race report: my first half marathon

Donovan Rebbechi <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way as the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees,
fairly clear sky

Quoted message said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

Way to go! I am impressed. Not only with the scream, but
with your time. Was this race part of a marathon plan?
This equates to about a 2:53 marathon (but I'm sure you
knew that).

-Phil

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way as the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees,
fairly clear sky

<much snipped but very cool to read>

hey, congrats on the HM! excellent splits and great time on
the race. bask in the glow of your great results... and
start thinking about your next one. any thoughts of a full
marathon down the road?

Cam

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way

as

Quoted message said:

the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees, fairly clear sky

Wow! I didn't know you were that fast, man! What's your 5k
time? Or 10k for that matter?

Congrats on the choice of wearing the Tiger Paws for a
long race.

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON) www.allfalldown.org "The most
insecure people are the ones you see, putting other people
down constantly."

In article said:

Donovan Rebbechi <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way as the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees,
fairly clear sky

Quoted message said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

Way to go! I am impressed. Not only with the scream, but
with your time. Was this race part of a marathon plan?
This equates to about a 2:53 marathon (but I'm sure you
knew that).

Thanks! Because I'm with a running club now, my racing plan
involves the running all the local club points races (and a
few of the shorter races in addition to that). This works
well for me -- these races cover a good variety of
distances.

My main reason to do some other short races is that I think
I have an outside chance of an award in them (whereas the
points races draw all the fast runners, so no chance of me
placing in those). And because I like short distances.

I'm not really starting marathon specific training until
later this year, but the schedule fits in nicely with the
marathon (itself a points race) by putting in the Staten
Island half marathon 3 weeks before the marathon. The Staten
Half is usually what the local runners use as their big
"marathon predictor" (too bad the course was long last year!
boy did that [censored] everyone off)

As for predicting a 2:53 -- well, it depends on how the
weather is and all that. The "general purpose" multipliers
are 2.1 (optimistic) and 2.2 (conservative) which brackets
it at about 2:52-3:00. But I saw some people do worse than
2.2 last year because of a combination of tough (hot)
weather, poor pacing, inadequate training (hopefully will
not an issue for me) and simply crashing psychologically.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way as the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees,
fairly clear sky

<much snipped but very cool to read>

hey, congrats on the HM! excellent splits and great time
on the race. bask in the glow of your great results... and
start thinking about your next one. any thoughts of a full
marathon down the road?

The New York Marathon is in November, and I've met the 9
qualifying races + NYRR membership requirements -- so how
could I refuse ? (-;

My marathon training cycle will begin in June.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue:
Central Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes
the same way

as

Quoted message said:

the NY marathon Weather: 34 degrees, fairly clear sky

Wow! I didn't know you were that fast, man!

Slowly recovering/rediscovering my speed (-; The last 6
months has been the first time I've held down half-
respectable milage for any length of time.

Quoted message said:

What's your 5k time? Or 10k for that matter?

My performances have steadily improved over the last
few months.

Here are the last few:

11/03 4M 24:28 6:07
12/03 10k 40:11 6:28 (slow course due to snow)
13/03 4M 24:16 6:04
14/04 10M 64:03 6:24
15/04 1M 5:06
16/04 4M 23:13 5:48
17/04 13.1M 81:49 6:14

I figure this (the half and the recent 4 miler) puts my 10k
time just under
18:00 and my 5k at about 17:45.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Great race, Donovan! Congrats!

Quoted message said:

The New York Marathon is in November, and I've met the 9
qualifying races + NYRR membership requirements -- so how
could I refuse ? (-;

Plus now you've met the guaranteed-entry standard in the HM.
So you'll have to run it twice!

Again, nice job.

P.S. I'm gonna enter the NYCM lottery myself, hope to see
you there!

--
Brian P. Baresch Fort Worth, Texas, USA Professional editing
and proofreading

If you're going through hell, keep going. --Winston
Churchill

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

Well done Donovan. I'm still looking for my first sub 1:30.

I was interested to read what you *planned* to do about
hydration and what *actually* happened. It's my feeling that
unless it's warm, there's precious little to be gained by
trying to gulp down a few mouthfuls of water in a most races
up to half marathon (particularly if it's served in cups).
The actual amounts that you can swallow I reckon are too
small to be physiologically useful and may turn out to be
more of a hindrance than a help. I'll never forget the most
god-awful sidestitch I developed last year in Inverness so I
simply didn't bother drinking this year and don't feel
(although clearly I can't *know*) that I suffered in any way
because of it. Bottled water is much easier to drink on the
run and perhaps if it had been on offer, I might have taken
water on board.

Any, congratulations on you time. Looks like I've got a bit
of catching up to do!

Tim

--
Remove the obvious to reply by email. Please support
rheumatoid arthritis research! Visit
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justgiving.comspeysideOpen ↗ if you're a UK tax payer.

In article said:

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

Well done Donovan. I'm still looking for my first
sub 1:30.

Thanks. Looks to me like you could do it -- you'd want to be
in the 19:30 or so range for 5k, with good supporting milage
(50 or so for the half). So you're not far off.

Quoted message said:

I was interested to read what you *planned* to do about
hydration and what *actually* happened. It's my feeling
that unless it's warm, there's precious little to be
gained by trying to gulp down a few mouthfuls of water in
a most races up to half marathon (particularly if it's
served in cups). The actual amounts that you can swallow I
reckon are too small to be physiologically useful and may
turn out to be more of a hindrance than a help.

