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