In early April I was starting to gather some momentum in my training after being sick a few weeks earlier right before the Phoenix half marathon. In fact, about 10 days after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K I ran my best 5-mile tempo workout that indicated I might be in low-mid 66 half marathon shape. With my goal race still about 10 weeks away, I thought I would try to find some races in May to back off my training a little bit and get in a couple of hard efforts before ramping up my training again for the last month or so. Coincidentally, I saw that the 25km national championships was the weekend right in between the Country Music half and Bolder Boulder so the timing of the race worked out well. After a few email exchanges with the elite athlete coordinator I was signed up and entered into the national championship field!
I left Colorado Springs bright and early (actually it was storming and still dark on my way to the airport) after a 4 mile shakeout run on the treadmill. I got into Grand Rapids after a couple of short flights, got my rental car, and headed to the hotel. After navigating through the crazy downtown traffic I finally found the hotel's parking lot, picked up my race stuff at the elite athlete suite, and checked in. I got a quick look at the entry list and realized I was probably the 16th or 17th fastest American on paper, and top 15 Americans qualify for the USARC national championship 12K at the end of the year, so I made a mental note that I "just have to beat 2 guys". I should probably clarify that even though this was a national
championship race, the host race has a separate smaller open prize purse
for Americans as well as non-Americans so there were some Africans in the race.
I then went out for another 2 mile shakeout run to loosen up a bit since I felt a little tight from sitting for most of the past few hours. (either on the plane or driving). Finally, I met up with Andrew Epperson and we hit the spaghetti dinner. I was so busy traveling and getting things done the past few hours that I had apparently forgotten to feed myself sufficiently, since I went back for 2nds and then 3rds, I know I was eating a lot when other runners at our table started commenting on how much I was eating.
On the way back to our hotel I picked up Nick's packet for him to save him a trip, since he was getting in pretty late. I hung out and watched the Cavs/Bulls playoff game until Nick got there, then we just chatted for a bit after he got in and fell asleep before it got too late since we have a pretty important race the next day. There's something to be said about that hotel, because I think that was the best sleep I have gotten the night before a major race in a long time.
Around 5:30 or so we woke up and hit the hospitality room for some oatmeal and coffee. Then about 45 minutes before the race we headed out for a 3 mile warmup. It was super humid and also raining hard, but the great things about our setup was that our hotel was basically around the corner from the start line so we 1) didn't have to wait in line at the porta potty 2) didn't have to wait out in the rain for too long before the race 3) got to change out of our wet clothing after warming up into our race kits. Finally, about 15 minutes or so before our race started we headed downstairs and jogged the 2 blocks or so to the start line. On the way over Nick thought he saw Emily, but I told him he probably just saw another girl who looked like her from the side since she lives on the other side of the country. Then as I was doing some last minute strides I saw her too, apparently she was in town with her boyfriend visiting his family, small world.
I knew for the 24-48 hours leading up to the race that the conditions weren't going to be optimal. It was in the low-mid 60s and extremely humid. It wasn't terrible, but based on my understanding of temperature/humidity impacts this was probably going to cost us about 3-5s/mi, which I confirmed with my buddy Scott Wietecha the day before. He also gave me some advice that I should have taken to heart more, which was to go out just a bit more conservative and err on the side of caution when adjusting my pace earlier on. More on that later.
As we lined up for the race, the national championship / elite field was small enough that we were all either on the line or in the 2nd row. I turned to my side as I usually do before the race and wished the runners next to me good luck and shook their hand. When I turned to my left I realized I was shaking hands with Abdi Abdirahman, which was pretty cool. I didn't have much time to reflect on the moment though as they started the race seconds later and we were off.
I think due to the suboptimal weather, the pace early on was very conservative. So much so that I was pretty much in the lead pack of about 20-25 runners half a mile in. I made a conscious decision to let the group go since the effort felt a little bit faster than half-marathon pace and we were racing a distance almost 2.5 miles longer. I still went through the mile in 5:02, but the first mile was net downhill so it really wasn't as fast as the time indicated. I was also already 3-5 seconds behind the lead pack at this point.
