MO Cowbell Half Marathon Race Report
Well, obviously my first HM and have worked the last 12 weeks preparing. Overall, I think prep has been fine and I felt good heading into this with the only concern being the weather. Since I can't control that, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to try and run as good and as smart as a race as I could and let the chips fall where they may. Had a little nap yesterday in the afternoon, got to bed around 10:30 after good fueling the last couple days and actually slept really well until about 4am. Probably the best I've slept going into a race.
Got up, went for a quick little 10 min jog, came back in with wife already awake and she slept well also (she went to bed early as she wasn't feeling well last night for some reason). Ate some breakfast, business got done, and we were out the door about 5:40am. It's about a 20 min drive and this is turning into a pretty large race (over 5,000 people total) and they recommended getting there by 6am. We get there, park, hang out in the car and then make our way out. Temp was already 70 degrees to start with a dew point of 68. The announcers prior to the race with all the stuff they talk about mentioned a few times that the weather was going to make things tough and that we all needed to adjust paces and expectations. Internally, I'm thinking my 8:00 pace is almost certainly out the window. But, I wasn't sure how far to drop it. So, I figured I'd start around 8:10-8:15, check HR, and see how things were going after the first 3 miles and then go from there. There's a 1:40 pacers and 1:50 pacer. I figured the 1:50 pacer would eventually be where I ended up but I started ahead of her (who was a smokeshow, I might add). Gun goes and we're off....
Mile 1 -- 8:09 pace, HR 148
Pretty cool to start the race since this is where my 5K was last year with the same start to the course and it brought back some memories from my 1st race. There are a lot of people here and I knew I just needed to sit back and start easy. I was able to find a nice little pocket and got off to a nice start. It was super foggy and this kept fogging up my glasses as well for the first few miles. It was pretty annoying but didn't impact anything else. First mile went by uneventfully and rather quickly it seemed. So far so good.
Mile 2- 8:05 pace, HR 155
Pace quickened just a little. I actually completely missed my paces for my first 2 miles because I was looking at my HR and didn't realize the split was coming both times. But, things still felt good and I was happy with the HR in the mid 150's. Another uneventful mile other than I felt like I was still holding back some.
Mile 3 -- 8:10 pace, HR 164
I saw this split at the end and was happy that I was keeping it where I wanted to start. I still felt really good but I did notice the HR creeping up compared to the previous mile. I wanted to keep it around here but knew that if I wanted to start to push a little, here was a good chance to see how it would go. Nothing much else to report here. It felt like these first 3 miles were a comfortable "jog". I was worried with the weather if I needed to adjust more but I was trusting the HR. So, let's see how things go..
Mile 4 -- 8:01 pace, HR 166
This mile felt really good. Not much change in HR and I was able to run this right around goal pace. I'm thinking "so far so good" and the plan is working. I'm running with a couple people here and I'm letting the pacing just take care of itself.
Mile 5 -- 8:13 pace, HR 170
Well, not quite what I expected but I also remember that this is the part of the race where pace will slow unless effort increases. However, I was noticing the higher HR and started getting a little nervous with that. So I consciously started to back it down and I didn't care what the pace would end up being. I knew with weather adjustment that even an 8:20ish pace for this race would be decent and I was ok with that. So I started watching the HR more closely. Still otherwise pretty uneventful and still otherwise feeling pretty good. I also hit the water station here and walked it to make sure I drank it comfortably. I also took my first chew right before the water station and washed it down.
Mile 6 -- 8:19 pace, HR 168
Pace slowed a little bit more but I was bringing the HR back down into the 160's which was my goal. It was a comfortable pace and I was with a new little group of runners and things felt like they were going smoothly.
Mile 7 -- 8:18 pace, HR 167
Much like the previous mile, this felt like a sustainable pace and HR. I was resigned to the fact that this was what the weather was going to allow me to do and I was fine with it. If I could finish under 8:20 pace, I figured I'd be quite content with that. I also took out my own water bottle here and started hydrating some extra to try and keep up.
Mile 8 -- 8:42 pace, HR 165
And this is where it went wrong. All of a sudden, while I'm still running with this same group, I'm looking at my watch and the pace is now like 8:45. But it sure didn't feel that slow. I knew there was a water station coming up so I stopped again and tried to get started going afterward and, with some solid effort, I couldn't get the pace much lower. What almost felt like a sprint was only 8:20. Something was going very wrong and my legs started to feel really, really heavy. This was not good. Shortly after that is when the legs started burning and I knew this wasn't good at all. I looked at my HR and it was only like 160. That wasn't it. WTF is going on?
