Head games

Have you ever had a bad feeling about a race? We all — well, most I guess — get typical pre-race flutters on race day. I can still recall with perfect clarity the almost panicked feeling I had standing in the starting corral of the Marine Corps Marathon in 2009. I was fine right up until the starting gun fired and I saw the runners ahead of me moving out under the bridge, then my heartrate leaped by 10 BPM immediately. The thought of all that effort I was about to put in for 4 hours was daunting and purely unpleasant.

I wasn’t panicked leading up to today, but I didn’t feel right. I hadn’t run a ton the preceding two weeks. Sure, you’re supposed to taper but I dropped off a cliff, logging maybe 20 miles total. Yesterday after packet pickup I decided to take a look at the back half of the race, a section of the area I’d never seen before. It did nothing to boost my confidence, with a seeming heartbreaker of an incline over a two mile stretch from about miles 9 to 11.

As is typical for me, I decided I would be okay if I didn’t PR. Who knows, maybe it’s half of my brain playing reverse psychology with the other half. I kept flopping back and forth in my head about being okay with anything under 2:00 and shooting for a PR.

Pre-race

I’m not the best morning person, but I’ve gotten better over the years with the steady training of my daughter. Having a child that pops awake at around 7:00am without fails will do that. So the alarm went off at 5:30 and I popped out of bed, got a quick “good luck” from Cat and made my way to get ready. I’ve at least worked out my hydration strategy for half marathons quite well, so I drank two big glasses of water while eating my toast and apple sauce about 2 hours before the gun time. I’ve found that that amount gets me a quick whiz right before the gun and hitting all but the last water stop during the race leaves me feeling good and, most importantly, doesn’t have me hitting portapotties — or trees — during the race.

I got to the RBC Center just before dawn and relaxed while I read for a while in the car. It drizzled on me on the way but that trailed off by the time I got there leaving a moist but cool morning at about 55 degrees which is frankly delightful racing weather. Near race time I got in line for the portapotties and did my business getting me to the starting line 5 minutes before race time. Perfect.

As I lined up I took stock of myself. I was amazingly calm. I had no jitters. I’ve done this distance many, many times, it held no power over me. Why not? Let’s shoot for a PR. And I had a pace picked out: 8:30. Might not seem fast, but that’s fairly aggressive for me. I’ve done tempo runs up to about 7 miles at 8:10 but they weren’t easy. They’re not supposed to be. 8:30 would knock about 4 minutes off my PR. In the back of my mind I allowed myself as slow as 8:40 because that would still beat my boss’ PR of 1:54:39. We don’t compete necessarily, but it’s the closest thing I have.

Down to business

Once I made the decision to go all that was left to do was do it. The Raleigh Rocks is a rolling course but has about 10% less elevation change than the Inside Out Classic. I hit the 2 mile marker with an average pace of 8:34, but those first 2 miles were a little rough as my legs got moving after my “taper”. This is not a crowd support course though there were clusters of enthusiastic family members at various places.

The course is a bit weird, covering one section of road 3 separate times. There are no loops per se but we end up visiting the RBC Center a couple of times before heading out around the NC State agricultural areas. As such, you see other runners both slower and faster a few times during the race. On the way out we caught a glimpse of the race leaders coming towards us twice. That’s always fun and we cheered them on and they cheered us on, the second place guy — a friggin’ Adonis, bare-chested and ripped — high-fiving me as we passed each other the first time.

I’ve mentioned before that I need crowd support and I do, but I managed. Parts of me thought about slowing down to 8:40 but the parts that wanted to pick it up won out and I covered the next 2 miles at 8:28 pace. I hit the water tables and grabbed a cup and walked for the length of time it took to down it, then it was back eating pavement.

I finally started getting my legs under me and getting happier at the half-way point. That came in about 56:16 which is around an 8:33 pace. There were several bands along the course playing more or less enthusiastically that always provided a nice little boost.

There’s a lovely little downhill I was looking forward to about 7 and a half miles in. The difference between this race and others is that I didn’t save up on the downhills. Normally I coast a bit and let my heartrate recover some but this time I used those downhills to shave some seconds. Admittedly, I wasn’t flying downhill but I wasn’t loafing either. I maintained on uphills and gained on downhills. However, on this particular downhill I did save some energy because that climb was coming.

