Thousand Miles to Salamanca

The First To Fall

LOG ENTRY

Distance: 15.55 (2.45 mile warmup)
Event: 3M Half Marathon

This was the second necessary milestone in my overall plan to set my Freescale Marathon goal. The results would be scary either way: good or bad.

Things have been clicking for me lately. After my revelation about food, and my intense training I was set for something good. But I was nervous this morning. In fact, I didn't settle in on a race strategy until about a half-hour before. Do I just take it easy? Go hard? Blow it out? No matter what, I was going the first six miles according to goal pace. So, that's what I did.

The first mile felt super slow, but when it was all said and done I did a 7:16. A little quick because I told myself I'd do a 7:30 first mile just to get the feel. But, in retrospect, that mile is a straight shot. Mile two, it was holding back mode: 7:09. The next few miles were like that. A little on the quick side, just barely.

Mile 1-7:16, Mile 2-7:09, Mile 3-7:01, Mile 4-7:08, Mile 5-6:54

Mile 5 had a nice elevation drop and it was self-control to do a 6:54. At this stage I've feeling good. I know the course well, since we just did it two weeks ago and I know what's coming. More importantly, I know that the rolling hills are out of the way and the best, fun part was yet to come. I was feeling good.

Mile 6-7:06, Mile 7-7:08, Mile 8-7:05

I reached over the halfway point. I stayed on pace, actually a little fast, but was still doing good. I knew there was only five miles to go. Less than a 10K. So I let the momentum of the race start carrying me once we reached Burnet Rd. And to use the awful quote: "it was all downhill from there." Well, mostly.

Mile 9-6:54

I was trying to hold myself back still, but Mile 9 went by and I thought: Just 4 miles. That's a tempo run. We do those all the time and I handle them fine. So, I maintained pace.

Mile 10-6:51

I started feeling cautious on this mile, but once we reached mile 10 I knew that it was time to "Drop the Bomb," according to Gilbert. So, I picked it up. I cruised down the hill on Medical Parkway and leaned into the hill on 37th. Whipped around Guadalupe and was still feeling good. I was in the mode where I didn't think I could hold this pace forever, but I knew I could for three miles. That's nothing.

Mile 11-6:52

Just two to go. I knew it. I was off and the course was helpful. A nice downhill grade. Perfect.

Mile 12-6:40

I was feeling so good that I didn't want to waste any time at the water stops. So I didn't. I cruised by and was in full finish mode. I swear, I thought it was a 5K. My heart rate was 175 and I felt like I was in anaerobic mode. I got up on my toes to hit the hill hard on Guadalupe and basically sprinted on in to the finish line.

Mile 13-6:14

Final time: 1:30:24. It's safe to say, I had a good day. And I feel like I should be writing a whole lot more now. Because. Because when I started this project, the running thing, my goal was to see if it was possible to beat my High School PR's. And today, after almost two years and more than 1500 miles training, I did. I PR'd over my only High School Half-Marathon by 11 minutes and 2 seconds.

Sure, the half PR wasn't, still isn't, what I was/am going for in this whole project. But it's a step. The first step. It feels nice. Before I formulate my goal pace for Freescale, which I now believe I'm ready to do, I'm going to spend some time relaxing. The next step is to recover from this race. Then, work hard straight through the finish line of Freescale. No thinking, fretting or worrying. Control what I can control and stop worrying about the things I can't.

posted by Gray @ 4:30 PM