A couple of minutes later people started dropping off the lead pack. I passed 3 guys who were all wearing the same racing outfit, I think they were a local running club or something. I caught up to a guy wearing a Brooks racing kit around 2-3 miles, but it turned out he was running an even more conservative race than I was after he backed off of the lead pack around mile 2 since he kept up with me pretty easily and pulled away around mile 5 or 6 and would go on to finish close to 2 minutes ahead of me.
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful and felt like I was running a really long hard tempo for most of it. I passed an African wearing bib number 1 around 8 miles and then another American around 9-10 miles. With about 5 miles to go I caught sight of Tyler Andrews, which gave me some motivation since he's run sub-2:17 in his last marathon as well as set the world treadmill record 3 weeks earlier with a 63:38. I closed the gap down to about 7-8 seconds by mile 12 but then he must have realized someone was gaining on him and threw down a hard mile and gapped me again. Shortly after, I crossed the half-marathon timing mat in 67:56. I was a little bummed since I was hoping for at least an unofficial PR but missed by 12 seconds. Around this time I was all by myself and I figured I was done passing people, so I eased up slightly but still ran hard enough to protection my place in case I was in the top 15. Surprisingly, I passed another runner with about a mile to go, I surged when I caught up to him just in case he was in the American race too, but it turned out he was one of the foreigners. (these non-American runners in USA championship races is confusing sometimes!). Shortly after I crossed the line in 1:20:55, I met up with Andrew and we went for a quick cooldown in the parking garage right next to the elite athlete tent. His parents told us he was 12th and from our account of the race there may have only been 1 or 2 runners between us, so I was fairly sure I was top 15 (even counting any potential non-Americans) but wasn't sure until I got back to the room and checked results. I was 14th overall and 13th American!
Looking at the results of the race, I was extremely pumped with how I ran compared to the field. Every American who beat me has qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, and the only exception (Zach Ripley, the Brooks runner who I caught around miles and then left me 2-3 miles later) was a 65:10ish guy and qualified for the trials in the steeplechase last time around. On the Jack Daniels vdot table my 80:55 was worth about a 67:15-67:20 half marathon, but given that the couple of runners ahead of me who ran the race last year as well ran about 45-75s (3-5s/mi) slower than they did the prior year i think this may make my run worth something in the mid-high 66s for a half marathon. Either way, extremely encouraging result with 6 weeks to go until the Garry Bjorklund half.
After we got back to the hotel and had a chance to shower and clean up a little we met up with Andrew and his parents for lunch at TGI Friday's. Of course, as soon as they saw a bunch of hungry runners walk in and inquire about their all-you-can-eat appetizer special they just "happened to have stopped that promo recently". No matter, I still had a plate of sampler appetizer as well as some burger and fries and enjoyed some good conversation with pleasant company. Then, since I had an early afternoon flight I hit the road shortly after and was back home a few hours later. I will definitely be back to the race in the future.
Race data:
1 - 5:02.07
2 - 5:06.95
3 - 5:06.89
4 - 5:10.57
5 - 5:07.05
6 - 5:08.31 (30:41.84, so probably another sub-32 10K split)
7 - 5:16.58
8 - 5:10.90
9 - 5:14.13
10 - 5:14.81 (51:38.26, missing my unofficial PR of 51:35 from the Tucson half)
11 - 5:12.44
12 - 5:07.65
13 - 5:23.13 (kinda annoyed with this, I think this mile might have been long but I was going by the race mile makers and didn't feel like I slowed down much here)
14 - 5:23.42
15 - 5:19.87
15-15.5x - 2:49.68 (about 5:20-5:25 pace, but deceptive since the last 400-600 meters is just a long gradual climb).
