For those of you who are still with me, here's more than you want to know. Just be glad that I'm not embedding any spreadsheets.
Training:
Training was good. I follow the official "run as often as you can get your rear end out of bed in the morning and as far as you feel like at a pace that won't kill you" plan. I got in about 90 miles per month for the last 3 or 4 months, which is as good as I could have expected. When Trent convinced me to run this race, We talked generally about trying to run it at a 7:30 pace (1:38:15), which didn't seem totally ludicrous. I did the Moonlight Half Marathon in May at about 8:35/mi, but that was at night, after a whole day of touristing, and there were hills. Oh, were there hills. Leading up to this race, based on training runs I was thinking that 7:20 would be doable (1:36:04). And then last Saturday I went out and ran 14 miles at 7:15 (1:35). I figured with other runners to chase, fans to cheer me and the excitement of a race, I should be good for even a little bit faster than that, so I set my target at somewhere in the 1:32 (7:01/mi) to 1:34 (7:10/mi) range. The plan was to go out at 7:10, pray that it went well, and then maybe push a little harder in the last few miles.
Pre-Race:
The race was in Libertyville which is about an hour away. My alarm was set for 5am, but I had trouble sleeping past 3:30. I finally got up, checked the weather a few more times and had my bagel and banana. 3 other guys that I know were also doing the race, so we all met at my house at 5:45am and drove up together. The parking lot is a few miles away from the start line so we parked and rode school buses over to the starting line. By the time we waited through the port-a-potty line there was just enough time to do a very quick warm up and head for the start line. I'm not even sure the warm-up was necessary, as I felt good and loose. I tried to wedge myself as close to the starting line as possible. There were about 1000 people doing the race (half and full started together) and I was probably behind about 100 of them.
First half:
I don't have a fancy watch that records all my mile intervals, so you won't have to suffer through that list. The start line was only about 10 feet wide, so it was a little bit congested to get through, but not too bad. I hadn't pushed forward enough and so was passing people pretty consistently for the first mile or two. I'm always interested to try to size people up at the starting line - do calf sleeves mean someone is really fast, or do they just spend too much on accessories? Is that guy in my age group? What about the guy in the Brazilian soccer jersey? (That's me.) Anyway, off we went. It was about 44° at the starting line and would rise to the low to mid 50s during the race. Pretty darn good weather for running. About a half mile in I caught up to Trent, who had apparently managed to slide in closer to the start line than I had. I checked with him that he was at a 7:17 pace and after a brief chat, I pushed on ahead to try and find 7:10. I didn't. I hit the first mile right at 7:00, and the second at about 13:57 or something. There were signs at each mile which lined up pretty well with all the beeps from other people's GPS watches. After the first two miles I had passed most of the people I was going to pass for the race.
We had a little group of 4 or 5 of us form for a mile or two, but for some reason, I ran away from them as I kept throwing down remarkably consistent 7 minute miles. Around mile 4 I hooked up with a guy who was doing the marathon and we ran together until the half marathon turn around point. I told him that I was about 30 seconds ahead of schedule. He said, "that's awesome" and I replied, "or ominous." (See, I'm still witty in the first third of the race.) I was 15 seconds per mile ahead of my best long run and 5 to 10 seconds per mile ahead of my goal - things like are either great news (you're faster than you thought!) or terrible news (you're going to die in the last few miles!). Having never attempted a run this far at this pace before, I was in uncharted territory here. At about the 5.5 mile mark, half marathoners started passing us on their way back. I counted that I was in 27th place. There was a timing mat at the 10k point (basically half way) which put me at 26th. I finished the first 10k at 6:56/mi (42:59.0, which is actually a 9 second PR at that distance!).
Second half:
I had a plan for the second half of the race: don't die. For the first half of the second half, there were lots of runners coming back the other way - I saw Trent 1 minute after I made the turn, and the rest of our group at later points. I continued to very slowly pick off runners in front of me, perhaps one per mile. It's a very slow process to reel in someone you can see one or two hundred yards in front of you over the course of several minutes. The race course was mostly on a crushed limestone path through fields and woods and vaguely along the Des Plaines River. There were some small ups and downs but nothing all that dramatic; it's a lovely course. Add in leaves that were just starting to change colors and the last wisps of fog from the night and it would have been a great trail to walk along and enjoy. Sadly, no enjoyment allowed during a race.
All of a sudden in the last 3 miles, it got very lonely. All of the slower runners had already passed, and at times I couldn't see anyone in front of me, or hear anyone behind me. In the last 3 miles, I passed 1 (maybe 2) people. In the entire second half no one passed me (I'm not sure that anyone passed me in the last 10 miles, actually). With everyone so spread out, it was a little hard to keep pushing toward the finish. Over the last mile or two I could see someone out in front of me, but I was closing on him so slowly that there was little hope of ever catching up. The race was nice enough to give us an uphill finish over the last 200 yards. There weren't tons of spectators at the end, but my personal cheering section was there with signs and pom-poms. I'd be curious to know what my last couple of miles were like time-wise, but we'll all have to live without knowing. I didn't even notice the official clock as I crossed the finish line. I stopped my watch at 1:31:03 - a full minute ahead of my best expectations.
Results:
My official time came in at 1:30:59.5 (6:57/mi). That put me 21/808 overall, 19/355 among the men and 3/35 in my age group. As the overall winner came from my age group, that left me with the second place award in the group. We were hanging out waiting for everyone in our group to finish, and not paying attention to the awards, so I missed hearing my name, but luckily I wandered over to see if by chance I had placed, and found my name on the list.
Overall I'm quite pleased with how the race went. As far as I was able to figure and remember, my splits were remarkably even (averaged 6:56/mi on the first half, and therefore 6:58/mi on the second half.) I think at this point I've written more than enough, so how about some pictures?
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