2020 Creve Coeur St. Paddy's Half Marathon Race Report
For a race report, there won't be a ton to go over in this from a racing standpoint, but this was really a wonderful day for so many reasons. As you guys already know now, in a last minute turn of events
@ChiefD was coming into town this weekend and I was able to convince him to run the race with us. The schedule worked out perfectly for him to be able to do so and I was really looking forward to it. We really had so many ways we wanted to shtick it up and, in the end, I'm not sure we chose the best one, but here we are.
The temps and sun were glorious. Unfortunately, the wind played a little bit of a factor and this part of the city is in a valley where the wind is higher than other spots. I only live about 15 minutes from the race site and I'm familiar with the area as my wife and I have run there quite a few times. It was also a later start time at 8:30am so really no need for much commotion in the morning. Slept pretty decently, I was up at 6am, did like a 3 minute jog outside, did some beet juice, then had an easy breakfast with yogurt/jam/honey as well as a banana. Business done at home, loaded up, and out the door at almost 7:30. Met up with Chief, gave him his bib which he asked me about 17 times the day before to make sure I had it including a request for photographic proof, and then just took it easy until race start. I was planning on a 10 minute jog to warm up but that never took place. Starting temp was almost 40 degrees and would be getting up to 45ish by race end, so shorts and a t-shirt it was. I did wear gloves to start but those came off after a little bit. Chief doesn't like the cold as much so he was rocking some long pants and a couple tops, representing KC with his Royals shirt. More on that later. We move into the start area near the front and pretty soon we're off.
Mile 1 -- 8:13 pace (HR 146)
The most relaxed start to any race I can ever remember. Just kind of floated along with the other runners and this felt like a warm up jog to start. I was in front with Chief and my wife behind. After like 30 seconds, Chief yells to me "Don't worry, Yan, we're back here". I realized I hadn't even looked back to see how close they were so I just chuckled and we settled into a nice little trio. Chief and I in front with my wife tucked in behind us. We kept this formation for most of our time together. It's pretty quiet at race start, no one is talking except for us and we're just laughing it up. My wife has her Trekz headphones on and when she's responding to us she's talking REALLY loud and doesn't even realize it. More laughs from me and Chief. Everyone else must have thought we were obnoxious. Mile 1 ticks off uneventfully.
Miles 2-4 -- 8:09/8:08/8:10 (HR 159/160/163)
For some reason, the GPS was getting a little wonky here, mostly in mile 2 and a little in mile 3. I had my watch on lap mode to see our mile pacing and at one point it showed us slowing to close to 8:20, so I would pick it up and then it jumped to like 8:07. This happened a couple times going back and forth for some reason. If you look at our pacing, we jumped around a little trying to lock it in. So while I was trying to keep us close to 8:15 or a shade below, we ended up coming in a little bit faster. However, having run with my wife enough, I could tell she was really comfortable so I decided to just stick with it and not try to slow down too much just to get us back to 8:15. Aside from a little climb early in mile 3, this is a pretty flat section. Chief is doing well even though I could tell he was putting in decent effort. I figured he may struggle staying with us towards the end but I was enjoying his company at this point and was trying to keep it as relaxed as possible. At this point, he also realizes he needs to take off one of his layers. Shirts was coming off, I'm holding stuff for him, and surely my wife's HR was spiking while he's there shirtless. Mine spiked a little too, I'll admit.
Mile 5 -- 8:16 (HR 164)
This is the start of a gradual but steady uphill over a freeway overpass that lasts about a mile. As Chief alluded to earlier, he's used to slowing on uphills and picking up the pace on downhills. That's how I always paced as well until
@gruecd destroyed me in the 15K making me push hard and hold pace on uphills. Since then, I've trained the same way pushing hard on all uphills. As a result, my HR doesn't spike as much anymore going up. On this uphill, my HR remained in the 160's but I could tell this wasn't good for Chief. Also, at this point, is when my wife decided to work her way ahead. There was the 1:50 pacer (8:24 pace) that was running about 50-100 ft ahead of us all this time. We were talking about how this guy was going WAY too fast for that pacing. We were actually wondering if he was the 1:40 pacer instead. My wife went up and caught up with him and chatted for a little while I stayed back with Chief. This was where I was telling him how she has no discipline, can't hold it back, etc. He was loving it, I wasn't. Nevertheless, I decided to stay back with Chief for right now and would work on catching up to her later. I knew there was a steep decline coming up soon, going down to the river, and then the same short but very steep incline getting back up to the road. So I briefly split the difference between Chief and my wife and figured I'd let Chief catch up to me on the decline ramp.