Final analysis: not great that I gradually slowed down as the race went, but I didn't really die that badly until 2-3 miles to go and even then it was partially due to my conscious effort to not kill myself and possibly end up with a hamstring cramp and DNF the race. I still felt like if I took Scott's prerace advice more to heart and went out in maybe the 5:05-5:10 range I could have run a bit faster at the end. Maybe even low-mid 1:20s. The only person in that time range was Tyler though, and I felt like he probably just ran hard enough to hold me off since he was a minute behind Andrew, so even if I ran in the low-mid 1:20s he still would have run hard enough to beat me, who knows. Either way, a solid step in the right direction and back to putting in a few more weeks of quality training.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 19-22 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 19 (5/25 - 5/31) - 132 milesThe week started off with the Bolder Boulder 10K, honestly a little disappointed as I was hoping to run around 31:45 or possibly even 31:30. Perhaps I was a little ambitious or just didn't back off enough. I wanted to race well, but I also wanted to be able to compare this year's race to last year's race apples-to-apples so I ran almost as much in the week leading up to the race as last year. I did feel great leading up to the race and closed the prior day's shakeout run in close to 6-minute pace feeling completely effortless.
Q1: (Monday) 2015 Bolder Boulder in 32:10. Originally the race results said 32:08, which matched what I had on my watch but I think due to me having a last minute bib change (they accidentally put me in wave AA somehow) they had to go off of my gun time when they finalized the results or something. Either way, I missed breaking 32 minutes. I worked out splits for a 31:45 or so and was on pace through 3 miles before just dying a bit and hung tough after cresting the high point of the course at 4 miles. (only got passed twice in the last 2 miles).
Q2: (Saturday) 3mi-2mi-1mi - 15:35, 10:04, 5:00. (3 min rest after the 3mi and 2mi). Original workout was actually a 10K tempo, and I wanted to do this on the Classic 10K course and given that the course is net downhill and loses about 30-40ft/mi (so about 3-5s/mi faster than on the flats) I wanted to run around 5:10s. Apparently taking 4 easy days after Bolder Boulder wasn't enough recovery and my workout quickly went downhill 2 miles in so I stopped to regroup and was able to salvage the workout a little bit with a couple of fast shorter intervals, but to be honest I went pretty hard to hit those times and it definitely wasn't threshold effort.
Week 20 (6/1-6/7) - 122 miles - Got in two solid workouts this week, although looking back my pollen allergies probably started around the day of the 2nd workout or the night before.
Q1: (Wednesday) 5x1 mile @ MVP with about 2:45 average rest. Averaged 4:52s for "MVP Miles". (about 0.96-0.97). Felt really good and smooth the whole way. Tried to pick it up a bit the last one but I "only" hit 4:50 after running the first 4 in 4:52-4:53.
Q2: (Saturday) Nielson 2-mile (10:01) + 2x2 mile. A little disappointed with the 2mile as I ran 10:03 last August, but I just didn't feel great. Got in 2 more 2 mile repeats with Kenny after about 10-15 minutes in 10:58 and 10:22. A little deceiving since the first 2 miles had about 80-90 feet of elevation gain and the 2nd had 100-110 feet of elevation loss so they were probably worth about 10:40 and 10:30 after adjusting for elevation.
Week 21 (6/8-/14) - 107 miles
Q1: Wednesday - MVP loop workout - 2 loops in 10:08 - 2min rest - 5:02 loop - 3-min rest - 4:51 mile. Another workout that was pretty much adjusted on the fly. The goal was actually a 6 mile/loop tuneup, but as with my last few training cycles my final long tempo never seems to pan out. This one seems like I was just a headcase, I made it 2 loops in, was running about 2-3 seconds / mi slower than goal pace and got discouraged so I stopped and tried to change it to 3x2mi. A mile into the 2nd repeat I just felt like I was running too hard so I decided to nix the workout. I just around for 2-3 minutes and felt I still had enough so I decided to run one hard mile to get the Strava record for the loop. I ran a full mile from where I thought the course was to be safe and hit 4:51 for a full mile (and 4:42 for the loop course record). Glad I did that last mile, it was definitely a confidence booster as it made the botched workout seem like a mental issue than a fitness issue. I was pretty surprised as I thought I would have to work pretty hard to go under 4:50 on that loop but ran 7-8 seconds faster than expected.
Week 22 (6/9-6/21) - 67 miles - I was trying to stay positive going into the week and race but honestly I was pretty bummed. I have been pretty congested the past week and alternated between feeling okay and feeling awful all week. Initially I thought I was getting sick, but by the middle of this week (2-3 leading up to the race) I was pretty sure it was some sort of seasonal allergies to some type of pollen that I somehow developed as an adult. The allegra / mucinex mix I was taking seem to slowly get it under control.
