The race: Queens Half
Conditions: 65-70, hazy, humid
Time: 1:22:41 (slow)
Place: 34th overall, 15th age group (best on a team points race)
The queens half marathon wraps up a sequence of 4 races in
the peak part of my program. The other three were a 4 mile,
a mile, and a 5k all of which went quite well. But I'm
finding that it's no fun to report on races that go as
smoothly as these. This half marathon on the other hand was
more interesting.
Went to bed early the night before, had to get up at 3:30.
Left home at 4:00 to get to the place where the "race bus"
departed at 6. The buses were chaotic, but they got me to
the race in good time. Though the weather warned of morning
thunderstorms, it was thankfully cool and clear when I got
to the race. Did some jogging and a couple of strides before
the race -- my running legs felt great having rested two
days, I felt 100%. The good weather short-lived, it was
already warming up at race time, and my team mates and I
quickly realised this could make for a slow race. But I
really wanted a PR and a sub 1:20.
I had recently run a 5 mile tempo at a 6:20 pace under
similarly tough conditions -- warm though not hot, and the
pace had felt right. I should have taken this as a warning,
but I didn't.
The horn went off. I plodded the first mile. Jogged it at
snails pace. So I was surprised to see the 1 mile mark at
just over 6 minutes. Next mile settled in to a stable pace:
6:09. I was joined by another runner. The field was very
sparse, it was just me and this other guy. Some of my faster
teammates were up ahead. I made a point of keeping a good
distance behind them. Cat and mouse game with this runner
for the next few miles: mile 3 in 6:08, mile 4 in
6:08, mile 5 in 6:17, mile 6 in 6:20, halfway in 40:30. I
wasn't feeling worn out at the half way mark, but I knew
that I was more exhausted than I should be at this stage
and I needed to adjust my goals.
Somewhere along the way my coach yells out that I'm the 5th
team scorer. This seems odd since one of the "tier 2" guys
on my team is ahead of me and 4 of the really fast guys are
in the race -- but I had only seen 3 of these fast guys
ahead of me, so I figured the coach was right. While I was
on pace at halfway to beat my 1:21:49 from last race, I was
slower than sub 1:20 and my momentum was gone (that is, on
the last two splits I was not going to get a good time) so I
figured I should just hang on and try not to let every man
and his dog overtake me. This race wasn't going to be about
time anymore, it was going to be all about guts and
prevailing under tough conditions. The heat and humidity
worked in a subtle way -- I didn't feel hot so much as I
simply felt weak.
7th mile split came in 6:11. 8 in 6:13. This was good, back
on pace. But then 9 and 10 came in 6:33 and 6:38. I was
starting to wonder if I could hold on -- and I realised that
I was a sitting duck for anyone who was able to surge from
behind. Fortunately, it seems that for the most part they
were either too far back or they were dropping too. Some
were able to overtake me, I didn't try to fight back -- they
were going too fast. Giving it everything, I managed two
miles in 6:31 and 6:24, and the last 1.1 in 7:01 (6:22 pace)
-- not all that fast but good enough to hold back those who
held right back in the first half. Outkicked one of the guys
who overtook me earlier for a 34th place. Finishing time
1:22:41 with splits 40:30/42:11. More positive that I would
have liked (I like to run negative) but not lopsided enough
to really hurt.
The interesting thing about this race was the way the heat
worked -- it was not hot enough to really beat down upon
you, but still hot enough to divert blood from oxygen
transport to cooling. The end result of this is that one
feels very weak. Times were very slow for this race compared
to my previous half, with the more experienced runners at
least 2:30 slower than the previous race. The course wasn't
hilly. Lots of turns which may have made distance longer
(USATF measures the shortest possible route which no-one can
match) but it seemed like a good course for a PR under
better conditions. My place, 34th overall was a big jump
from my previous half (64th). Bob Glover's 1 second per mile
per degree (above 60) rule of thumb doesn't seem that far
off after all.
Anyway, that's enough racing for me for now. Time to just
enjoy the summer, do some easy jogging and bring out my
water bottle.
Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