October (2016) Running Challenge

Coming back to this thread after the weekend is tough. So many comments I want to make, but by the time I get through everything, I forget what they were! Old age, I guess. A few that I remember noting:

@RunRachelRunnn - I agree whole heartedly with the advice that @5512bf gave you on page 34. Also want to add that determining a race pace/strategy is one of the most difficult parts of racing. At some point, you just have to trust your instincts and go by feel, as many others have said. You know what type of runner you are, so only you know what strategy is going to suit you.

@RespectTheKitty - That is one awesome friend you have there! Enjoy!
@_nikkiwolf_ and others- Fabulous photos!
@kristinegift - I understand your disappointment, but still a really solid time! Those 7:05 starts always come back to haunt you!

So, here is the quick recap of my weekend at the Columbus half marathon:

My goal for this fall was to focus on half marathon training and set a new PR. My previous PR had been set in Dayton in October of 2014 and all of my focus had turned to marathon training after that, so it had been some time since I raced a HM. I had two races on my mind, Dayton, my first ever half marathon and current PR, and Columbus, my full marathon PR and Boston Qualifier in 2015. The events fell on back to back weekends (October 9th and 16th). Since they both had their advantages and I could not decide between the two, I decided to do both. My main goal was to PR at least one of the races and my "I don't really know if I can do this" goal was to break 1:40 (previous PR was 1:43:56).

As I mentioned, last week in Dayton, despite having huge concerns going into the race, I managed to exceed my expectations and not only PR, but also achieve my pipe-dream goal of sub 1:40 by two whole seconds with a 1:39:58. Having accomplished that, I felt very satisfied and decided to head into Columbus without any expectations. I would go out and give it my best shot, but if I fell short of 1:40 I was not going to let it get me down. I have had a number of things putting a damper on my training lately and I was afraid that all of these things might come into play here.

Despite forecasts of rain for most of the week, the weather predictions took a favorable change on Friday: Sunny and 59F around start time. Temps were expected to warm into the high 70s by noon, but with a 7:30 start time, I was not concerned with that being an issue. Race day morning did not disappoint. Clear and cool with plenty of beautiful moonlight.

When I registered for the race, I was asked to give an expected finish time that would determine my corral assignment. This race is both a full and half marathon, run simultaneously, with close to 18,000 total participants. There was a wave start with five corrals, A-E. I had entered an expected finishing time of 1:40, which placed me in the A corral. The corral was very crowded, as expected, but once the race started it became very apparent that a lot of people had fudged their finishing times in order to obtain the A corral assignment (total jerk thing to do, BTW). As a result, I (and a lot of other folks) spent about the first half mile dodging slower runners and even a number of walkers! My first mile ended up being my slowest overall and 20 seconds slower than my average.

After settling into my groove with some open space around mile number 1, I tried to find my "comfortable" pace. I was trying to go somewhere between 7:30 and 7:40 and figure out how long I could hang on, which is my usual HM strategy. The course is nice (also pretty flat), there is plenty of crowd support and scenery as well as frequent aid stations. I avoided most of the aid stations since I had my 10 oz hand-held filled with Propel. I would hit them later if I needed. Miles 2-10 pace averages ranged from 7:24-7:38, but I was still unsure if I could hang on at this rate for three more miles. Around mile 10, they were handing out Gus, so I took one because I was feeling like I was starting to fade. In the end, I'm not sure that it made much difference and I slowed my pace slightly to around 7:45 for miles 11 and 12 due to fatigue. Just after the mile 12 mark and right before the HM split, I saw my husband and our friend (whose wife was running the full). I motioned to them that I was dragging and they cheered me on. I picked the pace back up slightly for the final mile, but the final 0.4 miles down the chute to the finished seemed way longer than I remembered (even from the full last year). It was a struggle to the finish, but I crossed the line and hit my Garmin: 1:40:03. It was going to be close. I would need to find the results tent to get my official results.

It took me a minute or two to recompose myself after crossing the finish line. I grabbed a bottle of water and a goody bag and headed out of the Athlete's Area to find my hubby and my official results. Both of these tasks turned out to be more difficult than expected. There was no typical results tent, only monitors displaying the race results. However, at that time, the monitors were only displaying the top three finishers in each age group so far and they were very difficult to read without my glasses. Finding my hubby was another chore because I do not carry my phone during races and with the added complication of having a friend running the full and starting in a different corral, we were happy enough to get to the starting line okay and had failed to make post-race plans. So I decided to head back out on the course where I had seen them where I figured they would still be waiting on my friend. This was another difficult task, but I finally caught up with them about 45 minutes later. They had been tracking me via the live tracking feature, so they actually knew my finishing time before I did: 1:39:57. I had beaten my previous week's time by one second! A one second PR is still a PR and I was happy to take it!

Overall, I was 11/741 in my age group (top 1.5%), 111/6367 Female (top 1.7%) and 493/10159 overall (top 5%). I was very pleased with these results for a race this size. Another little anecdote I forgot to mention: As I was beginning to fade somewhere around mile 10-11, I noticed a somewhat elderly lady come cruising by. She was kind of hobbling along, but at a pretty good pace. She was passing me, so it must have been around 7:30 pace. I did not remember passing her again, so I looked for older finishers ahead of me. The winner of the 65-70 female age group was 67 years old and finished in 1:38:01. I think that must have been her. Very inspiring, especially since I have been questioning lately whether I am still capable of making any more significant gains at my age!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. On the subject of geeky science types: I am an analytical chemist. I like numbers and spreed sheets and stuff (e.g. the Danial's table), but I am very impatient with technology.