Q1: Monday - 2 x 2 "MVP miles" with about 3-4 min rest in 9:57, 10:01 - the idea was to see if I can run 4:57-5:00/loop for 3 loops but I think I was a little too excited or just wanted to make sure I hit my times. Anyways, I went out in 4:52-4:53 and came back with a 5:04. Again, I stopped and reset, then ran 2 more even miles in 4:59-5:01ish. Not great, but at least i ran about 5:00-5:04 sea mile level equivalents after tying up somewhat hard early on.
Q2: Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 66:07 - Will post a race report later, but obviously the biggest race of my life and a huge step towards achieving my dream of qualifying for the trials. I was very very very slightly bummed that I ran out of gas with a mile to go and didn't have enough left to throw down a 4:58 or so mile to go under 66, but overall it was one of the hardest races I have ever run in my life. To be honest by 3-4 miles in I was already in "let's just go one more mile and then maybe back off" mode, which continued until mile 9-10 and I just ran as hard as I could the rest of the way.
Splits: (based on course markers, except for mile 13 where there was none so I estimated based on last 1.1)
1 - 5:00.02
2 - 5:01.42
3 - 4:55.39
4 - 5:04.95
5 - 5:06.32
6 - 4:55.07 (30-35 ft elevation drop) - 31:05-31:10ish at 10K which is an unofficial PR. (garmin had 31:05 for my fastest 10K and given that I started slowing down after this mile it must have been in the first 10K... garmin also tends to measure a little short so maybe about 31:10 for first 10K?)
7 - 5:03.52
8 - 5:05.21
9 - 5:00.78
10 - 5:05.79 (50:18 @ 10 miles, previous fastest 10-mile split was 51:35 at Tucson last year but most people know how I feel about downhill courses)
11 - 5:04.61
12 - 5:03.01
13.1 - 5:39.75 (average pace around 5:05-5:06 ish). - 66:05.74 on watch, 66:07 officially.
Q1: (Monday) 2015 Bolder Boulder in 32:10. Originally the race results said 32:08, which matched what I had on my watch but I think due to me having a last minute bib change (they accidentally put me in wave AA somehow) they had to go off of my gun time when they finalized the results or something. Either way, I missed breaking 32 minutes. I worked out splits for a 31:45 or so and was on pace through 3 miles before just dying a bit and hung tough after cresting the high point of the course at 4 miles. (only got passed twice in the last 2 miles).
Q2: (Saturday) 3mi-2mi-1mi - 15:35, 10:04, 5:00. (3 min rest after the 3mi and 2mi). Original workout was actually a 10K tempo, and I wanted to do this on the Classic 10K course and given that the course is net downhill and loses about 30-40ft/mi (so about 3-5s/mi faster than on the flats) I wanted to run around 5:10s. Apparently taking 4 easy days after Bolder Boulder wasn't enough recovery and my workout quickly went downhill 2 miles in so I stopped to regroup and was able to salvage the workout a little bit with a couple of fast shorter intervals, but to be honest I went pretty hard to hit those times and it definitely wasn't threshold effort.
Week 20 (6/1-6/7) - 122 miles - Got in two solid workouts this week, although looking back my pollen allergies probably started around the day of the 2nd workout or the night before.
Q1: (Wednesday) 5x1 mile @ MVP with about 2:45 average rest. Averaged 4:52s for "MVP Miles". (about 0.96-0.97). Felt really good and smooth the whole way. Tried to pick it up a bit the last one but I "only" hit 4:50 after running the first 4 in 4:52-4:53.
Q2: (Saturday) Nielson 2-mile (10:01) + 2x2 mile. A little disappointed with the 2mile as I ran 10:03 last August, but I just didn't feel great. Got in 2 more 2 mile repeats with Kenny after about 10-15 minutes in 10:58 and 10:22. A little deceiving since the first 2 miles had about 80-90 feet of elevation gain and the 2nd had 100-110 feet of elevation loss so they were probably worth about 10:40 and 10:30 after adjusting for elevation.
