This is the third post in a series to capture 3 races I did before the Ironman70.3 in Texas. This post is about the “Honeywagon Halfmarathon”. Previous race report (5K Magnuson Series) and (10K Fit for Vitality)
The third race I did this year, was a half marathon organized by the Greater Bellinham Running Club on March 3rd.
Amy was in town and since we needed to rent a car to get to the race, we decided to have some fun and rent a Dodge – Challenger! We didn’t regret that decision. This car has even a timer which automatically stop your best 0-100km/h acceleration time 😀
This was a relatively small half marathon and I knew from looking at previous years that I could end up in the top 10. At the starting line I asked a couple runners what time they are shooting for to find out if I lined up correct and who my competitors might be. Couple of them wore all the same shirt and had a similar goal as I. Which was exciting news for me, since in a smaller race the chances of running with other is normally not that big. My plan was to run a sub 1:23 which should put me close to my PR from last year (1:22:42 in Pittsburgh). The conditions were windy and I was wondering how much it would affect my running time.
I started rather quickly at about a 5:45pace. But this time, I really wanted to follow my coaches instructions and slowed down a little. A that time a teenager overtook me with lets say not so smooth running style, I was wondering if she could run the whole half marathon this way. Then I remembered that the 4mile category also started with us at the same time. A couple more runners overtook me and one of them read QT2 on the back of his singlet. That could only be one person since only one other QT2 Athlete is out here in Seattle. “Greg!” He turned and laughed at me (I didn’t have the team uniform back than). We exchanged a couple words and strategy for the race. Since his training indicators were better than mine he had a higher average goal pace for this race. I wished him good luck and off he went! I passed mile 1 with 6:05, which was only a little fast. The goal was to run as many 6:10-6:15min/miles as I can and then start pushing towards the end.
A couple people started to overtake me and I started to realize that they might be doing the 4mile race. At the 2 miles point, the course split for the different distances and I counted 7 people in front of me for the half marathon, but wasn’t 100% sure if I counted right. (As I found out at the end there were in fact 8 in front of me). Greg and another runner which overtook me closed the gap to the front group and ran with them. I was left alone behind them with about a 20 second gap at mile 2. This gap grew up to over 1min over the next couple miles. Because of the strong wind I was questioning my decision to fall back and ran my pace instead of drafting in the group at a slightly higher pace. But there was nothing I could change now, besides running a steady pace. Which proofed to be very hard with the wind, so my pace was all over the place depending in which direction I would run compared to the wind.
At about mile 6 the group started to fall apart, or at least I suddenly saw single runners in front of me only about 1min ahead. It seemed that my strategy was paying off, I was still feeling great and based on a rough estimate I should still be on PR course. I decided to keep the pace till about mile 9 and then would start pushing it. Over the next couple miles I started closing in on Greg, which didn’t have a good day and was fading a little. But it took me all the way to mile 11 till I was next to him we gave each other some encouraging words before I started chasing after the next guy in front of him. He was only about 15 seconds ahead. Unfortunately, the next mile was on a straight street directly into the wind. My pace fell down to a 7min/mile. I knew I had to go harder if I wanted to get a PR. But this wind was brutal. If I only could close in to the guy in front of me to draft him… It took me almost the whole mile to close in and once I was there we turned out of the wind. Once I overtook him, he started drafting me. Well at least I had some additional motivation to keep the pace high. I started pushing harder and harder, but he just stayed at my tail even though we were running below a 6min/mile. When we turned onto the finish line Amy was there yelling and point at the race clock. I had only seconds left if I wanted to make a new PR. I tried to push a little harder, but there wasn’t that much left. I crossed the finish line and was happy that the suffering was over. I even forgot to stop the watch, I was so exhausted.
So I had to wait for the results to see if I made a PR. And I did, by a half second 🙂
I finished in 6 place overall with a finish time of 1:22:41.5!
Race Result (Scroll down to page 9)
Amy wasn’t just cheering, she was racing too. She started in the 4mile category. Which she finished with 0:34:36 in 5th place in her age group. Congratulations!
But since she had 8miles on her plan for the weekend, she just did the race course as a cool down again. Way to go! 🙂
Leave a Reply