Finding my running legs after a few years off is an evolution not a revolution. Growing up as a runner I have a particular view in my mind of what fast is and this somethimes works against me.
My idea of fast is the vision I have in my mind when I was in high school and college and running at an elite level. Training runs day after day at sub 6 minute mile pace and racing 10k's at 5 min pace and 10 milers in the low 5's.
So as I refocused on running in my early 30's I got a wake up call which I really never did get over at that time. Now in my 40's I going through a similar experience but this time it's different as I'm treating it as a process. I actually believe I can run fast again, no not 20 years old fast because lets face it I haven't kept the machine well oiled over all these years and well I'm older but I do believe I can be very competitve for my age and can get back closer to the speeds I was running in my early 20's than I did in my early 30's.
This weekend I took my stab at my annual early season half marathon test. Just to see where I'm at. I've done a half each year for the past couple of years a couple weeks before my first tri of the season and this year I was back at Capital City Half Marathon. Just a quick plug for this race. It's a great race. I've done the Marathon twice and the half twice it's a well organized moderate sized race which always draws some fast runners and I haven't had a really bad weather day yet. It's highly recommended.
Two years ago I did this race and finished in 1:27:51, last year I did the Kirkland Half Marathon and finished in 1:25:10 so this year the goal was to run 1:23-1:24 in keeping with the process and journey. My run training has been great I've been getting in a good diet of long aerobic runs as well as some moderate distance hard tempo (think 1/2 marathon race pace) and this year I'm back on the track with short speed work sessions (miles, 800m, 400m, 200m intervals) above all I've been healthy and injury free so I've been consistent in my training.
The race conditions were absolutely perfect sunny, no wind, and 50 degrees and warming for the 7:45am start. The start was very orderly in fact there wasn't any jostling to be up front which is unusual. At the gun we headed off and I just fell into a very easy feeling pace. My goal is always to just run like I'm jogging at the beginning of a half and that usually means I'm only going out a little faster than I should. Mile 1 split was a 6:12 which was a little faster than I had hoped but it felt effortless. I backed off a little and fell into a group for the next few miles. I could count my place at mile 3 I was in 20th but was already about 2 min off the leaders.
I continued to roll along until a little hill at mile 5 where I picked up a couple of places. I started to pick the pace up after mile 5 which was a little earlier than I planned but I felt great and the pace was still comfortable. I sucked down my Blueberry Pomogrante GU Roctane at 7 miles for that little boost in the second half this stuff rocks.
At mile 8 I focused on a significant pace pickup and picked out a couple of guys about 5 places ahead of me that I was going to try an catch by the finish they were about 300 yards ahead of me. The next mile was 5:53 with a slight downhill section then that was immediately followed by a 3/4 of a mile long hill and I cruised up the hill to finish the next mile in 6:29 during which I passed 3 of the guys I was trying to catch. The next couple miles were rolling and I just tried to close on the guy ahead of me. With a mile and half to go we made the final turn towards the finish and I started to push after the runner ahead of me. I caught and passed him with just under a mile to go. I backed off just a bit after passing him and he caught me again and pulled even but I could tell he was on the edge. As we came to another bend in the road I knew that would be 800 meters and I knew you could see the finish arch from there. As soon as I saw the arch I started my final kick and pulled away from the guy. I held the kick all the way to the finish and finished up the last 1.1 miles at sub 5:50 pace.
I was very happy with my race. Negative split in the second half by almost 2 minutes, no real blow up miles, a great race strategy and a final time of 1:22:46. I ended up 10th overall and 2nd in my age group. The only downside was some blisters. I was racing in some new racing flats which may be a little too big but they are comfortable overall and I'll say they I would recommend them, great cushioning, support and a nice snug racing flat fit. The new KSwiss K Ona. I think they run about 1 shoe size smaller than Asics (I wear 9.5 in Asics but probably need an 8.5 in the KSwiss but I was running in size 9's).
This race gives me a good boost of confidence going into the little Issaquah Sprint Tri in two weeks and Ironman 70.3 Boise in 4 weeks. I'm hoping to post a really solid even performance in Boise. S
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