The climb came a bit earlier than I thought it would. I was expecting it around 10 miles in but instead it showed up just before 9. That’s tough. Why? Because I didn’t think this was the incline. I thought it was an unexpected precursor and it took a bit of energy and optimism out of me. Then again, I was still doing pretty well overall. I had a bit under 4 miles to go and I knew this was one of the last climbs of the day. So I kept up the pace. There was a nice breather of a water stop at the 10 mile mark at the foot of the largest climb of the day. That marked the beginning of the end since there was a little 5K left.

At this point I started picking out people ahead of me that I wanted to catch. A girl that had been ahead of me since the first mile marker, a guy that had recently passed me. They were far enough ahead that it was a stretch but once I got to the top of the hill I knew I had it in the bag. I maintained an 8:35 pace up that climb which, for me, was something that late in a race.

I actually didn’t know what the last 2 miles looked like. I knew it was mostly downhill, so I picked up the pace. Mile 12 passed in 8:11. There were a few last unwelcome climbs in those last couple of miles but I was too close to care. Any surplus energy I had at the end would be a waste, right? At about 12.5 miles I actually saw Cat and Julia waving at me from the finish line. This seems simple, but the topology didn’t make it obvious. There was a little greenway that led from the road up to where the finish was that left an opening in the trees that looked down on the section of course I was on. Cat had positioned herself perfectly and it gave me a huge lift seeing them waving and knowing they’d be there at the finish.

The 13th mile passed in 8:07 and I finished very strong down the stretch. I saw my girls in the chute leading up to the finish and smiled and waved as I chugged along. I crossed the line and remembered to smile. And well I should. Official chip time was 1:51:55, almost 4 minutes off my old PR. Official pace came out to 8:33.

Post-race thoughts

My girls met me after the finish and we recovered and listened to some music while Julia danced (she simply cannot help it). I go back to my earlier thoughts about the race and wonder about how my mind works. Is it a defense mechanism? Is it the way I deal with my own expectations? Is it a way to temper my own disappointment if I don’t meet my expectations? I don’t know. Thinking back, I’ve done it for almost every race and so far I’m still PRing every race. That likely can’t last. Everyone has a bad race or a more challenging race and I will have one that changes my fortunes before too long. It’ll be interesting to see how I respond.

This was probably the best my body’s felt during a race. Aside from a bit of ankle tendon pain on my right angle late in the race I didn’t have any problems. My wind was good throughout. Races like this give me hope for a decent finish at the MCM this year. That’s my real goal. All these are just gravy.

In 2009 I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. It was my first marathon and, as such, quite special. It was also the only one I’d have my mom cheering at though I didn’t know it at the time. I wanted to return in 2010 but the organizers scheduled it for Halloween day and I can’t deny my daughter her trick-or-treating at home so I skipped it. This year, however, it’s scheduled for the 30th so I can still get us back in time for Halloween.

It’ll be a bittersweet run. I know I won’t be able to pass where I saw mom on the course without issue. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it together, but especially at mile 18 when I’ll be a bit tired already might be awfully hard.

There’s something about the MCM that’s just perfect. Or maybe it’s everything about it. The course is memorable, the spectator crowds are impressive and the support is Marine Corps sharp. Nope, there’s nothing quite like it.

Let the training begin!

Two weeks ago I put in a 12 mile long run. I didn’t think much of it at the time but I later realized that was the longest I’d run since the Inside-Out Classic Half back in May. Oh how the mighty have fallen. It’s easy to let life get in the way of training, and that’s part of it. I guess I lost my spark a bit as well given everything that happened recently. But, I had a race to do and I had run enough to do it. A quick preview of the course at packet pickup revealed what is, to me, a brutally hilly slog. Bear in mind, anything over a mole hill may as well be Mount Everest to me, though with my office’s recent move that will be rectified somewhat as my training runs will be hillier than they were. So I had already pretty much given up on a PR, relegating myself to accept any result as long as I finished. I knew that the amount of training I’d done wasn’t up to snuff, so having any expectations was hopelessly optimistic.

Pre-race

I woke at 5:00am, got dressed and ate and drank. It was a pretty chilly start, but really the weather couldn’t have been better. I arrived in plenty of time to negotiate the absolutely ridiculous traffic for parking, then sat in the car keeping warm and reading my book for about 20 minutes until about 30 minutes prior to race time. I made my way to the starting line and nature began its perfectly-timed siren song so I found the porta-potties and got in line. Long lines. I heard the announcer call the 10 minute warning. Then the 5 minute warning. 3 minutes, and I’m still 3 people back. Finally I get in and do my business, hop out and head to the end of the field just in time to hear the gun sound. Oh well, at least I’ll have plenty of folks to pass.