Week 21 (6/8-/14) - 107 miles
Q1: Wednesday - MVP loop workout - 2 loops in 10:08 - 2min rest - 5:02 loop - 3-min rest - 4:51 mile. Another workout that was pretty much adjusted on the fly. The goal was actually a 6 mile/loop tuneup, but as with my last few training cycles my final long tempo never seems to pan out. This one seems like I was just a headcase, I made it 2 loops in, was running about 2-3 seconds / mi slower than goal pace and got discouraged so I stopped and tried to change it to 3x2mi. A mile into the 2nd repeat I just felt like I was running too hard so I decided to nix the workout. I just around for 2-3 minutes and felt I still had enough so I decided to run one hard mile to get the Strava record for the loop. I ran a full mile from where I thought the course was to be safe and hit 4:51 for a full mile (and 4:42 for the loop course record). Glad I did that last mile, it was definitely a confidence booster as it made the botched workout seem like a mental issue than a fitness issue. I was pretty surprised as I thought I would have to work pretty hard to go under 4:50 on that loop but ran 7-8 seconds faster than expected.
Week 22 (6/9-6/21) - 67 miles - I was trying to stay positive going into the week and race but honestly I was pretty bummed. I have been pretty congested the past week and alternated between feeling okay and feeling awful all week. Initially I thought I was getting sick, but by the middle of this week (2-3 leading up to the race) I was pretty sure it was some sort of seasonal allergies to some type of pollen that I somehow developed as an adult. The allegra / mucinex mix I was taking seem to slowly get it under control.
Q1: Monday - 2 x 2 "MVP miles" with about 3-4 min rest in 9:57, 10:01 - the idea was to see if I can run 4:57-5:00/loop for 3 loops but I think I was a little too excited or just wanted to make sure I hit my times. Anyways, I went out in 4:52-4:53 and came back with a 5:04. Again, I stopped and reset, then ran 2 more even miles in 4:59-5:01ish. Not great, but at least i ran about 5:00-5:04 sea mile level equivalents after tying up somewhat hard early on.
Q2: Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 66:07 - Will post a race report later, but obviously the biggest race of my life and a huge step towards achieving my dream of qualifying for the trials. I was very very very slightly bummed that I ran out of gas with a mile to go and didn't have enough left to throw down a 4:58 or so mile to go under 66, but overall it was one of the hardest races I have ever run in my life. To be honest by 3-4 miles in I was already in "let's just go one more mile and then maybe back off" mode, which continued until mile 9-10 and I just ran as hard as I could the rest of the way.
Splits: (based on course markers, except for mile 13 where there was none so I estimated based on last 1.1)
1 - 5:00.02
2 - 5:01.42
3 - 4:55.39
4 - 5:04.95
5 - 5:06.32
6 - 4:55.07 (30-35 ft elevation drop) - 31:05-31:10ish at 10K which is an unofficial PR. (garmin had 31:05 for my fastest 10K and given that I started slowing down after this mile it must have been in the first 10K... garmin also tends to measure a little short so maybe about 31:10 for first 10K?)
7 - 5:03.52
8 - 5:05.21
9 - 5:00.78
10 - 5:05.79 (50:18 @ 10 miles, previous fastest 10-mile split was 51:35 at Tucson last year but most people know how I feel about downhill courses)
11 - 5:04.61
12 - 5:03.01
13.1 - 5:39.75 (average pace around 5:05-5:06 ish). - 66:05.74 on watch, 66:07 officially.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 17 and 18 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 17 (5/11 - 5/17) - 119 miles
Q1 (Wednesday) - Intended workout was 25x400s with 1-minute rest. I ended up doing 20, jogged a few minutes and jumped back in to do 2 more with Kenny Foster (he did all 25). We basically started our warmup as some American Distance project runners were starting the same workout and their coach Scott Simmons invited us to jump in with them when we were ready to start so our first 15 was their 11th-25th reps. #1-10 were all between 69.66 and 71.05, then I idiotically went with them on their "hammer" interval on the next one and dropped a 65.9, then was struggling to run 70-72 the rest of the way until I decided to call it a little early.
