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MechEngDropout
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Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Posts: 10474
Location: Off the grid
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 Posted: 12/05/04 - 13:22 Post subject: Baton Rouge Beach Half Marathon *PICTURES ADDED*
With the training through the past few weeks, I was feeling good about this half. I had more training and much better consistancy than last year, even coming off a summer of no running. One of the few things that bothered me was that I hadn't raced since early May. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but I definitely could've shaved a good bit of time had I been more prepared. My last run was Tuesday. I meant to run Wednesday and Thursday but I had a sore throat and I didn't want to risk any escalation. Yesterday I had a little fever and I think I have a bit today as well. Luckily it wasn't too bad. My initial goal was under 1:30 (6:52 pace), but since I wasn't feeling tip top I had no confidence of getting it. Nice day for racing, with temps right around 50 and partly cloudy. I would normally go with shorts and short sleeves for this, but I didn't want to be cold so I went with long sleeves.
I lined up right on the line. Last year I was 14th overall and I expected similar results this year. For the first 3/4 of the mile, I'm right behind the lead group. I'm thinking wow, why are they going so slow? I can't actually be going as fast as the lead group should be with this effort. My common sense finally caught up to me and said that maybe I'm running far too fast so I slacked off a little and decided to see what the mile split was before making a decision.
Mile 1 6:21
"Ahhh crap. Okay, well... last year you thought that you went out too fast at a 7:04 and ended up finishing right on a 7:04 pace. Maybe there's a whole lot of race day magic going on?" I did some quick math in my head and decided that I would be an idiot to try to hold that pace. So I slacked it off for the next mile, hoping to get around a 6:50 and hold it for the rest of the race.
Mile 2 6:39 (13:00)
Still too fast. But that's good, right? I'm running what feels like an easy pace and it's lower than I expected. No, that's not good.
6:55 (19:54)
Alright, finally a mile on my target pace. All I have to do is keep this up for 10 more miles and I've got it. 10 more miles? Yeah, right... like that's going to happen. I took some powerade near the end of this mile (even though when they asked me what I wanted I said water...) and in hindsight I shouldn't have. Definitely not powerade at least. I still haven't mastered drinking on the run (especially out of a cup, I'm okay with a bottle) and it did more harm than good. Mile 4 went up a good hill onto campus, so I wasn't dissatisfied with the split.
7:09 (27:03)
Mile 5 is part of the course that I run almost every day, so I did a little better because of that. I was really questioning myself since I knew I went out way too fast, I hadn't been feeling well, and well, maybe 13 is just too much for today. It didn't help that I was getting passed by the marathoners who start after the half start.
6:56 (33:59)
Really started to feel the lack of energy in the legs on this one. This is still part of what I normally run, so I could've just about run it blindfolded. I started to realize that my legs just wouldn't hold out for the entire run. I decided to use the next 2 miles as recovery and hope for a second wind.
7:11 (41:09)
7:22 (48:32)
Alright, that sort of worked. I'm feeling better. Except the next few miles are the hills. I felt like I was really struggling with them, but one guy who passed me later on said I was smoking him on the uphills but he'd catch up on the downhill. I was waiting for the split to see how far off I was from my goal time.
7:15 (55:47)
Just under 7 pace. 1:30 is not going to happen unless I have a brilliant last few miles. At this point I just want to hold my pace right around 7 and just take the PR. Any miles over 7:04 and I'm looking for trouble.
7:03 (1:02:50)
Great, still under 7:04. I feel like I'm fading, but maybe I can hold on. Some guy caught up to me and said he was going to try to catch the guys in front. So I say sure, let's go. I stayed with him for a few hundred meters then let him go, it was too much (He was running a 6:40 pace and never did catch the guys).
6:59 (1:09:50)
At the water station for this mile they called out to me when they saw me coming, "Powerade or water?" I just shook my head and one guys says "Jack Daniels!"
7:05 (1:16:54)
Still right around 7:04, no big deal. Just keep on running.
7:22 (1:24:16)
Mile 12 I started feeling nautious and I had to slow down a good bit until it settled down. Once I slowed down, it was hard to pick it back up.
7:21 (1:31:37)
Some guy was chasing me down from 12.5 miles on. He was closing rapidly and I couldn't do much to hold him off because I was just struggling to finish at this point. Right at the 13 mile marker he passed me. I decided to stay as close to him as possible then right when turning onto the home stretch (150m) to kick it in and do whatever it takes. Well he didn't have much kick so I easily passed him and finished a clean 20 meters ahead.
0:43 (1:32:20)
Final time 1:32:20, a PR by 16 seconds. Average pace 7:03.
19th in Men and 2nd in AG. I lost to the same guy as last year.
It's not quite what I wanted, but I'm happy with it. Had I been healthy and "well-raced", I have no doubts that I would break 1:30. It was a good effort, and I know I'm in better shape than I was last year. I wasn't too sure, but this race made it known. I'm disappointed in not meeting my goal, mostly because I don't know when I'll run another half. There aren't many in the area and next year I'm planning on doing the full.
Oh, and the post-race food kicks ass, ALLIGATOR SAUCE PIQUANT!
Last edited by MechEngDropout on 12/13/04 - 20:55; edited 1 time in total
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That's a heck of a nice race!! Congratulations!!!
