- Run a smart race with even effort
- Maintain focus throughout
- Goal time was sub-1:17 w/a goal pace of 5:52's (I went 5:54 pace at the 10-Miler 5 weeks ago, so I thought this was reasonable for a longer (tougher) course)
Leading into the race this week, I just pulled back a little bit as I mentioned in my earlier Blog on Wednesday. After that short workout I got in the following for the rest of the week: Thurs - 6 miles ez, Fri - 8.25mi ez, Sat - 4.75mi ez. So while I wasn't feeling extremely fresh (or tapered) heading into today's 1/2, I definitely felt a little better than I do on a typical day.
Anyway, the weather had been horrible yesterday, but we were all fortunate and woke up to significantly improved weather this morning. It was 37 degrees when I left the house at 6:15am, but it was dry and there was no wind. Almost perfect running weather.
If you haven't run the Denver course, it is definitely not an easy one. While it opens up and ends with downhill miles, almost everything in between is rolling (mile 6-9 are pretty flat though). Here's an elevation profile:
That said, I wasn't trying to run even mile splits today as there were obviously miles where I would run significantly faster (and slower) than goal pace. Instead, I just wanted to keep my effort even and try to push the whole way. Additionally, I really put an emphasis on staying focused during this race. My friend, Ryan Whitehead had given me some input yesterday (RE: my recent 'bonks' in the longer workouts) about how he has noticed that when he loses focus (or bonks), it's often associated with a lack of nutrition. He made a really good point and it was something that I hadn't thought about before. Seriously, I was doing 16-18 mile hard workouts and hadn't even thought about my nutrition!!! How stupid can I be, right?! Well, I guess that comes from years of doing shorter (<12 mile workouts) and only considering nutrition during races.
Back to the point... So, I decided that I would bring one gel with today and put it down between mile 8 and 10. I also focused on taking in fluids at every water stop. Alternating water at one, sportsdrink (CytoMax today) at the next, throughout the race. Luckily this worked out really well. I first noticed myself beginning to lose focus at about 7.5 miles in... and when I say 'lose focus' I mean, that I start thinking about other stuff besides racing, effort, monitoring body systems, etc. Instead I start thinking about stupid stuff like the geese in City park, what I'm going to eat after the race, how my friends are doing or other stuff that leads to me letting up and slowing down. SO, when I first noticed it today I immediately opened the gel and began taking in a portion of it. Over the next 3 miles or so I held it in my hand and every time my mind began to drift I would mentally catch myself and say FOCUS!!!, eat some gel and push. Interestingly enough, during that period, I also managed to drop the 2 guys that were running near me, run off into 'No Man's Land' and increase my pace as much as 25 seconds/mile!! Ryan, thanks for making me think. It was a huge help and taught me A LOT to use next month in the big race.
So, without further ado, my final time today was 1:16:53 (5:52 pace) --- Altitude converted this would be roughly a 1:13:39 (or 5:37/mi pace). I finished somewhere between 10th and 13th overall, and most importantly, I ran my own race, running completely on my own from mile 8 to the finish.
Mile 1: 5:39
Mile 2: 5:41
Mile 3: 5:51
Mile 4: 5:58
Mile 5: 5:56
Mile 6: 5:53
Mile 7: 6:02
Mile 8: 6:02
Mile 9: 6:12
Mile 10: 5:42
Mile 11: 5:36
Mile 12: 5:59
Mile 13: 5:42
1:33
TOTAL: 1:16:53
I'm super excited about the result especially given the fact that I was not rested, was at altitude and was on a tough course. I am really looking forward to the taper and the return to sea-level for San Antonio. Just 5 more weeks of hard work till the big day!! Thanks to everybody who put comments on Facebook or wished me luck. I'm not real sure WHY this marathon has become such a major focus for me, but I don't think I've ever trained as hard for ONE particular race as I have for this one so I'm really hoping to hit my goal! If you also raced today, I hope that it went well and that you learned a lot from your experience for future races as well! Happy Training!
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