Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon Race Report

My 5th race of the year is in the bag for 2016.   I ran a 1:37:49 half marathon today placing 303/11689 overall and 11/373 in my age group and setting a personal RnR half marathon race PR for me by nearly 90 seconds (half marathon PR is 1:34:20 from 2010).    It was an extra special race morning for me as I was racing with my 17 year old son, Ethan, who was running only his 2nd half marathon this morning.

Race conditions last night looked dire with rain and wind and chilly temperatures forecast; however, 4:30 came this morning and temperatures were in the low 50's with most of the rain having passed and little wind -- perfect weather conditions for a longer race (in fact -- could've used conditions like this morning for this year's Boston Marathon which was warm and windy).  

This year's RnR course changed from prior years which featured a largely uphill closing 5K and sharply uphill final 1K to the finish line on Mercer at Seattle Center. I really disliked the old finish to this race as in back-to-back years I lost nearly a minute of time slogging through the last part of this race's hill climb.    

This year's race started at Seattle Center, however it wended it's way a bit east and then west before connecting with the Battery Street Tunnel and then connecting southbound onto the Seattle Viaduct.   The opening 5K was net downhill.    The race finish line moved back to Century Link Field (believe it was here for the first few years of this race) and featured a mostly downhill closing 2 miles after a 1.55% grade climb throughout all of mile-11.   It was really a nice improvement to the race course design which I think everyone appreciated -- as much as we all had to grind through mile-11.   

My race strategy this morning was based on breaking the race into 3 segments, Miles 1-5, 6-10 and the final 5K.    My goal being to ease into a 37:30, increase to a 37:00 and then roll something like a low 22:00 closing 5K given the net downhill finish.  

I felt very strong at the start of the race and eased into a good rhythm feeling my A-game and hit the opening 5K in 22:36 and through 5 miles in 36:53.   I hit the 10K mark in 45:48 and rolled the second 5 miles in 37:12 crossing 10 miles right at 74:00.   I was feeling very confident with 5K to go that I could run a sub 23:00 and drop down into the 1:36's for a finishing time.   

What I overlooked, however, is that mile 11 is significantly uphill (I should've remembered how much as I've run this race 3 other times) requiring a climb from the shores of Lake Washington up to the I-90 Express Way and then a 3/4 mile run dead west and uphill through the I-90 westbound express tunnel (which was hot and stuffy and really not enjoyable running).    My Garmin 630 stopped working in the tunnel and I figured by effort I was around 7:45 pace.  I was very surprised to emerge from the tunnel and have run an 8:11 - basically crushing what buffer I had to get down comfortably below 1:36.   I can't say whether my GPS not giving me up to the second pace information would've made a difference, but I might've pressed just a little harder.  Hard to say.  My bad ultimately.   

As I emerged from the express lanes tunnel, I saw my son Ethan about 25 seconds out in front of me and knew he must be struggling as he had at least a 2:00 minute lead on my deep into the race (I wasn't even seeing him on the myriad hairpin turns where we would run out 1/4 mile and then come back the exact same direction where you can see the runners in front and behind as you run the stretch).   I immediately figured he didn't fuel properly as he left his 2 gels in the car prior to the race (which I didn't discover until 15 minutes prior).   I'm sure he burned through all of the glycogen in his legs at about mile 8 (where he bonked and slowed) as we was running sub 7:20's comfortably and on pace for something upper 1:34's to mid 1:35's.     

As we crested the hill and headed out of the tunnel, I rolled mile 11 in 7:29 pulling nearly even with Ethan at the start of mile 12 and then turned on the after-burners running mile 12 in 7:05 and accelerating to the finish trying to make up for the bad mile 11 in 8:17.     I ran the final uphill corkscrew up and around past Safeco field and then really tried to pick it up over the last 600 meters to the finish coming in at 1:37:49.    It was a shocking reversal of fortune for me as just 25 minutes earlier I was sure I had plenty of gas to run a sub 23:00 closing 5K vs. a 23:41 where I valiantly tried to make up for the hill gaffe at least grabbing back some time with a 7:05 mile 12.   

