Obviously this run was not exactly what I was hoping for
given that I ran exactly 60 seconds slower than the OTQ. After Army 10 miler a
couple weeks back where I ran about a minute slower than I knew I needed to run
to have a realistic shot at the OT, I knew right then it would take a miracle.
But as the saying goes, there are no miracles in running. And I know there are
especially no miracles with my running – I’ve always been the most consistent person
I know since about 2005. I am also a little miffed that I didn’t even get PR out of it – I ran 18 seconds faster 2
years ago. Comparing my training then, I was running slightly less fast in
workouts but about 15 mpw more. I also ran that race in a style that suited me
perfectly, rather than going out hard and minimizing blowing up like today.
I do want to say that, while I am disappointed with not
getting the mark I wanted, I am NOT upset with the race. The effort was truly
100% all out. I am writing this two days later and I’ve been in a mental and
emotional fog with the tank since the race, and physically quite sore in places
I’ve never been sore in after a half (quads? shins? weird stuff).
Where to go from here? I have not finalized everything but
my plan is to go to Houston and try for 1:05 again on 1/17. That will give me enough
training time to make a difference and a race on what I think is the only
faster half in the US than the one I just ran. As far as the training goes from
here – I’ve been doing a lot of specific pace work and I know if I just keep
hammering away at that under January I will get stale and in a rut, so I have
to change something. Right now I plan to go longer and slower on the tempos and
faster with a little more rest on the intervals – things like 60-90 minute
tempos at 5:20-5:40 and 6 x mile @ 4:40-4:45 w/ 3:00 rest come to mind. This
will be refined as I resume hard training, but this week will be very easy to
recharge and then I’ll get back into it. I also want to start working out in
the morning, both because of the time change and because I need to get better
at hard efforts in the morning when all the races are.
About the race itself: Started off well and exactly where I wanted to be in the field - towards the back of the first big pack. Actually, next to Darryl Brown from PA, who I would run with for about half the race. I chose not to wear a watch, since in years past there were clocks at every mile and I don't like the additional mental strain that comes during a race from checking the watch and worrying about splits. This was a mistake. There was a clock at the mile mark that was about 25 seconds fast (went through that in 4:25 and I asked, aloud, whether that was right. Somebody laughed and said we were about 4:50) and no other clocks on the course, despite the miles being marked, timing mats out every 5k and even the mounting brackets for the clocks were set up. It wouldn't have made any difference to me even if there were clocks on course since I couldn't have run any faster, but it still would have been nice.
After about 4 miles I began to fall off of the big OTQ pack. Darryl, two other guys and myself would form our own unit and work together until later. Around the spot where we went past the art museum and upriver, I hit a bad patch that lasted for about 10 minutes. I think this was where the too-fast pace of the early miles hit me and forced me to back off and regroup. The guys I was with were leading the pack now and I was just hanging on trying to get back under control. Around 7 miles I recovered enough to get back in my own rhythm and push the pace myself. Doing so dropped Darryl and the other guys started to slip off. Once we got to the turnaround bridge just before 9 miles I was dropping the last of my new friends and apart from catching maybe 2 guys who had blown up off the leader pack I would be alone to the finish. The last 4 miles was simply running as fast as possible. At 20k a pace car came by with a running clock on the back that said 1:03 something, so that's when I definitely knew it wasn't an OTQ day for me.
Splits, as best as I can get them:
1 mile – about 4:50
10k – 30:58
10 mile – 50:14
13.1 miles – 1:05:59
