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13.1 Miles
I did a lot of training the last few months in hopes of improving on my last year's performance and to take my running level up a notch. My training was a bit incomplete as I wasn't able to do much distance and hill training. My longest training run was 10 miles and I only did that once. I did however, feel confident in running the race in under 1:50. I studied my race from last year (Avg HR, pace etc) and compared it to a few training runs I did. My running plan was to run miles 1-3 @ 8:20 pace, miles 4-10 @ 170 HR mile 11 @ 175HR, mile 12 @ 180HR and mile 13 @ 185+ HR. I was hopeful my pace would be close to 8min miles.
I arrived to the race about an hour before start time. While preparing for the race I found my Garmin to be dead even though I charged it the night before. Thankfully, one of my teammates (Thanks Mark!) leant me his HR monitor and Garmin so I could track my pace and HR. I felt pretty good except I ate a big breakfast and thought less would have been better. I did some stretching and a easy warmup run.
I started the race in the front of the 8min per mile pack. As always there are tons of people in they way. I stayed to the inside and found my pace all over the place, but not much I could do about it for the first mile. I was running about an 8 min pace and felt great. I decided to keep at that pace for the first three miles. It took very little effort to keep my pace. First three miles felt really good, my time was 24:20. I really disliked the bank of the road last year and this time I moved to the bike line which was pretty flat for the angled sections. Miles 3-6 felt pretty good and I was now running based on my heart rate. I kept it at 170, but did have to settle down a few times as I was pushing it a little too hard and was at 173 -174 a few times. I was now running next to three of four people for a while. They would pass me up the hills as I slowed a bit to keep HR down. I then would pass them on the downhill and flat. My fisrt five mile time was exactly 40:00. My time for miles 3-6 was 24:10 and I was a bit surprised I was still keeping my pace even though some hills were in that section. I was still feeling good on mile seven and was pumped to make it to mile 10 so I could go hard and finishing this thing. At some point, probalby mile 8 I could tell my legs were tiring a bit and it seemed the entire course was up hill. I quickly arrived at mile 10, and right away I could feel blisters on my left foot. No problem, I can handle those for three miles. My hamstrings felt pretty dead at this point, it was strange to have gone from feeling amazing to having a painful blister and my legs going dead in a half mile stretch.
At mile 10 I knew the pain would begin as I had to speed up. I made the climb at this mile and was feeling tired. I bumped my HR up to 175 and was doing well. On Mile 11 I tried to kick it up to 180 but had a hard time doing that. Then I hit the long horrible hill and my HR shot up. I felt really slow up the hill. I was hurting and felt very nautious at this point, but I knew it was almost over and this was the last of the hills (sort of). I cruised down the other side. I don't have the data, but mile 10 time was 7:35. I'm not sure on my mile 11 time. I hit mile 12 and was really hurting. It took all I had to keep pushing. I kept pushing, and saw the last hill before the finish. I had to pick the sign on the hill as a goal, as the top of the hill made me ill to think about climbing. I didn' thave much left. I heard Jill, Mike and maybe others cheering me on. That helped a bit. I crested the hill and crossed the finish. My finish time was 146:04. I was very close to puking, but walked for a few minutes away from the finish crowd and started to feel better. I made my way to get water and some oranges. My legs took a serious beating, especially my hamstrings. So some really sore legs and a big blister, not too bad. I am very happy with my time as it was 10 minutes faster than last year.
13.1 Miles
I did a lot of training the last few months in hopes of improving on my last year's performance and to take my running level up a notch. My training was a bit incomplete as I wasn't able to do much distance and hill training. My longest training run was 10 miles and I only did that once. I did however, feel confident in running the race in under 1:50. I studied my race from last year (Avg HR, pace etc) and compared it to a few training runs I did. My running plan was to run miles 1-3 @ 8:20 pace, miles 4-10 @ 170 HR mile 11 @ 175HR, mile 12 @ 180HR and mile 13 @ 185+ HR. I was hopeful my pace would be close to 8min miles.
I arrived to the race about an hour before start time. While preparing for the race I found my Garmin to be dead even though I charged it the night before. Thankfully, one of my teammates (Thanks Mark!) leant me his HR monitor and Garmin so I could track my pace and HR. I felt pretty good except I ate a big breakfast and thought less would have been better. I did some stretching and a easy warmup run.
I started the race in the front of the 8min per mile pack. As always there are tons of people in they way. I stayed to the inside and found my pace all over the place, but not much I could do about it for the first mile. I was running about an 8 min pace and felt great. I decided to keep at that pace for the first three miles. It took very little effort to keep my pace. First three miles felt really good, my time was 24:20. I really disliked the bank of the road last year and this time I moved to the bike line which was pretty flat for the angled sections. Miles 3-6 felt pretty good and I was now running based on my heart rate. I kept it at 170, but did have to settle down a few times as I was pushing it a little too hard and was at 173 -174 a few times. I was now running next to three of four people for a while. They would pass me up the hills as I slowed a bit to keep HR down. I then would pass them on the downhill and flat. My fisrt five mile time was exactly 40:00. My time for miles 3-6 was 24:10 and I was a bit surprised I was still keeping my pace even though some hills were in that section. I was still feeling good on mile seven and was pumped to make it to mile 10 so I could go hard and finishing this thing. At some point, probalby mile 8 I could tell my legs were tiring a bit and it seemed the entire course was up hill. I quickly arrived at mile 10, and right away I could feel blisters on my left foot. No problem, I can handle those for three miles. My hamstrings felt pretty dead at this point, it was strange to have gone from feeling amazing to having a painful blister and my legs going dead in a half mile stretch.
At mile 10 I knew the pain would begin as I had to speed up. I made the climb at this mile and was feeling tired. I bumped my HR up to 175 and was doing well. On Mile 11 I tried to kick it up to 180 but had a hard time doing that. Then I hit the long horrible hill and my HR shot up. I felt really slow up the hill. I was hurting and felt very nautious at this point, but I knew it was almost over and this was the last of the hills (sort of). I cruised down the other side. I don't have the data, but mile 10 time was 7:35. I'm not sure on my mile 11 time. I hit mile 12 and was really hurting. It took all I had to keep pushing. I kept pushing, and saw the last hill before the finish. I had to pick the sign on the hill as a goal, as the top of the hill made me ill to think about climbing. I didn' thave much left. I heard Jill, Mike and maybe others cheering me on. That helped a bit. I crested the hill and crossed the finish. My finish time was 146:04. I was very close to puking, but walked for a few minutes away from the finish crowd and started to feel better. I made my way to get water and some oranges. My legs took a serious beating, especially my hamstrings. So some really sore legs and a big blister, not too bad. I am very happy with my time as it was 10 minutes faster than last year.
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