Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Keen - massive week.
Mark - Wellington Road Champs might happen at Level 2, and Wairarapa. Although they will need to modify things, so maybe multiple races for the same "race" , events spread over the day etc.
PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)
40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)
2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05
2024 PRs: 5km 20:25
Keen - massive week. Mark - Wellington Road Champs might happen at Level 2, and Wairarapa. Although they will need to modify things, so maybe multiple races for the same "race" , events spread over the day etc.
True. Bigger races won't happen but possible that smaller races and potentially with wave starts might. Parkrun won't though unfortunately I don't think, that's only been a level 1 gig in the past.
Athletics NZ has certainly said that the national champs events can only go ahead at Level 1 but that is probably partly them being conservative and inflexible.
3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)
10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)
* Net downhill course
Last race: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Hot Weather Complainer
The Cherry Blossom Half that I did last year (the dreaded 8.5 laps in Hagley Park) is this Sunday and will go at level 2. I know I just said I should take what I can get...but I don't think I want that. I'm going away Thursday - Saturday anyway and don't fancy a 3 hour drive the day before.
I've got my first vaccine on Monday - I'm intrigued to see if it's possible to get vaccinated without posting a selfie on social media
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
I managed to. To be honest I suspect part of the reason people do it is it's something to fill in the 15 minutes after your vaccination where you have to sit around to make sure you don't start trying to eat people's brains. But I was happy to spend the 15 minutes cracking jokes about eating people's brains.
Zeb - I might be blind, but what was your 10km time?
I didn't say but it was 41:20.
So some facts leading into this:
I digress. After the mile on Tuesday I was pretty hyped and had some dreams of sub-40. I ran a workout on Thursday and it was possibly a mistake except this was never a goal race. The plan was always to train through it. My legs were rough on Friday and again on Saturday. Saturday night I began absolutely dreading the race.
Sunday dawned and I had a small breakfast of toast and coffee, popped outside and it was a glorious 55F!!! This immediately made my mood better and I started thinking optimistically again. I chilled for awhile, headed downtown and ran a warmup that was (for me) crazy fast but didn't feel good when I started my 2 minutes at threshold and saw pace was hovering at 7:02/mi I went uh-oh, did my 4 strides anyways and changed into my Endorphin Pros and race jersey (for reference pace in that 2 minutes will be 6:40-50 when my legs are feeling ready to go).
I nabbed a small drink of water on the way to the start and told myself the goal was 2 comfortably hard miles and then just don't slow down the rest of the way. I watched the half take off and talked about high school XC with the eventual 1st and 3rd place people who coached a local high school. I told the 15 or so fit looking people hovering 20' back that I'm not fast and they should move up but no one believed me. Eventually the starter called us to the line, and let us go with minimal fanfare. The usual start happened as tons of people dashed past me in the first 200m and in the next 200m I passed almost all of them back. After a couple turns we went up an very short hill to Otis road and I couldn't see the leaders but I had roughly 5 people in front of me and another 2 behind me that seemed to be in similar fitness. I tried to use the slightly downhill but my legs just felt a touch clunky and I thought it was way too early to push. 6:45 for the first mile.
The second mile kicked off with some cheers from my sons high school team and some offers of water cups that no one accepted. We continued on Otis along the waterfront and I just continued to not feel smooth. Regardless, the two people who had passed me on Otis fell back as we entered the fishery and a lot of the other people started coming back to me as well. By 2.5 we entered the lake loop and I could see one runner about 200m up, the female lead about 80m up and no one else so I just made it my goal to reel her in. It was slow work and my breathing went from a very smooth 3-3 to a 2-2 which let me know I was above tempo effort and the splits said that too: 6:35 and 6:35. Just before the final lake turn 1OVF and I (~20m back now) passed the 6th place man and we headed back down the long Fishery drive way. Miles 3 & 4: 6:35, 6:35.
Side note: The HM walkers were strung out here and first female gets a ton of cheers. I chose to pretend they're for me.
As we headed back toward Otis, 1OFM made steady ground toward 5th overall (where did he come from??) but kept looking back at me and I knew I would catch her. I passed them both just before hitting Otis and gestured for her to run with me but she wasn't able. Unfortunately, the race, the camber of the road and not chasing anyone anymore quickly let me feel my back tightening up and my stride breaking down. I rolled back through the mile 1/5 water stop with a 6:39 and charged up the only hill on the course. I'd like to say I slaughtered it but it was a controlled and quick effort and I picked it up going down the steep hill. I hit the flats and picked it up finally giving an effort that brought me near the red line but my hammy also let me know it wasn't going to fully tolerate that and I ran the effort it allowed (6:00/mi pace).
Official time: 41:20
5th place overall, 5th male
1st male age 40+
I think I had more to give but it's such a huge PR I'm still grinning and trying not to tell my wife about it for the 18th time (she also doesn't want to hear about the relationship between race distance and VDOT and how my 10k is finally somewhat in line with my shorter races). Coach wants me to take an easy week before racing a trail 15k on Saturday and I'm going to get back into my PT as the hamstring flare up is concerning (adductor is sore today) .Time trials suck, chasing people down in a race is absolutely my jam.
https://www.strava.com/activities/5910681606
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Zeb excellent report and race execution, congratulations.
