City of Oaks Mary: First Mary! Negative Split! (Read 532 times)

Beautiful Race! If anyone doesn't get into NYC next year but wants to run a challenging Mary on a beautiful well managed course, the City of Oaks Marathon/HM is a great event. Not huge either, so you can really focus on time and not get caught in a mosh pit of runners. City of Oaks Marathon/Half Marathon The course started on the NC State campus took you downtown through the skyline. Then if you run the whole marathon you then run through some farmland and a beautiful park on a finely crushed gravel surface for a few miles. The park was great cause the trees are in the midst of changing colors. BUT! and I mean a big BUUUTTTTT!, this part of the course is very hilly. There is about 5 downhill/uphills that are any where from a half mile to a mile long with elevation from as low as 230ft up to 510 ft. Here is how I did. Being it was my first I wasn't sure how hard to go out. All summer I've been using a Garmin and staying strickly low HR to build an aerobic base. For the race I decided not to use the HRM and just go by feel. I even tried to avoid looking at my HR. It was fairly cold at the start (41F) so it also took a while to warm up. Even when taking it easy for the first 6 miles I was still running in the low 10's. Much faster than what I've been training at. This part through downtown had a lot of small rolling hills, very little flats. Also the HMers started at the same time as the full mary and we ran with them for the first 8.5 miles. They where passing me most of the way and may have caused me to run a little faster then usual. After the first 10k I settled into a nice rythm and my pace actually became faster (sub 10). I was feeling really good still and didn't feel like I was running with any more effort then before. Once we broke away from the HMers I started passing people again. At around mile 10, I think, there was a long downhill and I actually managed a sub 9 mile. Here is where the race started to get really tough though. At the half way point I crossed the pad at 2:09:41, a new HM PR!. Despite the hills I felt really strong and relaxed on the downhills. I would pass a lot of people on the long stretches of downhill. On the uphills I would try and stay relaxed and would sort of maintain my position and effort. At around mile 21 which is at the top of the longest uphill (1 mile+) I really felt bad. I wondered if I could keep this pace up for the rest of the race, but I just maintained my rythm and didn't change anything. At mile 22, I was in new territory distance wise and was really feeling it. Still no wall though, so my rythm just maintained. On the last mile there was a fairly long uphill followed by a fairly long downhill to the finish. On the uphill I could feel my groin muscles cramping up pretty bad. Once I got to the top it went away. Then on the down hill I just let go, and opened it up like it was a closing kick of a 10k. I ran the last half mile in 3:40, passing about 10 people here and 3 going into the shoot. When I stopped it felt like every muscle in my body was totally spazzing out. I ran the final HM in 2:09:23 for a negative split and a total time of 4:19:03 chip time. It was an amazing experience. Right now I feel like I probably won't run one for at least another year. But that could change when I start to feel better.

Great work!

Any hill on the other side of 20 I can do without, but sounds like you handled them very nicely. Congrats!

It was an amazing experience. Right now I feel like I probably won't run one for at least another year. But that could change when I start to feel better.

Great job, don't be surprised if you're planning another just a week from now.