The first half

Given my realizations of the previous day and the fact that I literally had the entire field in front of me I started conservatively. The first mile marker hit at 9:31. I dodged and weaved around people constantly which was probably good as it kept my mind off the fact that the first mile is all incline. After that it rolls with an overall steady downhill trend to the 4 mile mark. I maintained my conservative pace, but didn’t glide downhill or walk it all on the hills. Frankly, I attacked the hills reasonably hard and over the following 3 miles wind up with a 8:49 pace. Slower than I’d ideally liked to have run that day, but well within my 2 hour “I won’t be disappointed” pace.

At 4 1/4 is where, upon review, the real gut check of the race starts. From there to the turnaround at 8 miles is a pretty steady climb. It feels it. Every time you round a bend there’s a bit longer to climb, with very few downhill or flat breaks in between. I still felt remarkably good and stayed within myself. My hydration plan was spot on, delivering me to the starting line with a comfy bladder and I walked through every aid station and grabbed two cups, either 50/50 water and HEED or a double fist of HEED. Those 15 second breaks of walking, breathing, and drinking were welcome but I never felt like it was a struggle to get the legs going again. That 4 mile climb was the slowest part for me, and I clocked in at the 10K mark in 56:15 or a 9:05 pace. Still under 2 hours and very conservative. I finished up the uphill slog at the turnaround at the 8 1/4 mile mark in 1:14:55 or a 9:06 pace. Yes, the hills took its toll.

At the half-marathon turnaround is where we parted ways with the marathoners. As I turned I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled a “good luck” to them. At that point in the race I was ecstatic that I wasn’t doing the full marathon this time. Face it, I hadn’t done the required training. The wheels would have fallen off something fierce; the extra 13.1 the marathoners have to do is even hillier than the half. No thanks.

The last half

I admit, I didn’t know what the final 5 miles were like. My tour of the course took me to the turnaround and then I figured I’d tortured my girls enough dragging them across town. I had no clue what the future held except I was pretty sure I had to go back down a lot of the incline I’d just traversed and the hill I started out on in the first mile would be a sweet decline into the finish. So I started ramping it up a bit, visions of the benefits of negative splits dancing in my head. The 9th mile came and went in 8:50. The 10th in 8:47. At that point my brain pointed out that a) I had only a 5k left and b) I felt quite fine. The 11th mile showed up in 8:29. The 12th in 8:09. I skipped the final water stop at mile 12 because I was feeling good and didn’t want to slow down.

The 13th mile introduced a rude shock in the form of a sweeping, 6/10 of a mile incline. I powered up it. I’d have loved to have taken a break. But I didn’t. My final 1.1 miles were at an average 7:51 pace, even including that damned final hill. I came sailing past the 13 mile mark where I saw Cat and Julia waving at me at a blistering 6:41 pace. I high-fived Julia and kept pushing to the finish.

My gun time was a fairly disappointing 1:58:16, a full minute slower than my PR. But I started at the back of the field. My Garmin time showed 1:55:51 and my official clock time was 1:55:49 for a new PR!

Afterthoughts

I can’t say I’m not pleased. Of course, having low expectations makes them easier to meet. I never would have imagined PRing on that course after previewing it, but I did. I showed a bit more perseverance than is typical for me recently which is a nice change. Perhaps it’s the start of something better.

I’ve found that the choice of what workout to perform can be difficult. There’s so many different workouts out there, each of them claiming to have benefits over every other one. It’s like eating in that fashion; everyone has their opinion of what you should be eating and what you should be avoiding like the plague.

I’ve been researching various workouts to find one that matches my needs. I did a round of a modified P90X routine consisting of the resistance-based P90X routines with my running routine replacing the aerobic portions. I had good success but it was time for a change. The drawbacks of P90X for me personally were:

• The workouts are relatively long. For someone trying to fit a workout in at lunch this is a drawback. The typical day is roughly an hour and 15 minutes including abs.
• Some of the movements are either awkward or of dubious benefit. To me it seems they were stretching a bit to fill in the workouts.
• More personally, my “workout space” at home is a shared space that usually requires clearing out to work out. That’s a pain.

