Notes
Race Report May 10th, 2008
I can’t tell you how much I have been looking forward to this race. This is the first semi large race I have entered. With over 2500 runners racing through the pristine Santa Ynez valley, starting from Mavericks Saloon and looping through Los Olivos and finishing in Solvang, one could not ask for a more picturesque course of 13.1 miles.
I have never logged so many miles in all my life as I prepared for this half marathon.
January: 140 miles
February: 158 miles
March: 175 miles
April: 187 miles
My workouts consisted of track speed work, long distance training and tempo runs, tempo runs are mid distance runs, at a faster pace than a normal jog. I would get up at 4:30am and out the door at 4:45 to get er done. Sundays I would start around 5:00am to get my long runs in and be home in time for church. My Running Log
Goal
I wanted to beat my time of 1:43;13 from last years half in Lompoc. I also had a hope to beat my personal best time of 1:40: something. That time was set when I was 25 years young, so I think it would be pretty cool to beat my time held for some 25 years. (dreaming?)
Race Day
I kept waking up about every hour the night before worried that I would oversleep. I had my alarm set for 4:00am and I popped out of bed right when the alarm went off.
Pre race rituals generally consist of coffee, bananas, a cliff bar and a yogurt.
Kissed my bride and out the door I went.
I arrived in Solvang around 5:30ish, jumped on the shuttle with a bunch of other eager runners and headed towards the Mavericks Saloon in Santa Ynez where the race begins.
The race organizers were awesome and the venue was incredible. Runners from all over the country were there, clubs from Chicago, Arizona, Colorado and even Canada.
I was able to get my self up close to the front, maybe 25 yards away from the elite’s, (speedy folks) having been to numerous rock concerts in my youth, making my way to the front was a non issue for me. I stood up on my toes and looked all around me, I was amazed at the sight, a sea of runners several block long, ready and pumped to hit the road. I had a moment, said a prayer and it wouldn’t be much longer when we would be on our way.
Finally we took off, I was able to weave around the handful of walkers with out any problems and the course opened right up with out any scrapes that I was aware of.
I was consciously holding back a tad bit. There was one problem that I soon discovered at about 8 minutes into the race, “No Mile Markers” now I had to trust my “perceived effort”, and hope, my pace was where I needed it to be, to PR. I don’t own a Garmin 305 or 405 with a GPS mode, I just have an Iron Man OVA watch. I would just have to run hard and run smart.
I was cruising and feeling strong. I slowly caught a fellow runner who was wearing a Garmin, I asked him if he knew how far we had run? He said 4.69821 miles. LOL, I pulled out my little split card that I had made, and did some quick math. I calculated that I was right on pace. Feeling good, feeling strong.
One of the highlights was running through Los Olivos; both sides of the main street were lined with the locals cheering and shaking their cow bells. That was a big moral boost for me.
Not far after we left the quaint little town of Los Olivos was the transition area for the runners participating in the relay. It was a strange distance to transition; something like 5.7 miles. Anyway my pace was close to 7:30’s at this time. I was still feeling good feeling strong.
Corkscrew hill is right at about mile 6, it could be renamed “pace killer” if you ask me. I felt ok as I made it over the top and was looking forward to the down hill ride. I was ready to roll.
Mile 11, 12 and 13, I was starting to fade, I was slowly getting past by other runners. Mile 11, this was one last speed bump, Chalk Hill. I pushed on and was starting to doubt that I was going to get a sub 1:40, so I kept telling my self not to worry, you’re still going to PR.
Coming into Solvang was euphoric to say the least. The folks that lined up on both sides of the street were just the motivation I needed to kick it in. I could see the clock and when I crossed the finish line, it was 1:40:03, I stopped my watch simultaneously and noticed it was 1:39:57, YEAH BABY! I’ll take the chip time.
I wore my medal all day.