3M Half Marathon: A Deep Sigh of Relief

As I think I've noted in these e-pages, my confidence had been severely shaken by the Buda 30k a couple of weeks ago. I know that my poor performance there was probably due to being sick, but it still was a shock after a long series of good races. Since then, I've had two weeks of solid workouts with and without the Gazelles, and today it was time for a relaxed run at the 3M Half Marathon. My goal was to run it in a controlled fashion, going for something in the 9:00-9:05 range, pace-wise, and to finish with maximum relaxation and comfort. I wasn't going for a PR, even though this is a very tempting course. I figured I'd run to a HR number if I was in doubt, trying to stay in the comfy aerobic zone.

Weather wasn't pretty, but it wasn't all that bad, either. Temps in the mid to high 40's, with drizzle and mist all day long. We met as a group at 6:00 am for a little one mile warmup and drills, followed by an abbreviated stretching session. Gilbert offered some last-minute advice and cautioned us to run with an eye towards Freescale. I felt good after all the warmup stuff, and after a last sip of Accelerade, I stripped off my running vest and long pants, and took my pack over to the gear truck at the start line. Frank and I took advantage of a strategically placed dumpster for a hydration adjustment, and we eased over to the start line for the festivities. A nice four-part national anthem was sung, and we crushed into line for the start. I had on a regular cap, gloves, a long sleeved shirt and a singlet over that. Shorts today.

I saw a bunch of people that I knew, of course, but chose initially to run alone as I usually do in races. At the horn, we surged forward, and I clipped the start line about 35 seconds after the horn. There were a lot more people at this race than at most of the Challenge races, somewhere around 2700, so it was packed in the first mile or so. I started off nice and easy, letting folks rush by left and right. In the first 100 yards, I heard an unmistakeable sound, twice. There are a few sounds that everyone will know, no matter what your experience. Two of those are the sound of a pump-action shotgun slide, and a rattlesnake in the wild. This morning, I clearly identified another: The sound of an iPod or other mp3 player hitting the pavement. Not a great way to start your race, I'd guess, to have your $300 electronic device crashing to the ground under the feet of 100's of strangers.

Anyway, we reached the end of the mostly uphill mile 1, and turned the corner onto Braker. Another turn later, and we were heading south and east on the access road along 183. I saw Jan ahead of me, but I didn't rush to catch her just yet. I passed Tracy, Sean passed me, and we all sort of started settling into our race pace. The water stops were every 2 miles, so I took a small cup of water at each stop today, taking a short 10 second walk (maybe less) at each stop to drink the water down. They used plastic cups today, which prevented us from using the "fold the cup" trick to drink on the run.

Miles 2-4 were mostly a downhill trend, but there was some rolling action. Enough to keep your legs from grinding down on a downhill slide. Mile 5 was largely downhill, too, a steeper downhill pitch mellowed out by a fair uphill climb over Mopac and back down to Shoal Creek Rd. One of the bagpipers was right there at Mopac, and that was pretty cool to hear the sounds of Scotland on such a British Isles sort of weather day. Jan and I paired up during mile 5, and decided to stick together for the run since our goals were the same. So far, so good. HR numbers still in the happy zone, except for some bumps as we climbed the uphill bits. On average, though, I was running like I should.

Splits, Mile 1-5: 9:06, 8:49, 8:45, 8:45, 8:49 (overall pace 8:51, a little faster than I had thought)

During mile 6, an old Galloway pal, Sara Fisher, sneaked up behind Jan and me, and decided to draft along with us for a while. I took a GU at the mile 6 water station, and then we wound our way through a neighborhood. Sara pulled ahead of us, and Jan and I let her go, staying on our pace groove. We had a slower mile 8 for some reason, but it looks like it just may have been a slight uphill grind, and slower for most folks. After seeing that split, I picked up the pace for us a bit, and we got right back to business through the rest of the race. During mile 9, I think, a guy was set up on the side of the course with a bunch of bathroom scales stacked around him, with a sign reading "Free." Clever. "Free" Scales, get it? Also during mile 9, the other bagpiper guy was playing away. There was a large amount of crowd support today, which was fun to see. We reached mile 10 in comfortable fashion, right on target, and very consistent in pace. We were talking the whole way, chatting about all sorts of things, which was probably annoying to those around us. Even under our controlled pace conditions, we were passing plenty of folks, and again, that was good for my psyche.

Splits, miles 6-10: 8:59, 9:05, 9:19, 8:43, 8:53 (overall pace 8:55)

It was the homestretch now, and we were picking off a large number of people who had gone out too fast. There were some fair uphill bits down the stretch, but we didn't seem to mind those, especially since there were plenty of downhill segments to balance it out. We cruised by the UT campus and enjoyed a guy playing steel drums at Guadalupe and MLK. We caught and dropped Sara through here, and rolled on. Stroller Man (he used to push a triple stroller through all the Challenge races) passed us during mile 11 or 12, and I just gave him an "Attaboy!" Jan said that she wanted to push the last mile, but I told her that I'd follow Gilbert's directions, and would take it easy through the steeper downhill bits in the last mile, to save my quads from getting beaten up. During mile 13, Jan pulled away just a bit, and ended up finishing about 10 seconds ahead of me. I turned the last corner, and cruised up and down the last bit of the course, and passed Gilbert with a smile on my face as he stood at the mile 13 marker. I was totally aerobic, and feeling fantastic. Frank ran with me for a couple of hundred yards, and told me where he'd find me in the post-run madness, and then I ran nice and easy through to the finish.

Splits miles 11-13.1: 8:53, 8:48, 8:21, and 0:58 (8:47 pace). Overall chip time 1:56:13, second best half marathon time since I turned 40, and a surprising 8:52 overall pace. This was 15 seconds per mile slower than my PR on the tougher Motive course back in November, which was probably right on target.

I felt great as I got my medal and started drinking the bottled water handed to me. I had achieved all my goals for the race, and had stayed in a nice HR zone for almost the whole day. That last mile at 8:21 didn't feel like I had accelerated at all. In fact, I thought I had slowed down considerably during mile 13, since lots of folks were kicking hard around me. I put blinders on during that last stretch, to avoid the temptation of racing hard to the line with everyone.

I got my backpack from the gear truck, and gratefully put on dry and warm clothes before I got too chilled after I finished. Frank and I met up, and we got some food, and chatted with lots of Gazelles in the infield of the football stadium. Seems like most of us had race days right out of the training book, and there were a lot of grins as we talked. I chatted with Stroller Man afterwards, too, and he was a nice guy. Turns out that he has sort of destroyed his ankle, and it's not repairable by surgery, so his doctor has allowed him to run just one medium long race per year, pushing the stroller, and no other racing. He was philosophical about it, saying that at least he can get his daily running fix...he just can't race like he used to. It was an interesting chat. Alex drove Frank and I back up to the top of the racecourse, so we could get our cars and avoid riding the buses. That made for a much more pleasant trip back.

The feeling of relief and accomplishment that I felt today was almost indescribable. Now, I know that if I go out a little easier at Freescale than I did today, my HR will be even lower, and I'll get to mile 13 and beyond of the marathon in great position to assault the 4:00:00 barrier. This course is very similar to Freescale, so this was a very good test run for the marathon. Now, I just have to be smart about these last two weeks, and get to the start line on February 13th healthy and ready to run.