My goals whittled down the competition. It’s obviously quite important to pick a workout that suits your goals. My goals are finding a workout that compliments my running training, that works towards overall body fitness and “leaning up” rather than building mass. The workout should be reasonably brief but at a fairly high intensity. Ideally it should also not require a bunch of specialized equipment and be something I could do at my gym.

Enter the Spartacus Workout

There are lots of what I’ll term “fad workouts” out there. There’s the 300 workout, the Spartacus Workout, and a myriad of others. I don’t mean that as disparagingly as it sounds. The simple fact is all of these health magazines have to earn their money and capitalize on crazes. Hence, tons to choose from. I took a look at a lot of them and the Spartacus Workout resonated most clearly. At its core its simply a circuit training regimen. 3 sets of 10 exercises performed in sequence with continuous reps for 1 minute with 15 seconds of recovery in between exercises, with 2 minutes of recovery between sets. Sounds like a mouthful but read it a couple of times if it’s not clear. Total workout time is around 42 minutes which is right in my wheel house.

The exercises selected are as follows (and illustrated here):

The Original Spartacus Workout

1. Goblet squats
2. Mountain climbers
3. Single-arm dumbbell swings
4. T-pushups
5. Split jumps
6. Dumbbell rows
7. Dumbbell side lunge and touch
8. Pushup-position row
9. Dumbbell lunge and rotation
10. Dumbbell press

That’s a fairly adventurous full-body workout depending on the weight selected and the reps performed. However, to my eye it seems heavy on legs and lower back and a bit light for chest, back, and especially biceps. Here’s my modified version that attempts to add a bit more balance and address these perceived shortcomings.

The Spartacus Workout Evolved

1. Goblet squats
2. Mountain climbers
3. Single-arm dumbbell swings
4. T-pushups
5. Standard grip pullups / Wide grip pullups / Narrow grip chinups
6. Standard pushups / Diamond pushups / Wide pushups / Incline pushups
7. Dumbbell side lunge and touch / Split jumps
8. Pushup-position row
9. Dumbbell lunge and rotation
10. Dumbbell press

The changes hit at station 5. We’re swapping out split jumps for one of my personal favorite back exercises, pullups. You can choose any of the three types listed per set, so mix it up. I’d recommend doing your least favorite in the first set when you’re at your strongest. With this one change we’ve done a world of good with back and biceps. Be sure to work in a set of chinups — palms facing you — in order to activate those biceps.

Station 6 switches from the relatively anemic dumbbell rows to pushups. There’s no reason you can’t mix dumbbell rows in on occasion as they do activate a different part of the back, but we’re already getting rows in station 8. Pushups are just a good exercise. They hit core, they hit triceps, they hit chest. Now we’ve addressed the shortcomings of the workout as I saw them.

Station 7 I’ve given you a choice between the side lunges and the split jumps. Split jumps are awesome so I didn’t want to get rid of them completely, but something had to give and the original routine was slightly leg-heavy.

So that’s it! Do this routine 3 times a week. I’ll be doing this routine 3 times a week interspersed with my running days on 3 other days with one day of rest.

I’ve done this one a few times and it’s a really good, efficient, full-body workout that should work to lean and strengthen and get that heartrate up for a while. If you have similar goals as me give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Who has two thumbs and still can’t run after my half marathon in May? Yeah, this guy. Remember how I mentioned my right Achilles tendon smarting during that final tenth up the final hill? I don’t think that was a tendon; at this point I’m almost positive I tore my calf a bit.

I gave myself a couple of recovery days and, like a twit, fired up a hilly tempo run on the following Thursday. I made it 4 miles in and wham, the calf got me. Out of nowhere. I was fine and then I wasn’t. I walked a bit and stretched — bad idea when dealing with a tear — and ran some more. I was hurting and alternated running and walking the rest of the way back. So started the resting period again. This time I gave it until the following Saturday. 9 days of recovery! That should be plenty. I wasn’t going out hard, wasn’t going for a hilly run. I made it all of 9/10s of a mile before it hurt me again. I did all the inappropriate stuff again and cut my run off at 4 miles before heading to the barn.

This time I’m giving it 2 full weeks before I run. I’m kind of lost, to be honest. I don’t feel like me without my weekend long runs. So, what to do while recovering?

