Thousand Miles to Salamanca

ATT Half Marathon

LOG ENTRY

Distance: 16 miles (2.5 warmup. 13.1 mile run, .4 or so cool down)

Race day. I'd been excited leading up to this one. Perfect morning on Marathon Sunday here in Austin. Much better than last year. And a much better course.

Woke at 5:00AM, had a banana and a glass of water for breakfast. I knew I should have eaten more, but figured I'd be good. Just didn't want to force down another banana. Note: go grocery shopping.

Ran from the house to RunTex where I met up with Gilbert and crew. Most seemed excited. Some nervous. We ran for about a mile and went through all our drills. My legs did not feel good this morning but the drills shook 'em out a little.

Then, it was the walk over to the start. As soon as we whipped around that corner onto Congress it was so exciting. People everywhere, music, the whole thing. I made my way through to the 3:00 pace group and stood for about 10-minutes before start. The race started right on time.

My strategy going into this was to stick with the 3:00 guys until the half turns onto Windsor. The first mile was easy, considering the hill and was able to keep them in sight. Then, it seemed they were picking it up. In fact, according to my calculations, they clicked off a 6:30 something around mile 3. Yikes. But I stuck to my own pace and they must've slowed because I caught up. Kind of zoned out for a while until around mile 6.

Much to my surprise, and it really was a surprise, I passed the 10K mark at around 42:10, which is a 15 second "Modern" PR. Then, shortly after, Bernard was handing out Accelerade bottles to Gazelles. Much needed. It was so nice to be able to drink what I wanted for the next two miles.

As we were moving along Lake Austin Blvd., I used the turn onto Enfield as a milestone. I was getting tired, but thought "Make that turn and you're at least working your way back."

Enfield was more of a gradual incline than I remembered, but I was still able to hang relatively close to the pacers. Don't remember much, but saw the 10-mile mats, looked at the time, and saw that my split was 1:09:09 or something like that. Another PR -- over the Girl Scout 10-Miler which was 1:09:29.

Once we turned onto Enfield, the hills started to get to me. I dropped off pace slightly and remember thinking: "I'm sure as hell glad I'm not doing the full today." Turned off onto Windsor and was flirting with "Cruise Mode." Seeing the ARC guys--Thanks Muna--gave me a little push.

Windsor was a nice downhill, until we went under MoPac. I didn't realize how steep it was back up. I felt it and definitely lost some time. I knew Thon would be out there and looking for him kept me on pace. He had an emergency Eneverit waiting and I knew I needed it. Thanks, man! Gulped it down, and made it to Enfield. Boy, did that hill suck.

Nice thing was, though, it was just a jump through the capital and a trek through the Congress Avenue Mile course and it'd be over. Looked down at my watch on Congress and saw the clock hit 1:30. My goal. But the finish was still about a quarter mile away. Came across in 1:31:37. I'll take it.

This race was a good indicator of where I am. My assessment is that I'm not quite in racing shape. I suppose I could have gutted it out better in the final hills. I also don't have much endurance right now for longer distances past 13. That's what this spring's for. Lots of endurance runs, pace runs and some tempo runs.

I'm looking forward to a great spring season. Especially considering how awesome some of the Gazelles did in the full marathon. They were inspiring. Also, congrats to Paul for busting 4 hours in his first marathon!

Anyway, it's going to be a good spring. I'm getting some motivation back.

Labels: Race

posted by Gray @ 6:04 PM