Hard Rock Half Marathon - Nashville

Not much to say about this one..... I wasn't feeling it from the beginning. Not even while I was lying in bed that morning. I looked at Jim and said, "I don't wanna run today." This was the fifth race in 6 weeks that we had signed up for in late Spring. We were originally going to do 7 races in as many weeks, but opted out of the extra two. Thank Goodness. Because by the time this one came around I was done. After my stellar PR the weekend prior, I knew I couldn't pull off anything close to that time. Especially with this being a hilly course. I had ran the Country Music Half in 2008, so I knew that it wasn't flat. I wasn't expecting the nearly all-uphill battle for the first two miles though, and had to walk more than my normal "every mile" pattern. In fact, there's no sense in my doing a play-by-play of the miles because there was no method to my madness during this one. I ran when I felt like running, I walked when I got tired. I do recall Jim's hip bothering him early on, and since we had decided pre-race to stick together on this one (since I wasn't feeling it mentally, and he wasn't feeling it physically, we thought it was a good idea), we ended up walking more than I expected. This didn't bother me however, since by mile 6 or 7 I was growing a little tired myself, and didn't mind the walk breaks. The weather was great, I dressed appropriately, and besides the minor hills here and there, there really wasn't anything that kept this from being a good race - I just wasn't feeling it. Miles 6-9 went straight out, and then straight back into town, so that was a bit brutal, but at least I knew ahead of time that we would be heading back somewhere around Mile 9, so mentally that helped. Those last 4 miles though we basically ran from object to object ("Okay, let's start running at that fire hydrant and try to get to that blue sign") I think we both just wanted it to be done for the sake of being done. I did, anyway. Jim's hip was "killing" him at this time, and I told him that if we made a drinking game out of every time he stopped running and said "Fuck" we'd both be wasted. He didn't find the humor in this comment. Regardless, we made it to Mile 12, which was nothing but uphill. Somewhere along the way we both decided we would like to at least break 2:30, and with a little over 1/2 a mile to go it seemed more than possible. Rounding one of the last corners we had two blocks of nothing but downhill to give us some momentum. Rounding the very last corner, we had about 3 more blocks to the finish and decided to just keep running it - duh. Coming across the finish line, I stopped the Garmin at 2:25:25. A finishing time I thought was really decent considering I wasn't in a great place the entire race. I guess that goes to show how much I've progressed though - when I can have a "bad" race and still come in at what I consider a decent finishing time (for me, anyway). Splits to follow (Garmin battery is low).

Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon

So... this will probably be the shortest race report that I've ever written. Not because it wasn't a great race - it was! In fact I set a new PR of 2:14:09 with this flat course, and went the entire 13.1 miles without once thinking to myself "God, I wish this race was just OVER now!" The drive up to Indy the evening before had me a bit worried as it started to sleet, and later snow as the temperature continued to drop. I've ran shorter races in this cold of weather before, but never a full 13.1 miles and I was concerned about how the chill would impact my race, and also whether or not I would be warm enough without overheating. After a pasta dinner and beer (which seem to be my pre-race staples), Jim and I headed back up to the hotel room to relax a bit before calling it a night. Asleep by 11:00, I drifted off and stayed that way throughout the night, with 7:00 a.m. coming right on time. I looked outside to see that the snow and sleet had stopped and the roads looked fairly dry. I think we were expecting temps around 30 degrees to start, and although I didn't check the weather report, it felt every bit that cold as we stepped out onto the street to walk the 2 blocks to the start line. I was comfortably dressed in some tights, a tech t-shirt with a heavier long-sleeve jacket on top, gloves, and a head band to cover the ears. Since we didn't leave the hotel room until 7:45 there wasn't much waiting around to be had and before we knew it the start gun went off. Amazingly, and I do believe for the first time ever, I felt great from the start. My body didn't feel heavy like lead as it normally does, and it didn't take three miles to get into a good groove. In fact, I'd say I had things pretty much taken care of less than a mile into the race. I had pre-planned my normal 1-mile-run, 1-minute-walk routine, but was feeling so good I decided I'd try to go 2 miles without a break and see how that felt. Well, two miles came and went and I remember thinking to myself, "Hmm, I wonder if I could just walk every two miles instead of one? Well, probably not. I'll see how I feel at three miles." Well, three came and went and I was still running. I walked a minute at mile four and was back at it again, with the same thought, "I'll see how I feel at 5, because I'm sure I'll want to walk by then." Alas, water stops came and went, the five mile marker came and went, and I was still going strong. Now, normally in my race reports I'm spelling out particular things that stood out to me at each mile - not this time. I honestly felt like I was in the zone the ENTIRE TIME. It was simply amazing and, a day later, I still can't believe it. Mile 6 came up and just happened to coincide with a water stop, so I took the opportunity to swallow down a Gu and take a cup of H20, not overly needing the refreshment, but also not knowing if I would get the opportunity again. By this time I was bound and determined to ONLY walk every two miles. Just past mile 6 my mind began to want to chime in and screw me. It told me that now was about the time I start losing some momentum and my knee would be hurting soon. Luckily I was smart enough to bring and wear my knee brace during this race and it was giving me no problems whatsoever. That, along with the running tights, made for fresh-feeling legs that weren't showing any sign of fatigue. So... I told my mind to go screw itself and off I went again. My mind listened for the most part but, once again, I started to wonder if I would make it to Mile 8 without a walk break. Since most of the race is little more than a fog I don’t remember much about the following two miles, but do recall turning on my headphones for the first time and wondering if that small change would impact my race in a negative way since I had been enjoying the sounds of the runners around me for this first 70% of the run. It did not, and so I moved through Mile 8 thinking for CERTAIN I would have to walk at Mile 9. Nope. Still muddling through and keeping track of the time to realize that, pending anything horrible happening, I would definitely be making this a PR race today. Mile 10 came along and I looked down to see that I had just surpassed my previous 10-mile PR by a full 4 minutes. WOW! How amazed was I, still, that I was doing so well. At Mile 11 I decided to take a walk-break – the first time the entire race that I had broken the pattern. I felt that, because I had basically 30 minutes to break my previous time, and I wanted to conserve some energy for the last 2 miles and not take a chance at bonking near the end, the extra relief wouldn’t hurt any. At 12 miles in I took another walk break and, at this point, was feeling ready to be done. Not necessarily because anything was uncomfortable or hurting, but because I wanted to see just what my finishing time would be. My Garmin had been off by about .17 miles for most of the race, so I had to mentally prepare that the last 1.1 miles was actually going to feel like 1.3. As I saw the 13 mile marker just ahead my heart began to pound faster – I recall being aware of this because I wondered if it was because I was running faster to get to the finish or because I was anxious about my time. Regardless, I rounded that last corner and saw the finish line just ahead. I looked down at my watch and saw that I had 1 minute and 30 seconds to break a 2:15 race – my previous PR being 2:20:38. Breaking out into a bit of a sprint, I crossed the finish and hit my Garmin for an official finishing time of 2:14:09 – a full 6 ½ minute PR, and 10 minutes faster than last weekend’s race. Normally just after a finish I’m pooped – I’m looking for a place to sit down, stretch my legs, massage my poor muscles and regretfully anticipate the walk back to the hotel. But not this time, no sir! I was all about walking around, holding my head up high, getting my picture taken with the medal, grabbing some water and anxiously awaiting Jim’s own finish (A 2:19:50 PR for him!) Throughout the race I wondered to myself what was it that was different about that day that made for such a good race. A few things that I could come up with were: The weather. Although chillier than what most people would like, it didn’t hamper my run at all and possibly did add to my performance. My running tights kept my legs from getting too sore, and my knee brace kept my knee from feeling any kind of pain at all. These three things, coupled with my determination to take walk breaks just every 2 miles solidified it for me, I do believe (well, that and the completely flat course helped). Breaking it up into two-mile increments didn’t make the race feel so long, and allowed me to set smaller goals for myself. Two-mile breaks meant 6 opportunities for relief (7 if you count mile 11) rather than 12 (there’s no way I’d walk between 13 and 13.1). Mentally, 6 breaks vs. 12 felt very do-able for me, and obviously ended with great results. I must say however, and I’m not trying to be cynical here, this PR is going to be hard to beat and I’m just hoping that I don’t feel a major let-down with next week’s race – the Nashville HM, which I know is going to be a hilly course. But… I never thought I’d ever break 2:20 either and yesterday proved that to be false. My splits for this race: 9:33 (1), 10:13 (2), 9:05 (3), 9:58 (4), 10:13 (5), 9:48 (6), 10:27 (7), 10:06 (8), 10:24 (9), 10:04 (10), 10:24 (11), 10:29 (12) and 10:14 (13) with a 9:49 pace for the .1 mile end.