My goal was simple: beat my previous best from NCM 2008 at the height my my Ironman training (1:37:38)
I've
run 4 half marathons since then, but as the 1:50 pace bunny. I haven't
race one since. I've raced a good number of shorter distances and a
couple of Around the Bays, but not the half.
My strategy was simple too: go hard to the finish line, or explode along the way.
I did pretty good. The last 5km were rough, but I dug deep. I finished in 1:38:23, 45 seconds off my PB. I'll take it.
The real story however is the training I put in.
These are mileage totals for the 6 weeks of training I put in.
27.82 km - 2:26:02 Pace: 5:15s /km
36.79 km - 3:25:47 Pace: 5:35s /km
36.50 km - 3:13:44 Pace: 5:19s /km
29.66 km - 2:41:52 Pace: 5:28s /km
30.59 km - 2:42:09 Pace: 5:18s /km
32.16 km - 3:01:58 Pace: 5:40s /km
My long runs were 12km, 19km, 12km, 19km, 23km and 10km
This is after a summer of virtually no running, but almost daily Crossfit.
I
think it's safe to say Crossfit has helped my run. To get within 45
seconds of my best time (a time I got when I'd been training all winter
gearing up for Ironman) on less than 200km over only 6 weeks says a lot.
We stayed with Erin McDougall, who lives nearby, the night before the race. A truly
wonderful family and very gracious hosts. Just stay out of those two
back rooms!
The
biggest challenge was getting the kids to sleep. Race morning was early
and not too stressful. Erin and I drove to the finish to catch a bus,
leaving the women and children behind. Stood in line in the misty rain
for quite a while before finally boarding a bus to the start line,
arriving with maybe 40minutes to spare. Got my bag checked and went for
a warm up run just shy of 10 minutes out, found a tree for a quick pee
break then ran back with about 10 minutes to spare.
It was a
small field, when the horn went off it was barely 6 seconds to get over
the mats. I settled in to a groove right away, just under 4:30/km. Felt
good, didn't feel like I was pushing it. Played leap frog with a
couple of girls for the first 5km before dropping them, and one guy who
really didn't want me to pass him.
He was funny. All over the
road, like the anti-tangent, he'd pass people really wide, spontaneously
switch sides of the road, it was weird. I stayed with him most of the
run.
After I took my first gel at the 7km marker, the markers
started to show up far more quickly than I was expecting them km 8, 9
and 10 went by in the blink of an eye.
I was mostly within 7
seconds of 4:30 up until 15km, it started to get harder at that point.
At 15km one of the girls I had
dropped at 5km passed me, so she became my new focus. Around this time,
weird guy stopped to pull down his compression socks and 20 steps later
stopped to pull them back up. I figured this was a fatal mistake, so I
took advantage and passed him aggressively. Leapfrog girl was still
holding a good pace and I was fighting to stay as far under 5:00/km as
possible. Not long after that, compression sock boy passed me again,
he really didn't want me in front of him.
The hill
at 16-17km was expensive, but I still managed to pick it up a bit
compared to 15km and 16km splits.
The hill slowed
everyone down, but it broke weavy compression sock boy. At the top of
the hill he started walking, I blew past him with less than 4km to go,
trying to hold to leapfrog girl and never saw him again.
After
the big hill, with the help of some down slopes and my rabbit leapfrog
girl, I was able to get a couple of splits around 4:45 and the last km I
put everything I had to try and catch her before the finish. I made it
to within 10 feet, but ran out of road. I congratulated and thanked her
for a great run and for pushing me to the end.
I friend of mine, Heath gave me my medal! Thanks Heath!
Looking
at my splits, I definitely faded progressively but held pretty constant
for the first 15km and was able to dig deep to the end.
1- 4:29
2- 4:37
3- 4:20
4- 4:32
5- 4:25
6- 4:32
7- 4:35
8- 4:34
9- 4:35
10- 4:37
11- 4:42
12- 4:37
13- 4:35
14- 4:36
15- 4:52
16- 4:54
17- 5:16 (the hill)
18- 4:46
19- 4:45
20- 4:52
21- 4:41
21.1 0:38 (169m) 3:45/km
I'm
very happy with this result. In a couple of years, when the kids are
older and I've got more Crossfit under my belt I plan to start a more
conventional training cycle (not sure if it'll be for triathlon or just
running), and I expect to see some serious improvements. For now, this
seems to be working really well for me.
Thanks Kiza, I appreciate your support in these crazy endeavours. And thanks Erin for your hospitality.
ETA:
10th out of 46 in the men's 40-49 category (top 21%), 32nd male out
of 195 (top 16%) and 35th out of 695 over all (top 6%). Not too shabby.
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