Today was the half marathon that I have been waiting for since the summer began. The conditions today were almost perfect for the middle of July. There was a light drizzle in the morning, but held off by the time the race began to keep the air cool, but damp. The half marathon took place at Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania at 7:30 a.m. Before the start of the race I did not see anyone who seemed like they would give me much competition, but then a fellow runner I have raced against before joined me at the starting line by the name of Jake Walker. We shook hands before the starting line and asked each other what times we were shooting for. I was in hopes of a sub-1:10 half marathon earlier today and he was looking for a 1:08. As the gun went off we ran the first third of the race side-by-side. We went through the first mile in 5:08, but I knew I should have stayed honest to myself and stuck to my 5:20 pace. I have been running quite well as of late, but I have been running 5k's and doing 400m/800m repeats with 3-4 mile repeats at the track, not the kind of workouts fit for a half marathon. I felt great at the start and wanted to see how long I could stay with this guy and maybe I could surprise myself. I tried staying on Jake's heels at the beginning, clipping through the 3 mile mark at 15:30 and through 4 miles in 21 flat. The next two miles my breathing started to increase more than my liking, and my pace started to slow by 6 miles, coming through at 32 minutes flat. By the 7.5 mile mark, I had lost pace with Jake and I started to really feel the consequences of going out at a faster pace than I had expected.
I had a fellow cross country team member, Leif Schmidt, bike the half marathon at my side when Jake was...well...just too fast! Leif kept me honest with my pace for the most part, but he really helped me out when he told me that he noticed my form was going to shit. With Leif biking at my side, I went through 10 miles in just under 55 minutes, but I really didn't break completely until mile 11. Between mile 11 and 12, I ran just under a horrid 6-minutes for my mile split, and I felt as if there was nothing I could about it. Probably one of my worst attributes as a long-distance runner is the fact that I run up on my toes. So as I am sitting here typing, it is not my quads that are in extreme pain, it's instead my much smaller calve muscles. Every step began to hurt, but I could not believe that this extremely flat, 13.1 mile course was taking as much a toll on my legs as it was. If it had been another 5k, I could have gutted on the pain in my calves because it would only last me for a little over 15 minutes. However, I didn't adjust to the half marathon distance, and I paid the price. I finally finished in 2nd place overall with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes and 43 minutes (5:33 per mile). Jake continued his grueling pace and finished first, for what I later found out was his first half marathon ever in 1 hour 7 minutes and 54 seconds (5:11 per mile).
I was a little disheartened that I did not hit my sub 1:10 time for a half marathon, or even come close to it, but I did run a personal best for a half marathon, and I dropped almost a full 3 minutes from my half marathon in Cooks Forest in late March. I will be heading back to the track later on this week to continue my "speed" training. I ran a 15:29 5k at the Fredonia 5k last Wednesday, and I would like to get under 15 minutes by the end of the summer. I have a little over a month to go until September rolls around to accomplish my 5k goal. September will be my highest mileage month as I prepare for my marathon in October. As for now, I am running a 5k in about two and a half weeks, with plenty of speed workouts in between.
I will call this a night since I have work in a.m.
Out.
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