Mile 6-7-- 8:11/8:05 (HR 162/165)
End of the uphill and then the sharp downhill to the river edge trail. Sure enough, Chief comes flying down and we join up again. My wife is ahead of us by a little. We hit the turn around, I actually slipped on the gravel going around the cone, but caught myself on my hands and got right back up. Chief is just a little bit behind me. We're coming up to the big incline soon in mile 8 and I know this is where I'm going to leave Chief and catch back up to my wife. That's why my mile 7 split was a bit faster as I started to try and close the gap to her a little bit. In hindsight, I should have let Chief know what I was planning, but he caught on and then finished his race the way he needed to. But I knew he'd understand. I also took my one GU at this point as I knew there was a water station at the top of the climb.
Mile 8 -- 8:24 (HR 170)
Right near the beginning of this is the sharp climb back up. It's a 100 ft climb over about 2/10ths of a mile. I hit this ramp hard. I actually picked up my pace and even finished the climb at a sub 8:00 pace. I caught my wife just before the top. Part of why I wanted to make sure I got to her then was because I wanted her to stop and drink water at this station. We get to the top, my legs were burning a bit and I could tell my HR was probably close to 170. Of note, I never once looked at my HR the whole race. I didn't care what it was. Surprisingly, looking back, my HR stayed pretty constant on that climb, which is a great sign for me. Anyway, we get to the top and a little tired and I make her stop and walk for 10-15 seconds with the water. That's the dip you see in the pacing on Strava and why this mile split was slower. But, I wanted to make sure I got water in with my GU and I wanted her to realize she can do this and still be ok. She's even telling me this is the first time she's ever walked at an aid station. We finish our water and get back going. The next mile and a half is a nice downhill so we can recover as we make our way back.
Miles 9-10 -- 8:09/8:13 (HR 170/173)
We get to the flat section again and we're approaching our landmark mile 10 before we can pick it up for the finish. Except the wind has picked up considerably and is kicking our ###. Just a strong 15-20 mph headwind. I get my wife to run behind me this whole length as I'm shielding the wind for her. For the first time in the race, I feel my effort having to pick up. I realized at that point that the first 8 miles felt really, really comfortable for me. It was barely an uncomfortably comfortable through 8. Here it switched to what I would expect a race effort to feel like, mostly because of this wind. We are by ourselves at this point with no one really ahead of us or behind us. We curse the wind a few times and then I see mile 10 marker coming up. Time to see how we can finish
Mile 11/12/13 -- 8:01/7:47/7:58 (HR 171/174/171)
I didn't even say anything but we start going faster and next thing I know my wife is slowly starting to float away from me. And I'm sitting there watching her and just enjoying the hell out of it. My legs are starting to feel a bit tired. I don't know if it's residual from my 5K from last week or working so hard on the climb or not doing a double digit mile run in over 2 weeks, and probably a combination of all of it, but I was putting in a solid effort just to do the paces I did. Truth be told, if I had a PR I was chasing or this was a goal race, I definitely had more in me to push harder. I could have probably kept up with her giving that kind of effort but I had a great day so far and realized I was completely satisfied where I was. A combination of letting her do it on her own at the end and not trashing my legs with a full-out effort kept me where I was. Despite that, we both started racking up some kills here at the end. Along the same line, I wasn't passed by anyone after about mile 3 or so except for one guy during the last mile when I slowed a little bit. That was an awesome feeling.
Anyway, the end of the race is coming around the lake so you can see the finish from almost 2 miles away as you're running to it. Good and bad. But I knew this was a successful race and it kept me going to the end.
Mile 13.1 -- 6:41 (HR 172)
I didn't kick until the last 1/10th of the mile. A little bit of a poosay move but it's ok. I looked back and saw this guy was trying to gain on me and pass me at the end as I was slowing a little in that last half mile. That wasn't going to happen so I had plenty left for a surge to close it out. But, felt great enough to actually smile as I approached the finish, not even close to having to pass out, and felt as good as I've felt at the end of a race. Not the way you're supposed to do it for full effort, but great feeling for how I approached this day. I saw my wife recovering and I knew she worked really, really hard at the end. Probably her best end of race performance ever.
Final -- 1:46:33 (8:08 pace)
79th/534, 10th in AG
Set my HM PR although it wasn't going to be difficult to beat my previous 1:55:40.
Thrilled with how that race went and how it felt throughout. So happy for my wife who was over the moon yesterday. So glad
@ChiefD was able to join us out there. I had a blast running with him. And, I felt more tired and spent after my 5K last week than yesterday's effort, which is a good sign overall.
Afterward, got to play a little poker then went out to watch Little Chief play some hockey, score a goal and get a beautiful assist then join then back at the hotel for a couple beers and some pizza. Meeting the rest of the family was fantastic and they are all not surprisingly wonderful. It's not often you get to meet and get to know good people and this thread is just a haven for that.
Thanks again for following along in our journey and helping every step of the way. Superb day yesterday.
I'm not sure if I'm going to race the HM at the end of the month at this point. I'll see how I feel and how things go the next couple of weeks. I know I can get that number down a little, but not sure I need to just yet. I'm ready to start working on our goal race. We shall see....
Been doing those in pt