Swimming. I admit it, I am a sorry swimmer. I’ve never competed, never trained, never really even been taught an appropriate stroke. Sure, I had the basics when I was a kid, but I’ve never been taught an efficient exercise-worthy stroke. I make do. My buddy loaned me his Total Immersion book and I’ve watched plenty of YouTube videos of good strokes and I try to emulate that. I’ve done this a few times before for cross-training, and when I first started it was hard. I’d labor to do 400 meters. That was my workout.

Somehow this time is different. I went out and banged out 1200 meters the first day out. Buh? Hell, I did 750 meters before I even took a breather. Previously I was doing good to make it 100 meters before needing to stand up for a bit and breathe. My goal is to add 100 meters each day out. I’ll hit a mile soon which is a mark that seemed impossible even a year ago. It may not be pretty, I may not be able to do a kick-turn and I might make the lifeguards wince, but I’m doing it.

Maybe some day I’ll feel good enough to take on the Pensacola 3-mile Bridge Swim like this guy. That would be something, though the actual swimming part might not be the challenge; keeping cool while envisioning the Surface creature under me will be.

Here’s the shot of Scott and I at the finish at the Inside-Out Classic 1/2 this weekend. I had tossed a water cup over my head at the next to last water station, but I felt soaked to the bone even before that. This summer is going to be a hoot.

Removed photo until I can upload our own .

This Sunday was the 12th Annual Inside-Out Sports Classic Half Marathon, possibly the least concise event name ever constructed but a fun and popular local event. I haven’t really been training for a distance event aside from tossing a couple more miles onto my weekly 5K training long runs. I figured I’d still be okay after the year of marathon training. I guess we’ll see.

Prerace

Luckily this race is very local for me. 7 minutes of driving and I’m at the starting line. With a 7:00 am start I got up around 5ish and had some food and drink then futzed around trying to wake up. I’d love to say I sleep perfectly before a race but I don’t. I got to sleep fine but our cat decided to pray to its Egyptian gods or something at about 11:00 and I had a hell of a time shutting my noggin back down and getting back to sleep. Ah well. After a quick pitstop at the grocery store to grab some Gatorade and hit the restroom I was parked and making my way to the start. I decided against carrying my own bottles and Gu this time. It’s 13 miles! There would be water stations and I wouldn’t hit any conceivable glycogen depletion wall within 2 hours so what’s the point?

I picked up my race chip and realized that nature was calling one final time. The lines for the portapotties were astounding and there was exactly 3 minutes before the gun. Nature time. With my bladder relieved I made my way to the starting area and had just enough time for a few little arm swings and leg stretches — notably missing my right Achilles which will become important later — and then the gun sounded. Away we go on my first official half marathon distance.

The first half

I was fairly far back in the pack after my nature pee so I dodged a bunch in the early stages. I didn’t have too many concrete goals for this race aside from finish and hopefully beat my previous PR from the first half of Shamrock at 1:58:44. That’s it. I wasn’t going out hard because I hadn’t been training for a hard half. I just wanted to run the race. Early on I targeted between 8:30 and 8:45 for lack of any better goal.

The IOS Classic is a hilly little beast, at least to me who isn’t used to hills. I mean sure, we don’t have anything gargantuan here but there is a fair amount of elevation change across the whole course. The course starts with a snarky little downhill that breaks many a heart because the course is nominally out and back. People think “egad, I have to run back up this on the way to the finish?!” but they don’t. That’s not to say there isn’t a hill at the end, but we’re not there yet.

The first 5K presents a fairly steady, mild incline. It’s hard to even notice that you’re climbing, honestly. Given the strict “no headphone” ruling at risk of being DQed and banned from future runnings of the event I obviously didn’t wear mine. I still saw several people who did and I marvel at their temerity. Honestly, what doesn’t compute? Eh, whatever. I’ve been running without it more and more so it didn’t present any particular difficulties. Water stops were provided very early on — like a third of a mile in, honestly… I skipped it — but that was primarily to cover the return trip at around 11 miles.

In the early going I admit it: I wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was my week — my mother was admitted to the hospital on Friday due to weakness and dehydration from the chemo — maybe it was the poor sleep, I don’t know. I just wasn’t feeling it. I could easily have stopped along the side of the road, waited for everyone to pass and headed back to my car. I recently talked about the difficult of maintaining enthusiasm in the face of everything but this was it, all distilled down into a minute on the road. I thought about it and really considered it. But why would I have quit? Because it hurt? No. Because I had to? No. Just because I didn’t feel like it? That ain’t enough. So I kept going.

