Dan told Tom:
Quoted message said:I've had the same experience pacing a slower marathoner -- it's
discombobulating to run non-race pace in a race.
I wondered how it'd feel to run a bit less than all-out today for the
Staten Island half marathon, which I approached as a MP training run 3
weeks out from my marathon.
Turns out it felt very good. I'm sure a large part of that was
physical: cruising at 10 or 20 seconds per mile slower than I might
otherwise attempt is obviously less work. But it also seemed so much
easier psychologically: so much less pressure to aim for roughly MP
(and in part let my results refine my notion of exactly what "MP" was)
than the burden of redlining for an hour and a half, where it's
squeezing every last second out of the old legs and lungs and whatever
is of utmost importance.
So I'd intended to turn the day into about an 18 miler, with 5 prior to
the race, the first 4-5 miles of the race also at slower pace, then the
last 8-9 at MP. Got delayed a bit getting to the start then needed a
second potty stop (hadn't arisen quite early enough for the coffee to
have worked its full magic - was a bit behind on sleep after a busy
week & an out-of-town wedding), so I only snuck in 2 warmup miles.
That seemed to argue for running more of the 13.1 faster, so I figured
the first 2-3 slower then 10-11 around 7:15/mi, which is about my most
bullish MP estimate/hope.
Weather a bit tricky: sunny and warming (to about 59F by my finish) but
strong winds around 15 mph with some gusts of 25-30. And much of the
course would be exposed along or very near the waterfront. So although
I'm often one of the least-dressed runners in any crowd, I opted for a
long sleeve shirt over my shorts and was glad I did, having suffered in
a chilly breezy marathon last fall.
Started slow, behind about 3000 of the 3300+ racers; cranked it up to
MP after a couple miles and passed around 2600 of them to finish #392.
More importantly, was pretty much able to hit my goal pace and felt
very strong the last few miles. Except for one mile where I was over a
minute off pace - it was hilly and windy and I lost a few additional
seconds futzing with a gel and salt and L-tyrosine pills before the
water stop, but still this minute anomaly was and is a bit worrisome.
I think I just really suck on uphills and will try to charge hard on
uphills in training runs these next 3 weeks, which hopefully will help
at least psychologically.
Splits: 8:15, 7:24, 7:15, 7:20, 7:25, 6:57, 7:22, 8:23, 6:50,
7:14,7:09, 7:12, 6:41, 0:49
Since want to run long (at least 18 in my book) and didn't this
weekend, I need to decide whether it's too silly to run that far next
weekend, 2 weeks out.
Anyhow I'm basically happy with how this race-as-training-run went, and
with how I felt stronger as the race wore on (corroborated by stopwatch
and the hordes of people I continue to pass decisively in the last
several miles) - it seemed like miles 10, 11, 12, 13 came up sooner
than I expected, which is a pleasant change. I'm not quite where I
months ago hoped to be but reasonably satisfied to feel that sub-3:15
is likely within reach, and 3:10 may be possible in perfect weather.
The post-race pizza at Denino's (on Staten Island) was the best part -
I can understand why they're often listed as a top-5 place, sometimes
even #1 in the city (though that's not right, nobody matches DiFara's
in Brooklyn).