Notes
Pre race thoughts: Spent the two weeks prior to the race without having any desserts and eating a lot (maybe too many) salads. Night before was a nice pasta dinner with some Williams friends who were also doing the race. Morning breakfast was a bagel with PB, some tea, and some gatorade. Sleep the night before was really rough as I shared a couch in my friends appartment and had to get up at 4:15am in order to eat something before the 7am start time.
Started my warmup about 40 minutes before the start and did 15 minutes easy with a few light pickups. Decided to go ahead with the super light Mizuno Wave Universes (3.8 oz).
Got off the line well and for the first mile settled into the back of a pack of 15, 12 of whom were Kenyan runners. Went through the mile in 4:56 feeling pretty relaxed, but already starting to lose contact with the first group. As I came through 2 miles, I was already on my own, in back of the lead pack, but not in contact with any chase pack. I was in for a rude surprise when I came through the 2 mile with a split of 5:30. I thought my shot of going sub-67 was done for, but decided to pick it up, only to come through the 3 mile split in 4:20. Clearly someone goofed with the 2nd mile marker. For the rest of the race, I was basically on my own. I caught the top marathoner around mile 4, and rolled up two of the Kenyans in miles 7 and 10.
As for the course, the first 7 miles were nearly pancake-flat and I felt really comfortable averaging just over 5:00 pace. The hills in miles 8 and 10 were definitely a little shock to the system, but I made it through them fine. Around mile ten, I was kicking myself, feeling that I hadn't been pushing myself hard enough, but right around mile 11, the fatigue really ended up setting in. The last two miles were tough, and I definitely had to grit it out to just stay on (or near) the sub-67 pace. When I rounded the homestretch, I could tell that I would be able to make it under 67 minutes, but still kicked it in to make sure. Ended up finishing 11th with Kenyans taking places 1-9 and the other white guy in 10th.
Reflecting on this race, I have really mixed emotions. On one hand, it was a solid debut race and I was able to manage the half marathon distance without falling apart. Also, while weather conditions were perfect, the course was pretty hilly, so when I get on a really flat course, I know I have ~25 seconds in the bank. Additionally, my 10k split of 31:05 is a minute PR for road or track, and even my guestimated 5k split of 15:17 is a road PR by about 5 or 10 seconds.
On the other hand, the single most prominent emotion that I felt post race was underwhelmed. For one, my previous three weeks of training had been tough with some back tightness and hamstring tenderness. I basically hadn't been able to do a workout in the previous three weeks before the race, and during much of that time I was feeling really flat all of the time. Also, I think that my feeling of let down had to do with the way the race played out. Having chosen to fly up to Philadelphia for this race for the good competition up front, I was somewhat surprised to find myself in no-mans land for nearly the entire race. Other than the first two miles, the only people I was ever within 100m of were the handful of stragglers. Despite setting 5k and 10k prs during the first part of the race, all of the guys who finished in the pack 20 to 30 second ahead of me were already 20 to 70 seconds ahead by 10k. Part of me really wished I had at least gone out hard enough to stick with the back of the lead pack, but I'm not sure how I would have responded to a 30:40 first 10k.
All in all, it was a solid first half marathon. But I'm definitely excited to run it again. Now it's time to decide what this spring holds.