I want to be honest with this RR. There were a lot of high expectations that I set on myself, but I donked it up today. I was able to salvage the race somewhat which I can only attribute to all of the training I've done. There's no way I would've survived this run as my first HM without walking. I severely underestimated the hills and mother nature. This was not up to the FBG expectations, but I'm proud of how I was able to claw my way through the rough spots. For those that don't want to read on, I came in at
1:48:15 with avg HR of 182. I went out too fast and let my ego get in the way of running a smart race. I should've banked some energy over the first 7 miles, but c'est la vie. I went for it and know I didn't leave anything out there.
I went into this hoping to toe the edge and hold it there. I knew it was dangerous and had its consequences, but ouch. The consequences ended up being pretty fn painful. The course was a goofy course, but was kinda cool for the spectators. You ended up passing the start/finish area three times including your actual finish. It made the logistics very easy for the spectators, but that sucked ### running past the finish twice without finishing. I mentally broke the race up into 4 stages - first 5K, descent and thru the valley, the hill climb back into the park, and then the final 5K.
First 5K - You did a 5K loop that brought you back to the start/finish area to drop off the 5K racers. It appeared flat for the most part on the elevation chart, but it had some annoying rollers in it. I felt really good here, but got caught off guard with the elevated HR. I noted to myself that I definitely have a <21 5K in me right now. I'll have to attack that later. Splits were
7:44/174, 7:46/181, 7:52/181. Seeing those 180s scared the crap out of me and should've been my warning sign, but I let the ego get in the way and ignored it. I felt good. It was an easy pace. So I thought...
descent and thru the valley - I wanted to cruise through this and let gravity do its job. There was a good 1.5mi downhill into the river valley where I thought was going to be a nice relaxing flat run of about 3.5mi. Well, there were some twists along the way where they threw in some short out and backs up steep hills. Add in the relentless 20mph winds with what felt like 50mph gusts and I was starting to lumber a bit. Those took their toll on me and were the first signs that the race was slipping away. There was one steep/rocky hill where it felt like my knees were in my chest. I did everything I could to keep moving. I looked at the Garmin at the top of the hill to see my HR at 191.
Splits thru mile 7 were
7:36/181, 7:33/182, 8:04/185, 8:01/184
hill climb back into the park - I knew this part was coming based on the elevation charts I studied. Some of these hills were the same hills I ran at my marathon in May. Nothing super steep, but long and relentless. Then there was that pesky wind. Straight in our friggin faces. It was nothing but a survival game and it was ugly. Splits thru mile 10 were
9:03/186, 9:32/184, 9:38/184. I was all but demoralized at this point. I felt like I was crawling. But seeing my kids at 10.1 gave me a nice jolt. GB those little guys and their excitement.
The final 5K - This was the same loop as the first 5K which was boring, but at least I knew what was out there. I tried to get my legs to turn over as quick as they could, but it was painful as all get out. I had a short older gentleman drafting off of me into the wind for the first 2 miles which was really lighting a fire under my ###. Smart move on his part, but GD it that was pissing me off. This was nothing but letting it all hang out and saving some pride. Splits were
8:42/181, 8:53/183, 8:31/186 for the final push. The first 2 miles were dead into the wind. What a nail in the coffin that was. At the finish I wanted to puke. I was seeing stars and almost fell on top of my 5yr old.
Overall, I didn't hit my goals, but looking back at the course and the wind conditions and I'm pretty siked. That was a true test. I can't count how many times I wanted to tuck tail and walk some of the hills when the wind hit you like a brick wall. Granted my HM PR is almost a year old now, but running this course/conditions and still beating my old time by 3:37 is a nice consolation prize.
That's why I like tris. I get sick of stuff and tris allow me to skip sports around at will. And, yes, the BC showed how much work I have to do to be a decent runner as well. You guys are beasts.
Gotta bang out 2 easy miles this afternoon to just stretch out. I'll also run the first mile and last mile to see what I'll be facing at the beginning and the end.
Way to NAIL it SC!!!!!!
Glad you got through it, but live and learn. And never underestimate smart, old men. 
Great race, congrats!
