Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
Concrete happens on a few cross country courses, it is never great on spikes - I have 6mm spikes which are the shorter spikes. Having 9mm would be worse.
Re starting slow:
- My first km was my slowest. Admittedly only 5s slower than average. Also this would be the easiest km on the course by roughly 5s.
- Whenever I start too quick, I pay a significant fade.
- Part of my statement is around the perception of it being slow. I always start faster than I try to, so I need to tell myself to start slow to compensate.
Keen - another huge week. Are there any races happening in your area soon?
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
Steve - I want my one second! Can you change my race on page one to 35:17 please?
Hot Weather Complainer
Starting slow is definitely how I run my most effective races and I think the main reason my last few races haven't gone quite to plan. My tempo runs in the next week or 2 before the next race will be structured in a way to force me to start slow and (hopefully) finish strong. I need to be very disciplined in the first 5km come the next race - hopefully the memory of the pain I've experienced in the back half of my last few races will help with that.
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 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
RIP Milkman
I haven't had a single race that went well where the middle portion was slower than the first mile. If that's occurring, things have gone horribly wrong. Generally, my strategy (for anything half or longer) is first mile 5-10 seconds behind pace, second mile 0-5 seconds behind pace, then on pace, up to 5 seconds ahead, for the remainder. Generally, my best races look pretty steady. CIM was by far the best race of my life pacing wise, and I ran the 5K segments at the following mile paces (I finished right at 5:59 pace overall)
6:03
6:00
6:01
5:57
5:58
In 5K segments, there were my splits:
18:38
Final 2.1K was 8:07. That is how I want to run every marathon. A little behind pace for the first 5K, then pretty much on/slightly ahead pace for the next 35K, and then trying to hold on for dear life in the final 2K.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
watson - sorry, I'd already grabbed that from your weekly. Updated now
JMac - I think for me to have a good race I need a bigger difference between my first 5km and the rest of the race. Your ideal race is still very steady overall. It's interesting that for you to have a good race you only need to sacrifice 15 seconds in the first 2 miles (obviously knowing that you'll get those back or lose more if you don't).
Watson - Piwi beat me to it, but yeah what kind of horrible person puts a concrete section on an XC course when everyone is wearing spikes?!
Darkwave - well, not quite how you expected, but you'd have to take that left hip release as a win! Must've been quite satisfying once you got over the initial surprise.
Keen - nice week!
Race pace - my first km is almost always at above-average pace. Never enough to be a problem (at least not these days), maybe 2-3 seconds/km, but I find it helps me get the adrenaline out of the system and settle into a rhythm. For me, hitting that rhythm is key as I run my best races at even pace. For the marathon, I'll probably have to just aim to hit that first km at goal pace, not ahead.
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: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Damn you Jmac your 8 x 5km portions in a marathon are my 5k race pace
I normally start above pace due to adrenalin like Mark but settle down. On saturday I really made an effort to slow in the 1st km and ran a perfect 3.40.
A few years ago I ran the 1st km of a 10k in 3.15 and didn't break 40 mins....
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 "
Found one hazy photo of me from my 5k.
I'm in the orange shirt. The guy in the blue shirt behind me over took me and I ran with him the rest of the way.
Piwi - What happened to the legendary pink shoes?
(for the record, Piwi was rocking the pink shoes way before the VF Next% was a thing)
I'm in the Takumi Sens now Mark in sky blue
The Takumi Sens, from what I have heard are an excellent 5k shoe.
Speaking of shoes, I took the carbon plunge (sorry Piwi) and bought the Asics Meta Racer. Running Warehouse Australia is not licensed to ship Asics out of Australia, so I had it delivered to my brother in Sydney. He has then posted to me, hopefully it arrives in a week or so.
Also races for the front page:
5 September, Trentham Harriers road championship 7.4km
19 September, Wellington 10km road championship.
26 September, Rotorua Half Marathon (trail course)
11 October, Wairarapa Country Half Marathon
There might be one or two more cross country races too, but that is TBC.
Aims TBC. The latter two will be 'A' races. Rotorua half on 26 September will very much a 'B' race, and it is holly and quite abit on trails.
Steve - please add races above to front page.
A lot of cross country races around here have small parts on concrete/asphalt, it is hard to find large enough areas withou a small amount of hard surface running. Roughly half racers wear cross country shoes, roughly half trail.
I too am impressed with Jmac's splits, only the first was slower than my 5k PR.
Piwi - What happened to the legendary pink shoes? (for the record, Piwi was rocking the pink shoes way before the VF Next% was a thing)
Thankfully Nike is not able to patent colour! I suspect the reason all other companies were so slow to bring carbon shoes relates to patents etc.
Chris nice on the metaracers. Will be interesting to hear your review.
The Takumi Sens are good but possibly a bit firm for me. I like a shoe with bounce. I used to love the old nike lunaracer which was light and bouncy. Takumi Sens rely on your own tendons and ligaments to power it and mine are a bit worn . I will be wearing them for my 10k coming up and dont see myself splashing out for Alphafly.
I remember Darkwave stating she liked the Takumi Sens for 5km, but not much further.
It's also pretty much impossible to buy the Next % or Alpha Fly in NZ right now. Nike NZ store never has them, and Nike doesn't let overseas retailers ship to NZ.
Lets be honest here, the majority of the improvement of the Alphafly over the vaporfly and the reason the Kipchoge broke 2 was the fact that the shoes were pink! This reminds me of my beloved pink & blue Zante v1s. Those things just made me feel fast and I raced exclusively in them for 3 years.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)