At the first water station I decided I was going to walk through the water stations. Why not? It didn’t help that my first sip went straight up my nostril. So perhaps “decided” is too strong. I grabbed a cup of water and one of Gatorade and chugged them both, tossed the cups in the trash can and was off again. Maybe 10 seconds of walking. Not bad, not bad. I wasn’t think so much about not feeling it, I was just running. I was at the top of the gradual incline and facing the downhills. That’s cake. I was still on-pace at around 8:40 and taking it rather easy.

There’s a rather noticeable downhill trend from 3 miles into about 4 and 3/4 miles which I was dreading the return trip up. Out and backs are dandy until you realize that all of these declines are soon to be inclines. Then I hit the 5 mile “marker” — there were no actual mile markers on the course which is a bit weird… many people asking the mileage — and the mystery incline. During my “preview” I’d turned around at the 5 mile mark to do my scheduled 10. Now I had to keep going approximately another mile. Being unknown it worked it’s mysterious influence on me. I knew that I had an incline on the return trip from miles 7 to mile 9.5… I just didn’t know what mile 5 through 6 and through 7 looked like. I was hoping for a nice level area to give me a breather in preparation for the inevitable climb I knew I faced. No such luck. I thought the damned thing would never end. I got to the turnaround — with its water station, thankfully — and at least enjoyed a bit of downhill leading to the big climb.

The last half

I finally saw my boss, Scott, at the turnaround. I knew he was racing but didn’t have time to seek him out before the race and hadn’t seen him. Prior to the turnaround I thought I saw him up ahead but couldn’t be sure. At the turnaround we traversed a little loop in the trail and I saw that it was definitely him but it ended up that he didn’t see me. So I’m sure he had some confusion wondering where I could have been since, given an almost 100% out and back he would have seen me at some point.

I made it to the bottom of the decline at mile 7 and started The Big Climb. This ascent start on a bit of a switchback that is probably the worst of the climb in all honesty, climbing 200 feet steadily for a mile. I was slowly reeling Scott in and was also caught by a very nice young lady who complimented me on my shirt and told me she had caught up with me to tell me about that and her own mother’s battle with cancer. I thought that was wonderful of her and thanked her. The climb leveled off a bit but heads back up again after a while and I finally caught Scott about 8 and 1/4 miles in at the base of the beginning of the steepest part of the climb.

“After this that it for the yucky parts, Boss,” I said as I prepared to pull even with him.

“There you are. I wondered where you’ve been,” he huffed. I told him let’s save our breath until the top of the hill. The climb was pretty brutal with me topping off at 179 on the heartrate monitor. But I didn’t walk any of the climbs. I was proud of that. Scott said he was feeling pretty good until the start of the big climb at mile 7. Then he started feeling beat. I commiserated as those are some taxing climbs. I decided at that point to help bring him in. This was his first time ever going longer than 10 miles and he was starting to struggle a bit; we were also supposed to be running together anyway since there were no iPods allowed. So I started pacing him and we got our minds off the race a bit lamenting idiotic customers and silly requests. His goal was to maintain sub 9-minute miles so we both kept each other honest on pace.

At 9.5 miles in the vast bulk of the inclines are done. There might be some surprises at the end — and there was — but it’s a net downhill from here which was nice. So we cruised over the final portions inside Umstead, popped over I40 and hit the final water station before veering off the out and back and onto fresh territory on the greenway.

“Why are we going this way?” I joked with the course marshal who told us to turn. “It’s a whole lot shorter if we go back the way we came.” It got some chuckles from him and the water station people but for all I know that was the 500th time they’d heard it. The greenway section was another fairly straightforward out and back, though because it was unknown and near the end it felt longer than it had any right to feel. Those late miles you start picturing being done and looking for the turnaround point to head for home. Scott and I ran together and I took the lead down the greenway because it got really narrow especially when you had facing traffic coming back. We finally reached the turnaround and there was a little over a half a mile to go.

We branched off the greenway out and back to head up to the finish line and met the final surprise. A nice little steep 75 foot climb in the final quarter of a mile. I started up it and my previously unstretched right Achilles tendon decided it wanted to seize up. Oh wow did it twinge hard on me. This was right about the time that I spotted Cat and Julia and they spotted me. So there I am leading Scott up the hill, trying to keep running while my tendon wants to snap. Not the most enjoyable part of the race. But I got up to the girls and gave Julia a high five and made the turn into the parking lot where the finish line was. Scott was behind me so I eased up until we were side-by-side and we crossed the line together.

