January 27, 2008: 3M Half Marathon - Nice day for a PR!

     My quads are absolutely trashed, but that's a good thing, isn’t it? It means I raced hard and left everything on the course. On top of laying it on the line, I came out with a personal best; a great way to start a Sunday.

     This morning, I raced in the 3M Half Marathon, a very popular running race in Austin. It’s known for its fast course and tough competition. I love that race. It’s a great checkpoint for my fitness early in the year from which we can see some indications for the coming season. I can also compare my results to past races to examine year over year improvements. I hadn’t run an open half marathon in a couple years so I was eager to take a crack at my past personal best time. I ended with a 1:11:52 or a 5:29 min/mile pace, a three minute improvement over my last half marathon.

     We met at Derick and Kelly’s house at 5:30am to carpool to the start line. The weather was really nice for running. It was clear and in the high 40s, a respite from the rainy low 30s we had seen all week. After a nice easy warm-up and some strides, I found some friends and the start line and tucked in behind the couple lines of Kenyans. Of course I made several comments about my plan to out with the Kenyans as well as talked some obligatory trash to my buddies (things like “I hope you brought your ‘A’ game, because I’m bringing the thunder”). It helps break the nervous energy at the start line.

     As always, the race strategy was to start easy and then ease into it…..you’d think after years of running, that I would learn that I never follow that plan. Richie and I rolled through mile one at 5:21, a bit faster than planned. “Okay, you started at that pace, now you have to hold it.” I often think in third person to myself in races. I guess it’s a disassociation strcope with the pain.

     Richie and I began rolling with the female Kenyans (the elite males had dropped us pretty much at the start line). After mile two, the elastic broke and I officially popped off the back of that pack. In actuality, I had increased my pace by a couple seconds per mile, but the pack had picked it up even more. The game then quickly becomes, “let’s see how close I can keep them, and maybe after mile six, I can make a charge back.” A little wishful thinking never hurt anyone.  Miles 3-5 are predominantly downhill with a couple steeper pitches. Everyone opens their strides to take advantage of the terrain. Coming out of those miles, I realized my legs, really my quads, were completely smashed. As I rolled through 10K and saw that I had just run my 10K personal best (in the beginning of a half marathon – 32:50-something), I knew the second half was going to be a real sufferfest.

     In the second half of the race, my pace slacked from the first half (only by about 8 seconds per mile, but it felt like a lot more); retribution for an aggressive first half. But hey, how can we find our limits if we don’t test them and push ourselves out of our comfort zone. The remaining miles were a bit of a blur. You get to this point where you really wonder if you’re going to have to stop because you feel like you’re going to just blow up. Then you realize that you’ve felt this way in every race where you’ve pushed yourself and somehow you made it every other time, so this time won’t be any different. In that case, I’ve found it’s sometimes best to metaphorically roll your eyes back in your head and go. As soon as you cross the finish line, you forget the pain from the last few miles.

     If you want to get faster, you have to learn to hurt yourself, period! So as I hobbled to the coffee shop to write this entry, I was satisfied with my 3M; great way to start the day, a great way to start the 2008 season.

Pat