Well I guess the time says it all: 1:04:27 to punch my ticket to LA for the Olympic Trials. It definitely hasn't sunk in that I ran a 70-something second PR to get under the standard with time to spare, but as the race recap below shows there has probably never been a better chance to run a OTQ race.
http://www.1stplacesports.com/jm15halfres.htm
Race Recap...
The race was January 3rd, 2016 at 7am in Jacksonville, FL. At first glace probably not the best spot to have a distance race - I know I assumed it wouldn't be great weather since it's Florida, after all. Vacation spots and beaches are what comes to mind. However the weather in Jax at that time of year is, on average, perfect for this kind of race. The days leading up to Sunday were awful for running, but a couple cold fronts rolled in just in time and the weather on the day was about 50 and showers. Perfect for us, bad for spectators.
With 60 guys in the elite field (15 had already qualified) and a more than qualified pacer in Tyler Pennel, we started off and ran to my recollection perfect pace. 4:55 was Tyler's goal pace which would give us a slight cushion as 4:57 is the required average for 1:05:00. I started off at the back of the pack and very gradually moved up throughout the race as allowed to stay a few meters behind Tyler and the rest of the spearhead. I recall seeing about 15:27 through 5k, 30:40 or so through 10k and 49:33 through 10 miles. Right on pace for the OTQ.
As for me and how my personal race was going, I felt good. I struggle to attach any adjective to that word, because no word I can think of really encapsulates just how I felt good. Nervously good? Worryingly good? I was relaxed and within myself, but at the same time apprehensive and bracing for when it was going to get tough. The effort crept upwards from about 3-7 miles, when I expected it to start to get really tough. Surprisingly, it leveled off there and I was still able to draft off of a pack that was slowly but surely getting smaller with each mile. The next few miles passed uneventfully (never a better word than that to use in a race) and I knew I had the OTQ in the bag at around 10 miles. I still felt strong and able to respond to a move if I had to, so I just sat in the pack and let the remaining guys pull me down the highway through the remaining miles. To be sure, the mile markers seemed farther apart now than before, but I was not turning myself inside out like it was at Philly. I was working quite hard and really feeling it, but knew I was not over the red line. At about mile 12 I decided to take a pull at the front and push a little harder to see what I could do, and held that effort all the way in to the finish. No big kicks once I could see the clock - I wanted to savor it a little bit, and there was a big group around me all finishing. Officially I was 10th, but the place was, for once, secondary to the time today.
The next 6 weeks...
...I have to work on totally change my body over to the marathon. To any outside observer or casual runner, this doesn't sound like a big deal. It's just going up one distance right? As anyone who has had success at shorter distances and then jumped in a full knows, going from the half to the full is not at all the same as moving up from the 5k to the 10k or from the 10k to the half. The biochemistry and physiological (not to mention psychological) demands of the event are totally different than the half, or any other shorter distance races. I fully realize that 6 weeks is not even close to enough time for me to successfully realize my potential going from the half to the full, especially because I have done almost zero marathon specific training. No long runs, only a couple long sustained tempo runs. Lots of mileage but broken into relatively little pieces.
Going to LA will be more of an experience than a race. Obviously I am going to do my best in the race and in the next 6 weeks to see if I can at least PR - the weather looks like it's typically pretty good and it IS the Olympic Trials - but I have no delusions of being able to run the "equivalent" performance as indicated by this last race. Getting near 2:20 would be an excellent mark.
The training will be more of a crash course in long runs and long workouts. I'll fit in as many long runs (20+ milers, hopefully) as my body will allow and the density of the training will suck. Mileage may drop to allow for quicker recovery from those workouts, but I'll have to feel out the training and see what my intuition tells me. It's going to be a rough next few weeks, but realistically it's only going to be 4 hard weeks of training. How bad can it be?