Average for first 20 were 70.79s - (21 and 22 were 70.29, 68.89)
Average rest was 61.23s
Q2 (Saturday) - Did a tempo intervals workout mixed into a long run with Kenny Foster. We met at Colorado College and ran north on the trails for about 7-8 miles, then we did 2mi-2mi-1mi-1mi with 4min/4min/3min rest after the intervals. Times were 10:26, 10:13, 5:06, 4:56. Although on average we had about 30-40 feet of elevation loss per mile so the times probably would have been about 3-5s slower per mile on a flat surface.
Week 18 (5/18 - 5/24) - 103 miles
Back off a bit this week because I wanted to run well at Bolder Boulder next Monday as it's probably my last hard tuneup race before the Garry Bjorklund Half. Only had one workout this week.
Q1: (Thursday) - 3x1mi + 4x1/2mi on treadmill at home. Might be a good thing my treadmill at home tops out at 5 min miles as I wasn't planning on running much faster next Monday anyways. Ran 5:03, 5:01, 5:00 and 4x2:30. (2:30 rest after each interval)
Q1 (Wednesday) - Intended workout was 25x400s with 1-minute rest. I ended up doing 20, jogged a few minutes and jumped back in to do 2 more with Kenny Foster (he did all 25). We basically started our warmup as some American Distance project runners were starting the same workout and their coach Scott Simmons invited us to jump in with them when we were ready to start so our first 15 was their 11th-25th reps. #1-10 were all between 69.66 and 71.05, then I idiotically went with them on their "hammer" interval on the next one and dropped a 65.9, then was struggling to run 70-72 the rest of the way until I decided to call it a little early.
Average for first 20 were 70.79s - (21 and 22 were 70.29, 68.89)
Average rest was 61.23s
Q2 (Saturday) - Did a tempo intervals workout mixed into a long run with Kenny Foster. We met at Colorado College and ran north on the trails for about 7-8 miles, then we did 2mi-2mi-1mi-1mi with 4min/4min/3min rest after the intervals. Times were 10:26, 10:13, 5:06, 4:56. Although on average we had about 30-40 feet of elevation loss per mile so the times probably would have been about 3-5s slower per mile on a flat surface.
Week 18 (5/18 - 5/24) - 103 miles
Back off a bit this week because I wanted to run well at Bolder Boulder next Monday as it's probably my last hard tuneup race before the Garry Bjorklund Half. Only had one workout this week.
Q1: (Thursday) - 3x1mi + 4x1/2mi on treadmill at home. Might be a good thing my treadmill at home tops out at 5 min miles as I wasn't planning on running much faster next Monday anyways. Ran 5:03, 5:01, 5:00 and 4x2:30. (2:30 rest after each interval)
Race/Trip Report - Country Music Half Marathon
Like a lot of runners, Maureen and I seem to like to combine races
and vacations together. This trip was no different, we decided last
winter to visit her cousin's Kerry's family in Columbia, Tennessee, an hour
south of Nashville, and combine the trip with the Country Music
Half-Marathon. We also somehow decided it was a good idea to drive instead of fly, so on
Wednesday after dinner we loaded our luggage and the puppies into the
Subaru and headed east. The car trip was pretty uneventful as we drove
through Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The only surprising
thing was how close to the Mountain time / Central time border we lived,
apparently the easternmost part of Colorado is actually in the Central
time zone, which we passed about an hour or so into our drive.
We arrived at Maureen's cousin's house on Thursday afternoon, and after we settled in I went for a quick shakeout run. It's funny how with sleeping about 2 hours in the last 30+ hours I still run faster at sea level at the same effort than I do back at home at 6200 feet altitude. Shortly after we went out for a nice dinner and then fell asleep shortly after we got back.
When we woke up on Friday we went out for a short run and then headed to the expo to grab our race packets. I also took a quick look at the seeded runners list to see what kind of competition there would be for Scott and I. Not that he needed the help, but Scott was the only runner with an elite bib in the full marathon (lucky bastard!) and I had Ryan Sheehan and Roosevelt Cook seeded ahead of me. This was going to be a bit more trouble than I was expecting, but with my first week under 110 miles since the Shamrock Shuffle and a bit more pop in my legs I was feeling fairly confident. We went home and relaxed for the rest of the day, then fell asleep shortly after dinner.
