - 9 This is where we go under the grand stands and I think my pacing got a little out of whack because my watched flipped over to using the accelerometer vs GPS. I'm still feeling fantastic though I had downed another GU around 7.5 miles (Vanilla Bean = disgusting) I honestly can't believe I'm still holding onto the pace I need for sub 2. I feel like superman only slower...
9:32, 8:44, 9:06 - Those first two I don't think are accurate but whatever....
Miles 10 - 12 : Whatever I had going starts to fall apart around mile 11. My legs are tired and aching all over, my breathing becomes labored my shoulders are drooping my heads hanging, It's a dead man's shuffle but I don't want to walk, I"m not going to walk just a few more miles and I'm done. One foot in front of the other, like the little train that could - chugga chugga chugga. I'm wondering if I should have taken the GU at mile 11 and if it would had made any difference at all???
9:10, 9:18, 9:27
Mile 13 - Finish : The mental demons have won their battle at around 12.3 miles I stop and walk I said a few choice words a little louder than I intended and then just got pissed off at everything and everyone. I was spent, my legs were past the point of exhausting. My hamstrings and quads were hurting, my moleskin on my foot rubbed off around mile 7 and I could tell I was going to have a blister from hell, it was killing me at this point so not only were my legs hurting, my foot was tender, I was ready for it all to be over with and here I was WALKING!!!
I walked for about 20 seconds looked at my watch and it had my pace at 10:42 for the mile. NO! I came to damn far to end my last mile at 10:42!!! Mental demons your going to have to take a back seat and shut up!!! I push with what little effort I had left, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, at this point it was a 1/10 of a mile game. DING Mile 13 - 9:32 YIKES! It was a good push to pick up the pace but was it enough??? I had .1 to go and the clock was already past 2 hours. I told myself that's gun time and I just ran, I didn't have a kick left in me but I just help pace and hoped for the best. I forgot to stop my garmin until after I received my medal and it read 2:00:25.. did I make it? I would have to wait for the results to find out :/
I'm done!!! Let me just lay here and die!!!
Now of course, while I'm out there running my butt off the kids get to have fun and play... Hey, someone has to have all the fun right?
After the race we got to sit down and have some Jim N Nicks BBQ while they announced all the winners. Once I got done eating I walked around until I found the race results tent and had them print out my results.
Results were as followed
AG 23 / 51
Gender 166 / 381
Overall 215 / 738
Time - 2:00:06 9:11m/m
7 seconds shy of my sub 2 hour goal. I wanted so bad to be pissed off about this time and disappointed but I learned a lot from the race and given that it was my first HM race it's an automatic PR. Also, I know understand the importance of speed work regardless of distance and making sure that I have training runs where I push myself at the end of the run so that I'm better prepared to push myself at the end of the race. My 20 seconds of walking cost me my sub 2 hour and I'll do everything I have to to make sure that never happens again!
Now about that blister I was talking about, here is the fruits of my labor....
Chasing the sub 20 5K.
Former Bad Ass
Ouch at that blister! Congrats on the race! I think this was your B goal, no? Great job!
Damaris
My primary objective was sub 2, my secondary was sub 2:05. So I managed that much and almost managed the first. It's A OK though. I'm thrilled with the how it all turned out and really enjoyed the experience.
Congratulations on finishing your first half. Given your uneven training, you did really well. So close to your goal. Sounds like you learned a few things too. I understand being disappointed, but you really shouldn't be. Thirteen miles isn't easy, especially on 20 miles a week.
Why the blister? New socks?
uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sǝʇᴉɹʍ ʇI
First off, that is one massive blister and one gross picture, but guess what... we get it! JBJ, I am super happy for you and am giving you a fist bump and "man hug" right now. I know this has been a long coming for you and with some more miles under your belt you will lose some of the pre-race nerves and certainly will not have to walk at the end. There's your seven seconds. Like they say, you never forget your first time. Keep at it and the sub 2:00 will soon be yours.
With everything all summed up, you did great!
Congratulations on your first HM. BTW since the race was at Talladega, did they have a variation of "Gentlemen, start your engines!" at the start of the race? And the kids looked like they had a blast at the race too.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T.S. Eliot
Congratulations! Being so close to your B goal is terrific. Now that you know what to expect, the next one will be easier.
And my hips hurt just looking at you running on that banked track. Yikes!
Barking Mad To Run
+1! Congrats on your half! Great report and photos!
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Nice job! Based on your history, impressive to hit your 2:00 goal. For your first, the main thing is to finish, but more important than that (assuming you want to do more) is to learn from it. Which based on the above, you did.
My comments keeping in mind I am pretty much a noob, but have made a lot of improvements & spent a lot of time reading the experts on these forums.
1. I don't think not taking the Gu at mile 11 had anything to do with it. For a half, if you have a good breakfast within a couple hours before, you should not need any fuel (or really any water for that matter, unless it is very warm). You felt like you needed some energy, what was probably really happening is you were running a pace not supported by your training.
2. Your end reminds me of the end of my first marathon. You knew it was going to be tough, but until it hit you, you had no idea how brutal it would really be. I also felt I had no choice but to stop & walk. (Although that hit me with ~8 miles to go. ) Part of defeating that as you say is more training runs where you have to push yourself hard. But IMO a lot of it is just having more training miles under your belt, so your legs will just do what they know how to do & not listen to your brain so much. And of course picking the right pace to begin with.
3. FWIW, again no expert here, but my advice is to not worry too much about speedwork until you have built up your mileage base. Get to maybe 35-40mpw consistently for a few months. That alone will make a world of difference in your half performance.
Congrats again & good luck!
Dave
Super B****
Great job!! For your first half marathon especially, that's an impressive showing. You'll get the sub-2:00 next time for sure.
And that blister... looks like it's really, really painful.
chasing the impossible
because i never shut up ... i blog
We never ran on any of the banked parts of the track. Everywhere we ran was nice and flat.
It didn't really hurt until I got home and hopped in the shower. Then it felt like I just dipped my foot unto molten lava.
Healed Hammy
Congratulations JBJr, your no longer a half virgin (get is, pun intended). While reading your report I had some of the same thoughts as Dave did above. None of which matter cause you continue on your impressive journey of weight loss and improvement in your running. Plus you kids are beautiful. You seem to have always made running races a family affair and I think that is great. Your kids should hopefully grow up with the exercise bug in them.
1. No need for 3 GU's on a half marathon. You burned perhaps 1300-1500 calories (just my guess, not a sourced figure) which is well within the limits of your caloric storage capabilities. GU's help provide glucose and simple carbs to metabolize faster and avoid the need to burn fat as a source of energy. Two is plenty for a half.
2. You mentioned speedwork. I like Dave above disagree. To me you would be better served by tempo runs rather than speed. They will increase your endurance and give you better fitness than speed work. During one of your 5-7 mile training runs try to pick up the pace for the middle 2 miles at a pace of say 8:45 - 9:00 per mile. Something like 2 w/u, 2 at 8:45, 2 c/d. I believe that will increase your endurance and get you to a sub-2 easily on your next try.
Thanks for the RR, always good to hear and see your improvement.
I would have liked to have taken at least one stinking gel during my half just to prove to myself that I can but alas, no bueno.
That last mile sounded painful! I have been there in half marathons as well as longer and shorter distances too! The last three miles can seem longer than the first 10 when you check out mentally and start counting down the miles to the finish.
As it is you hit right dead smack in the middle of your stated three goals and I think that anyone of us would be thrilled to be able to say that.
Nice job yo!
PS, that is one jacked up hoof. lol