*alternate titles
Ironman fitness lasts a long time
So there was a half marathon this weekend, but easily the best part of the weekend was the fact that two awesome friends (and former training buddies) came into town for the race and the whole group of us got to stay together at an amazing house in wine country.
Wait a minute... where is my wine glass?
The view was alright :)
Truth be told, I didn't have any hard goals and wanted to have fun with this one. I felt I had undertrained, especially compared to last year when I ran a 1:36, so if anything I was hoping to come in at a time that gave me a glimpse of hope that I might be able to break 3:30 at LA in Feb if I actually start training for it. I think this means I would have been happy with anything sub-1:40.
Fast forward to race morning, we could tell the weather was going to be awesome (and it was). Last year when I ran this course I charged the hill in the first mile WAY too hard and felt I suffered the rest of the race, so this year I ran much more relaxed and hit the first mile about 15 sec slower than last year. After 2 downhill miles, the next 5-6 miles are rolling and my plan was to try to keep a 7:30ish pace if it felt ok. When I let myself run by feel, I noticed that I was hitting a consistent 7:20. Sometime in mile 5, I thought to myself "I have no business running this fast based on my training, and if I keep doing it I will probably blow up. Oh well, let's just see what disaster happens if I don't back off." By the time I got to the hill at mile 10 I hadn't died yet, and I could tell I was somehow feeling way better than I had at this spot last year. Even though this was shocking, I figured I might as well take advantage of it. I ran the hill comfortably, and then mile 11 is net downhill and I clocked a 7:06. It seemed so miraculous to me that my legs still felt good, so I thought to myself "I wonder if I can run a 7:00 pace for miles 12 and 13." I kept trying to do math and I thought that 2 x 7:00 miles might get me to a PR, although I wasn't sure how much "extra Garmin distance" I had accumulated at that point so it was hard to tell exactly. By the time I hit mile 11.5 I realized that 7:00/mile pace is really hard (duh), but I figured the race is supposed to be hard and and I hadn't come anywhere near the struggle I had at points in the IM yet (thank you, 13 hour race). So I just kept pushing to the end. One detail I forgot from last year is that the finishing chute is deceptively long (almost 1/4 mile) and I had started cranking as soon as I could see it. Although sprinting at this point was really starting to get painful, I knew I only had a minute or so left and I somehow came across the line in a 1:35:37, a 59 second PR from last year!
This is what over-striding (because you started sprinting way too early) your way to an unexpected PR looks like! Thanks to Lois for the picture!
Travers had a huge PR!
(split 14 - 0.19 mi)
Why couldn't I execute like this last year?
Everyone on the team did so awesome, and we were all able to enjoy the wine festival afterward. And as an added bonus, team Running for the Win(e) got 2nd place, and more importantly, 6 bottles of (almost) victory wine!
Yeah team!!
Afterward we stayed in, continued the wine drinking that we began at 9:30 am that day, cooked awesome food, and enjoyed the views!
The next day wasn't so great weather-wise, but I was ok with that because (1) we didn't have to run, and (2) we need water. Even in crap weather, Healdsburg still has a certain charm.
Next up: in 3 weeks, I'll begin a 12 week training plan for the LA Marathon. More on that later!
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