I've had fleeting moments in races where I'm like "why am I doing this?" and "it would be so much easier to stop" but I'd push those aside and never really truly considered walking off a course. Today I did. I'm looking at my watch and seeing 7.6 miles completed and that I still had a long ways to go and I could tell this was not going to go well for the rest of the race. I started trying to think of anything else but I got to the end of the mile, saw my split, and my heart and spirit just sank. I knew I was done for.
Mile 9 -- 8:36 pace, HR 164
I did everything I could to try and get things going again. I tried picking the knees up. I tried faster cadence and then slower cadence and just anything else I could to get things back on track. I took another chew. I pushed and pushed and this was the best I could manage. The only saving grace was that there was only 4 miles left. Well, I'm at least going to finish this thing. And then I remember I still have this ####### hill to contend with. ####.
Mile 10 -- 9:14 pace, HR 164
My HR was fine the rest of the race. Even up the hill, it stayed here. Which is why I couldn't figure out what I did wrong (and still can't). The start of this mile has a little hill, then back down, and towards the end is the start of the mile long steady uphill. At this point I'm just doing whatever I can to hang on. My legs are barely doing what I'm asking them. And even though my legs felt like complete death, I otherwise felt fine. It was killing me.
Mile 11 -- 9:17 pace, HR 164
Well, hello hill. It's just a long straightaway uphill and you just see this wave of runners trudging up the hill. The sight of it is just as bad as the hill itself. All things considered, I thought I did pretty well on this hill. I was just praying that once I got to the top and hit the downhill that I could feel rejuvenated and pick up some pace and finish strong. I apparently didn't pray hard enough.
Mile 12 -- 9:00 pace, HR 164
Probably the worst part of the race. Early on, as I'm going down, the 1:50 pace chick passes me. ####. That's not good. And, as much as I would have liked to stay right behind her, and I tried telling my legs to do just that, I couldn't. I simply couldn't go any faster no matter how hard I wanted to. It wasn't about making it hurt. Then, after a little bit more time, I hear "Hi, Honey". My wife that I had left long ago at the start and was going to be happy just matching her 8:34 pace from last year caught up to me. While I had some relief that she didn't die on the course like me, it was also disheartening because here she was going to beat me at another distance race. And she knew I was in trouble because this was a downhill section and I couldn't get going like I usually do. I just smiled and told her to go finish strong. I didn't see her again until after I crossed the finish line :(
Mile 13.1 -- 11:00 pace, HR 162
I was done. I couldn't help it and had to stop and walk. A few times. One mile away from finishing this damn thing and this is what I was reduced to. I wanted to walk off and say "#### it" but I promised I'd cross that line so whenever I could I started back up running. At one point, this guy I had seen earlier on came running by as I was walking and he said "let's go, man, you got half a mile left". I'll be damned if that didn't help get me through the end of the race. I started running, stayed with him the best I could and ran the last half mile. I honestly felt like I couldn't feel my legs at this point. I had nothing left for any kind of kick. I tried and I think the best I could manage was like an 8:30 sprint. Woohoo??
Final chip time -- 1:54:33, 8:45 pace, 352/2824 overall, 40/157 in AG
Disappointed to say the least. Part of it is that I could have started this race at an 8:45 pace and finished a lot more comfortably. While I know the weather was some of a factor (was 75/70 at race end), I don't think that's what did me in. I really don't know where I went wrong. Maybe I didn't do enough of the really longer runs in my training. And I know this is a new distance for me. But man, I wasn't expecting this.
There's no question at this point that I'm simply a better shorter distance runner (5K and 10K) and that my wife owns me at these longer distances. Based on our training, I should have smoked her today. By a lot. And she was fully expecting that. I'm so proud of her as she matched her time from last year in awful conditions. With better weather conditions, I'm positive she can run this at the pace I was hoping to do.
I ate well and rested well this week. I took 3 chews, hydrated at every stop plus the 11 oz bottle I had. And it would be one thing if this had happened to me in mile 11 or mile 12 or whatever, but after just 7.5 miles? Ugh.
Oh well, the one thing I can at least be happy with is staying on that course and finishing. I'll take that as a victory. I'm curious what I otherwise did wrong so feel free to critique wherever.
Wish I could have done better. I thought of this thread often while I was out there. Crossing the 15K mark really bummed me out because I knew it was going to look obvious what was happening.