We woke up early on race day and headed out in the rain. Traffic wasn't too bad until we got pretty close to Nashville. When I got my elite athlete bib the day before they also gave me a parking pass to the VIP/Media parking lot, but when I tried to head that way the road was blocked by a couple of cop cars. I rolled down the window and showed them the map of the lot, and was directed to go some other way. Finally after 15-20 minutes of trying to find this place I just gave up and headed towards the general parking lot, which was closed off by then and I got funneled onto some road leading away from Nashville. At which point I basically made an illegal U-turn and got stuck in traffic for another 15-20 minutes heading back in town. By the time I found a parking garage and settled in it was 40 minutes before race start. Maureen and I quickly made the 10-15 minutes walk to the start line, and since she really had to use the bathroom and I really needed to warm up so I gave her my race day VIP bracelet so she can skip the port-a-john lines and go into the bar where the pre-race VIP area was. As I dropped her off I also ran into Scott, so we headed out for a very short warmup and then tried to get into our corral. We ran into Joseph Elsakr who was also running the half, but disaster nearly struck when we tried to get into the corral and the volunteer that was guarding the gate tried to make Joe and I go into the 2nd corral because our bib numbers started with 2 (203 and 204) and Scott/Joe/I had to argue/explain to her that we had elite bibs on and they weren't the 4-digit bibs that started with "2" that belonged in the 2nd corral. It's unbelievable that every year I see people with 5 digit bibs hogging the front line of the Rock n Roll Las Vegas marathon but we run into the one misinformed corral guard that almost screwed us. Oh well.
The race started and I knew with the lineup it would go out hard for at least a mile or two, but shortly after the first mile the place slowed a bit (probably due to the hill) and given how strong I felt I took the lead. From mile 2 to the 5K point I had two challengers that took the lead from me for a minute or so before I would basically maintain my pace through the next uphill climb and they would drop back. I believe at one point I had about a 6-8 second lead, but around mile 9 I hit a bad patch and Roosevelt caught up and we ran the next couple of miles together. It was a little frustrating as I felt like I was comfortable sharing the lead, but whenever I tried to surge and make a move he would cover it with ease. Finally, with 1.5 miles to go he made a move up one of the hills and I didn't respond in time, and given that the last 1-1.5 miles had one climb after another I just didn't have a chance to close that gap. It was pretty disappointing to lose a race like that, but the overall experience of leading a RnR half race for over 10 miles was pretty cool, hopefully I can close the deal next time. Final result - 68:54 / 2nd place. The caveat is that Scott told me before the race that this course is about 1:15 slower than a flat course like Houston, so while I don't actually count things like this, it would "convert" to a 67:39 or a 5-second PR, which made me feel a little bit better.
Shortly after the race I jogged back to the car and changed quickly, I then jogged out onto the course to cheer for Scott who looked like he was out for a stroll (I found out later he basically pulled away a mile or two earlier and was just trying to keep the effort easy until they hit 5-6 miles to go) as well as look for Maureen. She didn't have a great race, but still ran her 4th fastest half marathon ever on a tough course. Due to the fact that I finished in the top 3 they gave me another VIP bracelet, so we went and hung out in the postrace buffet for awhile until Maureen got pretty sick so we headed out. At least I was there in time to see Scott finish and get interviewed as we were walking out, and got a chance to chat with a couple of promising up and coming runners Joseph Elsakr and Ben Li for a few minutes before we got out of dodge. We stopped back at Maureen's cousin's place for a quick lunch with some delicious barbecue they had picked up. Another 18-20 hours and close to 1000 miles later, we were back home. I pretty much went to bed shortly after, definitely wasn't up for a run.
Upcoming race/trip reports:
-USA 25 KM championships
-Bolder Boulder 10KM
-Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
We arrived at Maureen's cousin's house on Thursday afternoon, and after we settled in I went for a quick shakeout run. It's funny how with sleeping about 2 hours in the last 30+ hours I still run faster at sea level at the same effort than I do back at home at 6200 feet altitude. Shortly after we went out for a nice dinner and then fell asleep shortly after we got back.