All in all I'm pleased with my race performance and am strongly tempted to race another half marathon in 2 weeks before heading back into Marathon training for Marathons in August and September.   

In terms of critiquing my training, it's clear I'm not in great hill shape.  On a flat course today, I'm sure I had 1:36 in me -- if not better -- but I just get gassed on the hills -- even slight hills.  It's residual damage from my Boston Marathon training where I nursed a tendon injury for 3 months and did not hill train at all -- even avoided hills.  Hard to make excuses any longer.  I'm going to get weekly hill intervals into the mix.

Next official race is the Ragnar Relay in July followed by the SeaFair 8K in later July.    I'm looking for a half marathon for me and Ethan to run in 2 weeks that is small, flat and fast!

Me enjoying an early Father's Day gift racing my son Ethan's 2nd half marathon this morning.

Obligatory pre-race starting line photos this morning.

Ethan feeling confident this morning after a hard 5 weeks of half-marathon specific training following a great Junior Year track season at Bellevue High where he PR'd in the mile running a 5:05.  He ran the opening 5 of the half marathon in 35:30.

We were officially corral 4 but moved up to corral 2 and closer to the 1:35 pacer group. 

Post race celebrations.  Half marathons always seem to pass so quickly - which is why I love them.  After you get through the first 5 miles there's not even an hour of running left.  In a marathon, I'm not even warm yet.

Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon - Training is a Wrap!

In thirty-six hours I'll be 45 minutes into running the 2016 Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon -- ideally somewhere past the 10K point.    It's been a very fast 5 week training cycle coming off the April 18 Boston Marathon and mid-May Nordstrom Beat the Bridge 8K.    This will be my 4th Rock 'N' Roll half marathon and 3rd consecutive year.  I believe this year's training cycle leading up to the race -- and building on a base that included 2 marathons in a 5 month stretch -- could be the hardest I've trained yet for this distance.  

The last 3 weeks have included some very promising workouts of substance that included a 75-degree half marathon time trial in 1:42 on tired legs, successive 8-mile tempo runs in 7:27 and then 7:24 average pace and 4 x 1 mile intervals in average 7:05 pace.    With a personal PR of 1:34:20 (on a flat course in 2010), a 1:39:20 last year (on a course that was hillier than the modified route for this year's race) and a 1:37:07 in October 2014 - I have a shot at racing one of my better times over the last few years.    I haven't run below 1:36 since the Green River Half Marathon in January 2012 where I went 1:35:50 -- and not sure I have that in me for Saturday, but am going to go out with my A goal being 7:19 pace and sub 1:37:00 with a fallback to anything sub 1:40 depending on how the new course plays out (more hills in the early miles with more of a downhill finish the final 5K).    

The only real glitch I've had this training cycle is that my Garmin FR620 which has been a constant training companion the last twenty-four months refused to re-charge as of last Sunday.   Not being confident I could get it repaired by Garmin in less than 7 days, I decided to upgrade to the Garmin FR 630 (picture below) for Saturday's race.  Thus far I've done a single run on the new watch and had about every issue once can expect running with a complicated piece of new gear after 2 years of something different.   It's not optimal, but my early impressions are positive and I'll make the best of it on Saturday AM.   I'll do a future blog post on whether this upgrade at $399 was worth it given the FR620 was rock solid for 2 years (other than the charging mechanism suddenly dying).   

Racing strategy for Saturday at 7:00 am is to get through the first 10 in sub 74:00 - 74:30 and then knock down a 22:00 closing 5K for something in the neighborhood of 1:36:00.    

Stay tuned.   

Garmin FR630 - my new training companion albeit at an awkward time

Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Training Update

Today's 13.1 mile half marathon pacing session wiped me out.   This is the end of my third week of a five week half marathon training cycle preparing for the June 18 Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon and I am feeling the burn.

I find it somewhat surprising that with such a deep aerobic running base given I ran the December Honolulu and then April Boston Marathon that a trio of 40 mile average training weeks would leave me so spent on a Saturday afternoon, but I am honestly looking forward to tapering the next couple of weeks which is something I would normally somewhat sneer at doing since a half marathon is a relatively straight-forward distance to train for and recover from.  