My experience has been that climate is at least as important
as distance -- a hot, humid 10k could easily produce more
sweat than a dry half. But the guy who told me I needed to
learn to drink is a former runner and an expert on the topic
(Noakes cites him several times in the hydration chapter),
so I wasn't going to second-guess the advice. I'd estimate I
got about 700ml in the course of the race.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

great job. I'm always jealous of those who run in NY. I love
CP. My first race in NY and my first half was Grete's gallop
back in '98 on cross training, and again in '99. Now that
I'm dedicating this year to running I'm out to shatter my
time at Grete's, focusing on half marathons next fall and
spring '05.

Wow, great job Donovan! Well-planned too! Do another HD
scream!! ;-) If it's any consolation, anything faster than
marathon pace drinking usually gets all over me, too. But
Big Congrats on a great race!!

Teresa in AZ

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon Venue: Central
Park. Course does 2 6 mile loops then finishes the same
way as the NY marathon

Splits: Loop 1: 6:15 6:26 6:11 6:17 6:19 6:09 (37:40) Loop
2: 6:14 6:21 6:12 6:15 6:24 6:04 (37:30) Finish: 5:59 0:38

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

but I still need to work on getting the water from my cup
into my mouth (and not on my shirt)

Cheers,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

I'd estimate I got about 700ml in the course of the race.

Out of interest, were these paper or plastic cups? With
paper cups I think you're just about in with a chance of
drinking some of the contents. Plastic cups hold so little
and are tricky to manipulate whilst running, I'd be very
surprised if you could get more than a 100ml down you per
cup. Now unless you're falling over water stations every
couple of miles, that's going to be hard to do which makes
me wonder if you've perhaps overestimated your intake.

Unfortunately most race organisers here go for the cheaper
plastic cup option rather than paper cups.

Tim

--
Remove the obvious to reply by email. Please support
rheumatoid arthritis research! Visit
justgiving.comspeysideOpen ↗ or
justgiving.comspeysideOpen ↗ if you're a UK tax payer.

In article said:

Donovan Rebbechi said:

I'd estimate I got about 700ml in the course of the race.

Out of interest, were these paper or plastic cups? With
paper cups I think you're just about in with a chance of
drinking some of the contents. Plastic cups hold so little
and are tricky to manipulate whilst running, I'd be very
surprised if you could get more than a 100ml down you per
cup. Now

They were small paper cups. Your numbers are about right --
I'd estimate about 100ml per cup with the exception of one
stop where I slowed down a bit and pretty much got a full
cup down. I took water pretty frequently.

I agree about the cups making this hard -- when I do the
marathon, I'm going to make sure that my support crew is on-
site with a good drink-bottle for me.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Race: Colon Cancer Challenge Half Marathon

[very coherent report went here]

Quoted message said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

Very nice! As others have said: I knew you were fast, but I
didn't know you were *that* fast.

Quoted message said:

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

I like this better without the element tags :-)

Quoted message said:

but I still need to work on getting the water from my cup
into my mouth (and not on my shirt)

I can definitely sympathize with you here. I still can't
drink well on the run. No matter how I crunch the cup, I
still end up with water on me, on my clothes (not a big deal
when it's hot), down my windpipe, up my nose. It takes so
long to get any water into me that I'm well out of the ok-to-throw-the-cup-
down area before the water's gone, so I end up carrying the
cup to the next aid station so no one will think I'm a
litterbug.

My quasi-solution to the problem is simply not to take water
during races that last less than an hour and a quarter.
Luckily for you, your half-marathon is fast approaching that
point :-) Good job!

Karen

Even at my modest speed (1.41 for a half) water is a refreshment rather than
a necessity on most days. It's sometimes quite nice to wash out your mouth
at about 15 k. That's all.
J
"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tim Downie

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Time: 1:21:49 AG%: 72.9% (just .1% under the 4 miler)

<Howard Dean Scream> Yeeeeeeaaaarrgggggghhhh!</>

Well done Donovan. I'm still looking for my first
sub 1:30.

Thanks. Looks to me like you could do it -- you'd want to
be in the 19:30

or

Quoted message said:

so range for 5k, with good supporting milage (50 or so for
the half). So

you're

Quoted message said:

not far off.

Quoted message said:

I was interested to read what you *planned* to do about
hydration and

what

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

*actually* happened. It's my feeling that unless it's
warm, there's precious little to be gained by trying to
gulp down a few mouthfuls of

water

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

in a most races up to half marathon (particularly if
it's served in

cups).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The actual amounts that you can swallow I reckon are too
small to be physiologically useful and may turn out to
be more of a hindrance than a help.

My experience has been that climate is at least as
important as

distance -- a

Quoted message said:

hot, humid 10k could easily produce more sweat than a dry
half. But the

guy who

Quoted message said:

told me I needed to learn to drink is a former runner and
an expert on the topic (Noakes cites him several times in
the hydration chapter), so I

wasn't

Quoted message said:

going to second-guess the advice. I'd estimate I got about
700ml in the

course

Quoted message said:

of the race.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Finished up for a time of 1:21:49.

Great time for a first half - splits looked veyr well
judged too.

Andrew

Donovan - a great result! You surprised me with that time.

Well done.

Anthony.