Brodirt
10-12-2009, 12:41 PM
No one carried this over for this month! What's up...cool weather and football put you all on the couch! Come on now, these threads are great inspiration for us all.
Today I am recovering from my half-marathon yesterday...and boy do I need it. I can hardly move, going down steps is hysterical actually.
As for the race...it was my first attempt at racing the distance and while Im pretty good out to 10k (6.2 miles), 13.1 was unknown territory. My longest training run was 12 and on a treadmill.
I targeted 2 hours, but had some doubts about that time going into the last few days...I was dreaming about strong winds and hills getting bigger overnight.
Anyway, long story short, I went out slow for a mile at 10:20 to warm up, picked up and hit a very comfortable pace. At mile 10 I felt great and was 80 mins. flat. This was very fast...too fast actually. Mile 9-12 were the hills and I was worried...and my thighs were starting to feel the pounding from the road.
I didn't slow consciously, just taking what the road gave me and still felt ok at the end of mile 12, and then it was a slight downhill the rest of the way to the line. It felt like I was going much slower than the earlier part of the race.
I came across the line at 1:46:05 for an 8:06 pace and 14 mins faster than my target. I was 180/716 oa and 48/119 in my age group. Needless to say I was very happy.
There was one very cool thing I will add. I did not bring an iPod thinking I couldn't use it (you cant in a bike or multi-sport race) and was worried about passing the time in my own brain. Anyway when I lined up about 90% of the runners were wearing iPods. I was pissed and even more worried. It turned out though that I enjoyed the experience without the music. It was much better racing actually being in the race. Instead of zoning out and taking it like a training run, I was in the moment every moment and used the time to keep very good tabs on my body and to sing to myself. I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much with headphones on.
Today I am recovering from my half-marathon yesterday...and boy do I need it. I can hardly move, going down steps is hysterical actually.
As for the race...it was my first attempt at racing the distance and while Im pretty good out to 10k (6.2 miles), 13.1 was unknown territory. My longest training run was 12 and on a treadmill.
I targeted 2 hours, but had some doubts about that time going into the last few days...I was dreaming about strong winds and hills getting bigger overnight.
Anyway, long story short, I went out slow for a mile at 10:20 to warm up, picked up and hit a very comfortable pace. At mile 10 I felt great and was 80 mins. flat. This was very fast...too fast actually. Mile 9-12 were the hills and I was worried...and my thighs were starting to feel the pounding from the road.
I didn't slow consciously, just taking what the road gave me and still felt ok at the end of mile 12, and then it was a slight downhill the rest of the way to the line. It felt like I was going much slower than the earlier part of the race.
I came across the line at 1:46:05 for an 8:06 pace and 14 mins faster than my target. I was 180/716 oa and 48/119 in my age group. Needless to say I was very happy.
There was one very cool thing I will add. I did not bring an iPod thinking I couldn't use it (you cant in a bike or multi-sport race) and was worried about passing the time in my own brain. Anyway when I lined up about 90% of the runners were wearing iPods. I was pissed and even more worried. It turned out though that I enjoyed the experience without the music. It was much better racing actually being in the race. Instead of zoning out and taking it like a training run, I was in the moment every moment and used the time to keep very good tabs on my body and to sing to myself. I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much with headphones on.