As I look back on the last 3 weeks of training, each six day revolution had three very hard runs of substance.   My strength intervals every Tuesday have been 4 x 1 mile in 7:10 pace; 4 x 1.5 mile in 7:20 pace and then a brutal 3 x 2 mile session this last week where I averaged around 7:35 pace (all these runs have been on the Cross Kirkland Corridor trail which is dirt and gravel and adds to the workout intensity).  My tempo runs have been 60 minute pacing sessions around 7:25 - 7:30 pace followed by Saturday runs of 14-mile cut-down (average overall pace 8:00 with last 5 miles in 7:30 pace); 2 x 5 mile tempo intervals in 37:30 and 38:30 and then wrapping with this morning's 13.1 time trial in 1:42:15.  

The goal of this five week segment was to really bracket my training with time spent at or around 10K to half marathon pace while buffering these workouts with easy runs at 9:00 pace.     Given I spent so much time preparing for Boston running much slower times due to my injury, I also wanted to get a little footspeed back; although, I haven't really done a lot of track running nor pressed hard on 5K speed work (somewhat in fear of my tendon injury returning).

I set a goal for this morning's half marathon pacing session of something in the 1:38:00 range which I missed by a full 4:00 running 1:42:15.    That being said, I misjudged how warm it was this morning and didn't start running until nearly 8:30 am when it was nearly 70 degrees with little shade on the Lake Sammamish Trail.  If I'd been thinking more clearly about morning temperatures we'd have started around 7:00 am.  Nonetheless, I could feel the heat and cumulative training fatigue on me right away as we took off and had to work hard to get through the first 6.55 miles in 7:42 pace and 50:25 elapsed time (which was about a minute slower than I'd hoped for).    We fought a full headwind all the way running north this morning which added to my slowness -- so I was hopeful as we turned around I'd be able to roll off some 7:30's and dial it in with the wind at my back (but of course the sun now was full on us as we ran back to the south).    Opening 6 miles were in 7:40, 7:43, 7:44, 7:44, 7:45, 7:39 and then 4:08 for .55 mile to 6.55.    

Turning around with the wind at our back I felt energized and quickly rolled off a 7:28 and was feeling bullish about dropping back below 1:40 based on a negative split on the second half; however my energy started to be dampened as I was really heating up in the sun running 7:40, 7:42, 7:47 and then started to really have to work hard at mile 10 running 7:50 before descending into the pain cave and really struggling over the last 5K running a snail-like 7:50, 8:08, 8:22 and 57.1 final .1 mile.   I got through 10 miles in 76:57 and 7:41 pace and then collapsed on the final 5K running 24:20 and 8:06 average pace.    

I don't know why it always amazes me how much the heat takes out of us in terms of speed based on our brain consciously slowing our bodies down (as a form of self preservation), but the temperature at the start of this morning was right where it was for the start of the Boston Marathon (about 70) and then was around 75-77 the last part of the race which was warmer than what we endured over the final 10K as we dropped into Boston and it cooled down.   It seems like I should have been able to better endure it.  But at 50 years old, the heat just crushes me these days.  Although, I think a lot of this is simply being from Seattle as we don't spend a lot of time running in moderate heat which is probably the underlying issue.  I'm not adapted for warmer running temperatures (many wouldn't consider running in 75 degrees that overly warm in other parts of the country).  

So with the half marathon race 2 weeks from this morning, I'm going to work hard to nail my Tuesday intervals (4 x 1 mile), Thursday tempo run (60 minute pacing session) and then a final 10-12 miles easy with a cut-down final 5K at half marathon goal pace for week 4 of this cycle.  

My goal coming into this cycle was to run something below 1:36:00 for the race.    At this point, today's outcome worries me a bit but I also know I have a lot of fatigue on my legs and with a taper and some sharpening I may be able to pull off a great race.   My fallback goal is anything in the 1:38:00's which will leave me in good shape to resume marathon training in mid-July with some decent speed under my belt.