Burnout - PT 8K Results

Missing a personal best time it isn't necessarily a loss as much as it is a learning experience, trying to factor in all internal and external conditions to see what one could learn from and overcome next time.  Missing it by a mere 1 or 2 secods, however, can be frustrating.  Especially knowing that one or two adjustments could have made all the difference..

Overall time:  32:11
Overall Finish:  13th
Pace per mile:  6:28.5
Age Group Finish:  4th
Splits:  6:06, 6:06, 6:18, 7:02, 6:39

It's pretty obvious by the split times where I fell off.  I hit stomach cramps hard on the 4th mile and struggled to recover before the final approach to the finish line.  I pin a lot of this on running out just a bit too hard, and part of it to not being able to push through the pain and discomfort on the vital stretch of the race.  The terrain was flat, but I think that might have made me a bit overconfident.  I paced it like a shorter race - which showed as I was crossed the 5K mark at roughly 19 minutes flat before falling off.

With no single-mile and 5-mile races left for the year (in Maine anyway), my attempt to PR every major distance this year will come up a little short.  Disappointed? A bit.  Discouraged?  Not at all.  I'll make every effort next year to PR them all.

8K = 5 miles = Last Chance to PR in 2010

In spite of my failure to achieve my sub-180 weight so far this year (the last time I was at that weight was about two years ago), I look back and see that I've probably had my best running year yet.  I've set personal bests in all major course lengths save for two.  This Sunday may be the last chance to break my personal best in one of those lengths.

Physical Therapy 8K

Sunday, October 17 @ 9AM

Course Length:  8 kilometers (4.97 miles)

Personal Course best:  N/A

8K/5-mile best:  32:20

Granted, the 8K isn't exactly 5 miles, but the small distance left shouldn't be an issue if I'm on the top of my game.  Calculating my pace in my best 5-miler (6:28/mile), I would need to finish better than 32:09.  Given the way I've been running over the past couple months, all it should take is some good weather and a fairly favorable course.  We'll see what happens on Sunday.

Meeting Expectations - Maine (Half) Marathon Results

Everything in this was what I planned to have happen - a clear, cool, dry day, legs felt 100% ready to go, and my goal to break 1 hour, 30 minutes was met with relative ease.  This in itself is a rare event.

Overall Time:  1:28:36

Overall Finish:  54th (out of 2,030)

Pace Per Mile:  6:45

Age Group Finish: 8th (out of 106)

The only monkey wrench I had in my plan was the allergies that had kicked in this past week.  Through part of the run, my sinuses swelled up to the point where I was sniffling and one of my eyes started to shed tears.  Oddly enough it straightened out and it never really affected my race performance at all.

Miles 1-5

Splits:  7:00, 6:39, 6:50, 6:47, 6:50

Split total:  34:06

I started out going slow, though not by choice.  Even though I wasn't far from the start, there were many runners up to the front that were not going fast at all.  (I am really starting to like the pace markers at the larger road races because of this.)  I knew this course so well, however, and when I weaved my way to the left edge of the road I had a narrow slit that allowed be to leapfrog dozens - perhaps hundreds - of runners.  I was still gaining momentum after the first mile and by the time I turned on to route 1, I had found a comfortable pace.  At that point my goal was to just maintain this pace until the end.

Miles 6-10

Splits:  6:56, 6:51, 6:45, 6:41, 6:43 

Split total: 33:56

Overall:  1:08:02

Miles 5 through 8 were on route 88, the road that had the dreaded rolling hills.  In the Marathon leg, this terrain would wear down on me and beat me up.  Luckily I only stayed on this road for a few miles, turning around after the first major up and down hill.  Once I passed back on that hill, I extended my stride a bit and started to take the race with a bit more aggression.  On mile 9 I had approached a guy running the half and we proceeded to make conversation through the next few miles.  I tend to be pretty antisocial during a race but the talk was welcome and we helped each other keep up a stronger pace than what we've been doing.

Miles 11-13.1

Splits:  6:40, 6:40, 6:40, :34(~6:40)

Split total:  20:34

Overall:  1:28:36

I hit a harder pace than what I originally intended but I was determined to keep it up.  (What I didn't realize was that I had a 5K at such an even pace - only when I looked through my splits after the race did I notice I had done that.)  I broke away from the other runner as soon as we turned to the Back Cove and defied my tired legs.  The most interesting part was that I was passing runners on every mile from start to finish.  No one passed me after 4 miles.  

I was happy with my finish.  This is a very familiar course to me now - my 4th visit to this race - but this was my first half marathon in over 2 years.  I never had any doubt that I could finish it, but I always try to prepare for the unexpected.

Lucky for me, the unexpected never happened.  It was a solid, complete race.