Mark I may have taken a selfie in that 15 min wait period but only sent it to my family chat group
55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT
" If you don't use it you lose it, but if you use it, it wears out.
Somewhere in between is about right "
Zebano - nice RR and race.
Steve and Mark - are you both working from home at Level 2? Both my employer and my client work places look to be still WFH unless not possible.
zebano - Nice report and race. Always feels good finishing strong like that.
watson - Yep, I'll be working from home as long as we're at level 2. There is the option to go in but it's preferred only people who have issues working from home go into the office. There's a few people who live rural who don't have good enough internet to be completely effective.
I actually feel more hopeful about Wellington now. As long as the current trend continues, I don't see why we'd need to be in level 2 in 4.5 weeks. Or 1 week for that matter.
Zebano - great RR. What is Otis? I assume it's a street. Anyway I laughed at the bit about everyone passing you in the first 200m and then getting passed back. You are dead right on races being far better than TT's as well.
Watson - we can go into the office at L2, whenever that might happen for us, but I'm not sure there's any point. A lot of people work from home anyway and it tends to be half the desks can't be occupied due to distancing requirements.
Steve - I'd like to be optimistic for you but what can happen, and what should happen, are two different things where our government is concerned... having said that I think there's a reasonable chance Wellington is OK now. I think for the rest of the country to be at L1, it would be reliant on Auckland not being in level 4, but things are tracking in the right direction at the moment.
Mark - really sorry. When posting, I completely forgot that you're still going to be Level 4!
JamesD
zebano - Congratulations! That seems like a doubly motivating kind of race - a big PR but reasons (no taper, fast finish anyway) to think you might be able to go even faster next time. Hope your hamstring is ok. If I'm fading in a race, I try not to look back until the last 200M, as not only does it depress me if I see someone close, but it also gives the other person hope and makes them even more likely to catch me. You mentioned that your wife doesn't want to hear about the relationship between your VDOT and your race times; she may also not need to hear about how much time you spent looking at the rear view of a faster and presumably younger woman.
Post-1987 PRs: Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)
'24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32
RIP Milkman
Popping in to congratulate Zebano! Really enjoyed the RR. You were right that your times don't align by distance, but that is fairly common until you start putting in more mileage (I love that you track mileage in the way you do, that's the best way to do it. I think you need to be 50+ for 26 weeks to start seeing more consistency across distances).
10Ks are also very difficult to race. You know it's twice as long as a 5K so you try to dial it back, but sometimes it can cause you to be too conservative when you're around the 4 mile mark because you're worried about blowing up. I think if you race another one this fall, you can get even better.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Cobra Commander Keen
Plenty of good weeks around here!
Kiwis - I planned on a longer commentary than this, but thought better of it. Short version: What sense does it make to shut things down on one island if most/all of your "problem" is in a fairly small area of a different island altogether?
Zebano - Not sure how I missed that race on Strava, but well done and thanks for the RR. I agree with JMac in that you can better this result later in the year once things cool down.
I've got a small 10k on the calendar for this weekend, on what's forecasted to be the hottest day so far this year. Fortunately the temp is *only* supposed to be 75F/23.8C at the start, so there's that. There's a chance I could still pull out a PR, but we'll see. Not to only complain about the weather, our temps have actually been really awesome since Sunday and should stay that way until Friday.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
OKC Memorial 5k - April 27
Bun Run 5k - May 4
Lol, there's probably some truth to that. The Hamstring feels 80% better today thankfully.
My coach is a sadist. He asked me if I wanted an easy week, I said yes so he assigned me 4xKM today and told me that's low volume and I can start at 4:10/KM and work down to 3:55 ... He must know something I don't as I would never have tried to run a workout 2 days post race but I hit all my paces. My watch says 0% recovery!! which I'm stupidly proud of for some reason.
Thanks for all the congratulations, I do think I have a faster race in me with a taper but everything is building toward Living History Farms which is a Kiwi-measured XC 10k (i.e. more like 6 miles).
Kiwis - I hope you get some races to actually happen.
Keen, good luck this weekend. 75 isn't ideal but depending on humidity shouldn't be horrible. How're your legs feeling after that 90 mile week?
I'm sure Steve has some views on this. But basically, once you're comfortable that no-one from one island carried the problem to the other island before things got locked down, it makes no sense to shut the unaffected island down as long as you have locked down the air and sea routes between the two.
Anyway, a Covid-enforced postponement has given me food for thought. The Clyde to Alexandra 10km road race (which starts on a hydroelectric dam!) is now on Sat 27 Nov (postponed from late August). This is a bucket list race for me and possibly a chance for that 10k road PB as well. Starting at 10:30 or so in late spring isn't ideal but there's a reasonable chance it won't be too warm down there.
The only other downside is that the second race in the North Shore Run Series is the Run the Point 10km on Sun 28 Nov, the next day, but I'm less worried about that one, happy to just cruise it given I've previously won both the 10km and 15km there.