With all of that I ended up with a new PR of 1:57:18.

Thoughts and conclusions

Very weird race for me. My heart hasn’t been in it and I didn’t turn my personal issues into motivation. I could and should have used the things going on as fuel or at least viewed the running as an escape. Something to think about.

I’m pleased with how it went, really, aside from my Achilles. It’s a little sore today but nothing earth-shattering. I didn’t push anything and felt quite good — aside from the early race “blah” — and it was a good feeling helping a friend reach his goal. He would have made it without me, I know, but hopefully it helped some. I probably could have scraped some additional time from my PR if I hadn’t slowed down to run with Scott but so what? There will be more races and it felt like the right thing to do. I think on a more forgiving course I have a much faster PR ahead of me.

The race itself was a mixture of fine and not so great. Aid stations were plentiful during the race but the lack of mile markers was disappointing; I know there’s some regulatory issue surrounding them but that’s not my problem. I miss having official splits. Volunteers were fantastic but the finish area was a bit crazy with giant lines for food and drink. I prefer the style of finishing corral at Shamrock (an admittedly larger event) where you finished and then stumbled at your own pace through a long runner recovery area with the finisher swag, then a water station, then various foodstuffs all as you walk along.

This weekend is the Inside Out Sports Classic Half Marathon (that’s a mouthful), a locally popular race through a fantastic natural park in Cary. I’d been looking forward to running a half for many months. Last weekend I decided to preview the course a bit on my long run, running 10 miles of it to see the lay of the land. Here’s the result:

I’m glad I’ve been doing more hills because there isn’t a foot of flat ground on this course. That hill about 9 miles into the race is going to be a doozy.

How silly am I?

We’re both scheduled to race the Inside Out Sports Classic Half Marathon in two weeks which will likely be interesting for both of us. He’s never done that distance while I’ve completed two full marathons. I’d like to PR that one which I think it imminently possible since my current PR was in the middle of a marathon — and, unlike the sadistic race directors for this race, the half marathon starts at 7:00 AM — but it’ll be interesting to see if my focus on training for shorter races has already had a negative impact on my endurance. Could be interesting.

I should really learn to check the course before flapping my gums. I’ve seen this course before. Do you know where I’ve seen it? While discussing my desire to add more hills to my training a neighbor pulled out his map of Umstead and pointed out this exact course as a wonderful one for punishing elevation changes. Fantastic! I mean, look at this.

There’s over 5 miles of serious incline on that course. Forget PRing, I just want to finish it in some non-ridiculous fashion. I’m currently trying to work more hill training in but certainly haven’t gotten enough under my belt to be undaunted in the face of this.

Sheesh, if it’s not heat it’s hills.

Today was PR day. I wanted my 22:XX PR. The course was described as “fast”. I had been training regularly and felt good. But I was nervous. The weather, so recently glorious and cool turned typical Raleigh: race time forecast of 90 degrees, gusty winds. Would the training overcome Mother Nature?

Prerace

I knew the temperature would be a bit abusive, so I’d been hydrating well for the last couple of days. Sure, it ain’t a marathon but practicing hydration never hurts anyway. Being a 2:00 PM race start I had a fairly typical morning, though instead of my usual egg-white omelet I shared in the crepes we made for Julia — who had a friend sleep-over for her birthday — figuring they’d make for a higher-carb morning. I left the house about 12:30 and grabbed a smoothie on the way. I’m used to exercising before lunch so I was concerned how my stomach would do with lunch in my belly but I figured I’d bonk if I didn’t have something. A small smoothie seemed like a decent compromise.

I got to the race area about an hour early, parked and read my book for a bit to relax. About half an hour before race time I wandered up, claimed my race chip and took a final whiz at the perfect time. Still had about 15 minutes before the race and my bladder would be nice and comfy.

This year the race is being held to benefit the NC Hopeful Parents organization and they spoke a bit before the race during warm-ups. This little girl, perhaps 10 or 11, got up and spoke about her experience being adopted. It was obviously emotional for her and when she began speaking about her birth mother, a farmer in Mexico, she couldn’t go on. Precious thing tried to hold it together but it was too big. We all cheered for her bravery as she left the stage and climbed up into her mother’s arms. I got choked up — big surprise, I’m a softy with kids — and wanted to give her a hug too.

