4/16/11 (Saturday) Race

The day did not start off the best because I had such great difficulty falling asleep last night.  My adrenaline was pumping and I couldn't get my mind off the race.  While that is usual for me, it doesn't usually take me that long to fall asleep.  I finally got, at best, 3 1/2 hours of sleep.  But I woke up feeling good and ready to race.

As my lovable wife and I left home, there was a steady rain falling.  Fairly hard.  I reminded myself that it did not mean it was raining in SLC, and that regardless, I have trained to race.  The closer we got to SLC, the lighter the rain was, and in some spots no rain.  By the time we got to the starting point up at the UofU, no rain and we could see patches of sky as the sun was beginning to come up.  This was going to be a great day.

The race started off as usual, with nearly 5,600 runners, most of those running the half-marathon (4,444 to be exact).  We positioned ourselves closer to the start than last year.  It takes time off of your overall pace the more people you have to dodge around.  My goal was to have a first mile of 7:10.  I have a habit of going out too fast, thus burning up my glycogen levels too early and too fast, and 7:10 would ensure a non-too fast start.  I hit the first mile at 7:11.   The race was going well, but I kept hitting my marks just a little behind pace.  While running I developed a strategy for hydration.  I would take in two cups of water at each aid station the first half, and run the second half without any hydration.  I don't run and drink well at all, so it is just easier to not stop vs. trying to drink on the run.  As luck would have it, at the first aid station the volunteers said water is in the back.  As I got to the back they said it was in the front, too late to go back now, though I had stopped for a brief few precious seconds.  The next two aid stations I did get two glasses of water at each and not drinking for the remaining part of the run was not a problem.

As I got to the 10 mile mark it was 1:10:55.  The fastest 10 miles I have ever run, but I knew at this point I would not break the coveted 1:30:00 mark.  I had a slowly ascending hill in front of me, between miles 11 and 12, and the hill spans almost that whole distance.  But I could still come close.  I kept the speed up and continued to fill good.  As I began the slow climb my body was tiring quickly.  I got to the worst part of the climb (I estimate it to be a 5% grade - not horrible unless you have just run almost 12 miles), between 200 South and South Temple, but was able to keep my pace pretty good and passed 3 or 4 people on the hill. Always a good sign.  As I got to the top I was fatigued, but I only had one mile left, and that made me happy.  I also had just run 12.1 miles in the fastest time ever, my time at that point was 1:26 (sorry, don't remember the seconds).  It is a very gradual downhill all the way to the Gateway center, and then just two blocks of flat running.  I passed a number of people on that last mile. It felt good to be the one doing the passing.  As I got to that final two block stretch I past one guy that I could tell was doing his best to keep up with me.  I heard his footsteps behind me the entire way.   That was good to not let me slack.  But I also feared that if he surged I would not be able to surge with him.  As I rounded the corner that leads into the final stretch, their is a brief segment of cobblestone.  My right foot hit it a little strange and I nearly stumbled but was able to quickly regain my form. In the final 100 meters he surged.  I surged.  For about 10 secs he was about one step in front of me, if that much.  I couldn't keep it up and he finished about 3 seconds ahead of me.  He thanked me for pulling him along, something I always appreciate in a runner.

My final time on my watch read 1:33:10, but I knew I had started my watch just a tad too early and stopped it a little too late.  You lose perspective of time in a race.  I thought it was maybe 3 seconds.  So when my final time was posted, it was 1:32:55.  Not the under 1:30:00 that I hoped for, but hard to be disappointed when I took 6:03 off of my half-marathon PR.  Really, that is sort of astounding.  That averages out to a 7:05 minute per mile pace.

Some other things which I was very happy about with this race:
First, I felt good almost the whole race.  Yes, towards the end I was tired, but elites get tired too.  The point is that I just did not feel hammered during the race.  The taper worked well.

Second, when I knew I was not going to break the 1:30:00 mark at mile 10, I did not let that get me down.  I could have used that as an excuse to back off and turn my mind toward the Ogden half-marathon, but I didn't.  My average pace at the 10 mile mark was 7:05.  My pace average for the entire race was 7:05, so even though that hill slowed me down, I was able to compensate well.

Third, I finished the last mile very well, even though I was quite tired.  Without knowing the seconds it is difficult to know exactly what my speed was, but it would have had to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 9.2-9.3 mph.  Not too shabby.  And if you believe my Garmin GPS readouts (not sure I do as they are usually more "ballpark" than precise) at mile 13, which was when I went into that final surge with that fellow runner, I hit 14 mph.

Last, and perhaps the thing which allowed me to do all the things above, I was able to keep out the negative self-talk better than I had ever done.  I did have some talk in the downhill portion about not going too fast so as to be able to finish the last 3 miles well.  But seeing that it worked well I don't know if I should call that negative and that it slowed my overall time, or if it really was helpful.  I have to evaluate that some more.

I then went back along the race course to support and run with my honey as she finished her race.  I found her at mile 11.5, as soon as I hoped to find her but not as soon as I wondered if I would find her.  She was having a great race herself.  She was in good spirits and on pace to set her own PR.  This was her third half-marathon ever.  She finished her race in 2:40:04, an amazingly 29:48 faster than her time in this race last year, and more than 13 minutes off of her previous PR.  She is amazing.

Total mileage for the week = 32.1 miles