Notes
Race 3 of the Disney race binge, the half marathon.
By the start of the race I'd come to terms with missing my goal in the 10K and was happy with how I held up and raced given the conditions and my health. Breathing was even worse and it felt like I was dragging anchor as I ran. I'd decided to just go into this relaxed and let the race dictate how I went.
Standing in the start corral I got myself a decent position about 4-5 rows back, which I though was appropriate for an easier start. The announcers did their things and introduced Paula Radcliffe. That was cool watching her talk on stage. A few minutes later they separated the barriers and she entered standing at the start line just two runners away. Of course she was semi-mobbed for selfies and whatnot.
This race was a truly broken into 4 5K segments, each with it's own character.
The race kicked off and I just rolled with 6:40 pace to test things out. Breathing was heavy and it was the worst 6:40 pace I've run in a long time. As I was running Paula was just off my shoulder and folks were chatting with her. It was interesting, mostly just guys fawning over her. They were asking questions, consoling her for for how her last marathon went, etc.. I just listened. I learned she was just running this race for fun, ran an hour a day, didn't bother with a watch or gps, and other random stuff. She was gracious answering questions but never engaged with anyone. One guy really stuck with her asking too many questions so she slowed her pace and disappeared for a bit. First 5K in 21:01.
Just past the first 5K Paula and a couple others in tow blow past me about 30 seconds per mile faster. Since 6:40 pace sucked I figured why not try 6:10-20 pace. I figured I'd run with them for about a mile but somehow the faster pace wasn't any worse so I kept rolling with it. At this point she was just ahead of me. Her running form looked efficient but her stride seemed shortened and choppy. Clearly she's better suited to running sub 5 pace, not plus 6 pace. Her foot strike was amazingly light, textbook. It was amazing to watch. After about 1.5 miles the pace got really heavy so I set a goal to get to mile 5. At that point I set a goal to get to main street in the magic kingdom and ran strong down it and let up as we turned into tomorrow land. Almost instantly I decided I'd hang until we ran through the castle. That went well but I finally decided to let up at mile 6 and dropped the pace off for a minute and still hit the second 5K sub 20 in 19:56.
For the third 5K I decided to take it easy. Immediately I stopped for a character photo on the way out of the Magic Kingdom. After that I ran down the road towards the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian at a leisurely pace with runners flowing by me. I got some encouragement to keep it up, stay strong, and other bullshit. I didn't need this as I was just chillaxing. I stopped to get my photo with Stich and asked him if he was an Ewok. I stopped to get a photo with Donald Duck. I goofed off with the guys with fake alligator. Still more people flowing by me gave encouragement that I didn't need. I got some good rest during that 5K but breathing wasn't any better than in the first 5K. That one wrapped up in a leisurely 23:27.
During the 4th 5K I looked at my watch and realized it was decision time. If I wanted to run sub 90 I needed to shit of get off the pot. I decided to take a big shit on all the folks who had passed me giving encouragement to finish. I slowly eased the pace down towards 6:50 then wound it down to about 6:40 and was now picking people off left and right. With two miles to go I turned the screws further for a 6:35 mile and passed even more people. The final mile was a blast. Many had slowed their pace so sub 6:30 had me speeding right by. I probably finished with about a 20:30 5K which was fine for sub 90.
At the finish line Paula was giving a TV interview. She probably ran about 1:24-25. Later I figured she pulled off the course and didn't cross the finish mat. That was a nice gesture to pass along the age group win to the next finisher.
I grabbed my gear and headed over to get my third photo of the week with Dopey since I was not running the Dopey Challenge and then straight over to the beer tent. It was Shipyard this year. For the fourth year running I got the first pour of the day and achieved all my goals and more. Sub 90, character photos and beer win.
Place Name Bib Age Div Place Gender Place 5k Split 10k Split 15k Split Clock Time Net Time Hometown
83 CHRIS HANCOCK 40034 42 10 75 21:02 40:56 1:04:23 1:29:35 1:29:32 MELROSE, MA