With about 10 minutes to go we all started lining up somewhat haphazardly as it was a bit confusing where we were to start. But it worked out. I met up with my boss, Scott, again and we lamented the conditions and talked a bit about our goals. I admit, our own little rivalry is powerful if unspoken. Before the race started he had me by 9 seconds in PR. I hoped to change that.

The first half

I had the 175 BPM Podrunner mix going, hoping to keep my turnover at 175 SPM. I figured at 5K pace it would be doable. The race started and I let Scott get about 3 yards ahead where I could keep an eye on him. I settled into my pace and started getting into the groove. We were both aiming early for about 7:20 but we were a little fast through the first 2/3rds of a mile with adrenaline and crowd confusion, averaging about 7:15 through there. The first mile split came at 7:26 for me, with Scott about the same.

The second mile presents a pretty steady few inclines before the turnaround which conspired with the early speed, the heat and humidity to beat the crap out of us. Scott maintained his pace a bit better than me, steadily widening the gap. The split at the second mile came at 7:33, but my heart rate up that incline and around for the return got up to 185 which is around 97% of my heart rate reserve. At this point I had a goal. It was a different goal from the start but it was a goal nonetheless: don’t stop.

I’ve talked a lot recently about trying to increase my mental resolve back to were it was last summer. Last summer I never quit. Then I got into the Galloway mindset of calculated walks and it affected how I view running. I think calculated walking during training can be beneficial to people. But I think it makes it far easier once you get into that mindset to let yourself give in to the momentary pain. It’s the easiest thing in the world to allow yourself 30 seconds of walking. It feels so wonderful physically to not be running when you’re tired like that. It’s hot, it’s humid, you’re breathing like a bellows, let’s just let off for a bit and catch our breath.

I didn’t want to do that this race. I thought about it. My brain on many an occasion said “this absolutely sucks. Hey man, no one is going to care if you take a little break and walk for a bit. Come on, it’ll feel good and then you’ll be able to get going again in no time.” But I didn’t. Up yours, brain. Yes, this sucks. Yes, it would feel great for a bit. But it would feel worse mentally having given in to your incessant yammering.

So I kept chugging. I wasn’t turning 175 SPM any more, I wasn’t up for it. Following the turnaround there’s a nice downhill that I took advantage of and for the next almost 4/10s of a mile I was pulling closer to a 7:39. Off pace, but faster than the 8:26 pace I eventually hit at the top of the incline. The final tiny incline had me puffing again turning nearer 8:00 pace, then it was the final half a mile, downhill.

I was hoping to have some kick at this point and reel in Scott who had built up a fairly substantial lead. I tried to rally the troops but the soldiers were worn out. My pulse was still pumping at about 93% of my reserve and it was all I could do to get down around 7:30 with a bit at 7:20, but that’s it. Final time according to the Garmin was 24:01.

Thoughts and adjustments

On days like this Boston seems far away. No PR today, not even close. My final average pace was 7:38 overall, and I’d have to do better than that over a full marathon to qualify at my age. That’s daunting and admittedly depressing. I know it wasn’t an ideal day to run. I feel good knowing that I gave pretty much all I had to give out there. I think, as Adam found, that the cumulative years will benefit me most in reaching Boston and I’ve got years to go. I’m in no hurry. If it takes me 10 years to qualify for Boston, it takes 10 years! I’d like to think it’ll take less than that but realistically I may not be ready for that long.

I’ll acclimatize to the heat since I typically train at lunch time anyway. It’ll be painful but helpful. Once you’ve trained at 100 degrees with matching humidity for a while, 90 degrees doesn’t seem so bad.

Scott had come in right around 23:30 again which, given the weather, was a real good showing for us. We’re fairly evenly matched, though he obviously has the edge right now. We’re both scheduled to race the Inside Out Sports Classic Half Marathon in two weeks which will likely be interesting for both of us. He’s never done that distance while I’ve completed two full marathons. I’d like to PR that one which I think it imminently possible since my current PR was in the middle of a marathon — and, unlike the sadistic race directors for this race, the half marathon starts at 7:00 AM — but it’ll be interesting to see if my focus on training for shorter races has already had a negative impact on my endurance. Could be interesting.