Summary:

1:39:51, a PR by 0.7 seconds. Really.

Background:

• Marathon 4 weeks ago. Awesome training cycle, but got sick race week, and it was a total suckfest. And I trashed my legs but good.
• Post marathon, plagued by various aches & pains. Week 1: 1 mile before aborting due to shin pain. Week 2: 1 mile through Wed (same issue), then started feeling a bit better and ended up with 30 for the week. Week 3-4: more or less back in the groove, other than shin and/or knee pain at the start of the run which takes a mile or two to go away. Mid-40's mpw.
• Nothing but easy running, with the exception of Wed this week, running some 400's at tempo-ish pace.

Goal:

For reference,

• McMillan prediction based on 5k = 1:36:18. LOL.
• McMillan based on 10k = 1:37:50. Sounds more reasonable.
• PR = 1:39:51.7 in Sept 2014, the last HM I ran. And yes they posted times in tenths of seconds.

No idea what I'd have today. Go the so-called "marathon fitness" built up, supposedly. And feeling mostly recovered, but not feeling much speed. It's been so long since doing any serious workouts.

• A Goal = 1:38, B Goal = PR.

Pre-race:

• Actually slept reasonably well last night. I was not putting much pressure on myself, pretty limited expectations - it'll be whatever it is. (Not that it matters, I usually sleep like crap under any circumstances.)
• Felt pretty good this morning other than some allergy stuff going on. But that usually clears up, and it did. 
• Got to the race ~1:15 before the start. I like to show up early, except for the one time I got to a 5k late and actually had to sprint to the starting line. But I digress.
• Ran a 1-mile warmup, with sort of a halfhearted stride at the end. Felt healthy, just did not feel too fast.

Race conditions:

• Weather was great. Low 50's, slight drizzle on the drive over, but cleared up and actually got very sunny. Yesterday was pouring rain & high winds, so got lucky.
• Race was well organized and well staffed.
• Course was pretty boring, out & back along a river, but very flat. The back portion was into the morning sun, so ended up looking basically straight down at the ground the entire time.
• Good crowd, not too big & not too small. I would do this race again.

Race:

Planned to start conservatively at 7:40-7:45 to see how I felt, try to pick it up to 7:30's in the middle miles, and then see what I could do in the final third. Despite my epic marathon collapses, I have been able to run HM's essentially in progression, finishing with some big negative splits.

Splits:

• 1-5: 7:41, 7:41, 7:45, 7:46, 7:41. If I was going to pick up the pace, I waited too long.
• 6-9: 7:38, 7:40, 7:35, 7:36. Finally starting to pick it up, but not enough. Kind of gave up my A Goal somewhere in here.
• 10-13: 7:30, 7:28, 7:35, 7:25. Thought I should have some juice left, so figured the PR was still doable. And I did, and it was. Barely.

Finish: 1:39:51, 5th AG

• Around mile 11, an aid station guy yelled "you're doing great", or some such usual annoying nonsense, but then "lower your hands and use your arms". I have never actually gotten productive comments during a race. I have no idea whatsoever of proper running form, so I really appreciated that (assuming it was good advice).
• I passed the 1:40 pacer during mile 12. This felt good, vs. getting passed my the 3:40 pacer in my last two marathons, but I sort of had the idea to do this much earlier in the race. Anyway I was pretty surprised when I saw the finish line clock >1:40 (gun time). Pacer was a bit slow, glad I didn't count on him.

Post-mortem:

• As I have said before, McMillan is a dick. 
• Also, the idea of "post-marathon fitness" may be a myth. I think I would have fared much better running a HM 4-6 weeks pre-marathon (like most normal people do), when the hard training is really fresh. I was looking at one 4 weeks prior, but I'm always too nervous about interrupting training for the goal race. If I knew I would end up tanking the marathon, I definitely would've run that half.
• I suppose I could've pushed myself harder today - I certainly felt like I was running fairly hard the last few miles, but not so much really suffering. Could I have started at 7:30 and targeted even splits for a 1:38? Maybe, IDK, or maybe this is all I've got at this distance. It's just hard to believe that I can't run a faster HM than I did a year ago.
• There is an HM I am looking at in 2 weeks - maybe run that and be more aggressive? Although doesn't give me any time to actually train. But it's the benefit of an HM that I don't have to worry too much about recovery time, I feel fine right now. And as I certainly learned this spring with my 5k's & 10k's, it can take a couple three times to get the racing strategy right.

 

• As I have said before, McMillan is a dick.

Classic case of shooting the messenger. Next time, shoot yourself.

Some guy once told me, around mile 4.75 of a 5 mile race, to lower my shoulders.  YES, I KNOW I TENSE MY SHOULDERS, I'M A LITTLE BUSY HERE, GO AWAY.

Just because you DIDN'T run a faster HM than two years ago doesn't mean you CAN'T.  If you know you didn't push yourself 100% -- then there you go, you can do it faster.

But it's still a PR!

Super happy for you. I know I'm not back 100% from my marathon, and I understand what you mean about the famed post marathon fitness. I did a few strides yesterday, and they were far from convincing. And you were more destroyed than I was after the marathon. To come out of this one with a PR... that is huge IMO.

Nice job!  And cut yourself just a little slack, mkay?

 

Classic case of shooting the messenger. Next time, shoot yourself.

Or just run faster. 

Thanks everyone.

Really, if you told me just 2 weeks ago I would run this kind of a race, or in fact any race, I would've been ecstatic. So there's that.

 

I don't know that I would do another in 2 weeks. I'd want a little more time to throw in some goal paced workouts.

This is probably smart. Two weeks is basically a do-over. Although it's going to start to get tougher to find races. And I was thinking about moving on to find a 5k or two.

It's a PR nonetheless

And being able to run half the marathon distance just 4 weeks after a marathon race (and recently being sick during race week) is awesome