When we woke up on Friday we went out for a short run and then headed to the expo to grab our race packets. I also took a quick look at the seeded runners list to see what kind of competition there would be for Scott and I. Not that he needed the help, but Scott was the only runner with an elite bib in the full marathon (lucky bastard!) and I had Ryan Sheehan and Roosevelt Cook seeded ahead of me. This was going to be a bit more trouble than I was expecting, but with my first week under 110 miles since the Shamrock Shuffle and a bit more pop in my legs I was feeling fairly confident. We went home and relaxed for the rest of the day, then fell asleep shortly after dinner.
We woke up early on race day and headed out in the rain. Traffic wasn't too bad until we got pretty close to Nashville. When I got my elite athlete bib the day before they also gave me a parking pass to the VIP/Media parking lot, but when I tried to head that way the road was blocked by a couple of cop cars. I rolled down the window and showed them the map of the lot, and was directed to go some other way. Finally after 15-20 minutes of trying to find this place I just gave up and headed towards the general parking lot, which was closed off by then and I got funneled onto some road leading away from Nashville. At which point I basically made an illegal U-turn and got stuck in traffic for another 15-20 minutes heading back in town. By the time I found a parking garage and settled in it was 40 minutes before race start. Maureen and I quickly made the 10-15 minutes walk to the start line, and since she really had to use the bathroom and I really needed to warm up so I gave her my race day VIP bracelet so she can skip the port-a-john lines and go into the bar where the pre-race VIP area was. As I dropped her off I also ran into Scott, so we headed out for a very short warmup and then tried to get into our corral. We ran into Joseph Elsakr who was also running the half, but disaster nearly struck when we tried to get into the corral and the volunteer that was guarding the gate tried to make Joe and I go into the 2nd corral because our bib numbers started with 2 (203 and 204) and Scott/Joe/I had to argue/explain to her that we had elite bibs on and they weren't the 4-digit bibs that started with "2" that belonged in the 2nd corral. It's unbelievable that every year I see people with 5 digit bibs hogging the front line of the Rock n Roll Las Vegas marathon but we run into the one misinformed corral guard that almost screwed us. Oh well.
The race started and I knew with the lineup it would go out hard for at least a mile or two, but shortly after the first mile the place slowed a bit (probably due to the hill) and given how strong I felt I took the lead. From mile 2 to the 5K point I had two challengers that took the lead from me for a minute or so before I would basically maintain my pace through the next uphill climb and they would drop back. I believe at one point I had about a 6-8 second lead, but around mile 9 I hit a bad patch and Roosevelt caught up and we ran the next couple of miles together. It was a little frustrating as I felt like I was comfortable sharing the lead, but whenever I tried to surge and make a move he would cover it with ease. Finally, with 1.5 miles to go he made a move up one of the hills and I didn't respond in time, and given that the last 1-1.5 miles had one climb after another I just didn't have a chance to close that gap. It was pretty disappointing to lose a race like that, but the overall experience of leading a RnR half race for over 10 miles was pretty cool, hopefully I can close the deal next time. Final result - 68:54 / 2nd place. The caveat is that Scott told me before the race that this course is about 1:15 slower than a flat course like Houston, so while I don't actually count things like this, it would "convert" to a 67:39 or a 5-second PR, which made me feel a little bit better.
Shortly after the race I jogged back to the car and changed quickly, I then jogged out onto the course to cheer for Scott who looked like he was out for a stroll (I found out later he basically pulled away a mile or two earlier and was just trying to keep the effort easy until they hit 5-6 miles to go) as well as look for Maureen. She didn't have a great race, but still ran her 4th fastest half marathon ever on a tough course. Due to the fact that I finished in the top 3 they gave me another VIP bracelet, so we went and hung out in the postrace buffet for awhile until Maureen got pretty sick so we headed out. At least I was there in time to see Scott finish and get interviewed as we were walking out, and got a chance to chat with a couple of promising up and coming runners Joseph Elsakr and Ben Li for a few minutes before we got out of dodge. We stopped back at Maureen's cousin's place for a quick lunch with some delicious barbecue they had picked up. Another 18-20 hours and close to 1000 miles later, we were back home. I pretty much went to bed shortly after, definitely wasn't up for a run.
Upcoming race/trip reports:
-USA 25 KM championships
-Bolder Boulder 10KM
-Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
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