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September 18, 2007
Crossroads Half Marathon (Fort Collins, CO) – Long Report
Well, I have now gotten around to writing the long race report from this past Sunday. But first I would like to say that it is Tuesday now and I am still feeling decent – not too sore, tired, or otherwise toasted. So that is nice.
Here are the detailed splits and ramblings about how I felt during the race, my thoughts as we passed each mile, the course ,and any other stuff that sounds sufficiently interesting to me.
Pre-race:
Since we are marathon training we did a long-ish warm-up of about 3 miles. Usually I barely warm up at all for half marathons but maybe this is a good practice! It was already feeling warm, so we were all a bit concerned about the heat. Usually it is a bad sign when you can warm up without additional layers but I had to take my long sleeved shirt off almost right away. However I will say that when I have a lot of pre-race anxiety that generally seems to mean that I will race well. Strange.
The starting area was a bit confusing – there was not a large starting arch with a clearly defined direction or anything so we all just went up the road a bit from the finish area and stood around. About a minute before the start they made it clear which direction we were going and herded us down the road a little ways to the line. And we were off!
Mile 1 – 7:02
Um, all I can say about this mile is whoops! We planned to start out at 7:30 pace. Yeah, this is not exactly 7:30 pace. I was really nervous after we ran the first mile so fast but the first half mile was all downhill and I did not feel like we were running particularly hard, so I guess that’s good! I did not seem to feel any ill effects later from the quick start.
Mile 2 – 7:20
Big correction here. This was good although now looking back I think a 7:15 would have been perfect. This mile wound through a neighborhood and although the race was mostly flat there were some sharper turns through here. I was really glad to slow down a bit just because I didn’t want to lose it later in the race.
Mile 3 – 7:15
This really felt like a good, sustainable pace. And since my overall pace is 7:13 or 7:14 per mile, I guess it really was! The course was shaped like a figure eight and through this mile we were winding back around towards the starting area. We had really settled in here and it felt good.
Mile 4 – 7:10
We did not intend to pick it up and I think this mile was a bit downhill. There was a very fun atmosphere on the course and a lot of the volunteers were dressed up in Halloween-ish costumes so that always makes getting water more fun. They had some weird sports beverage I’d never heard of at the aid stations, and that is generally bad, so I avoided taking anything but water. It was also warm enough that I wanted to dump the remnants of my beverages on my head, so that is another benefit of drinking water as opposed to some sticky sports drink.
Mile 5 – 7:11
Really started to feel settled into a comfortable but quick pace here. This mile was not so remarkable so I will mention that I was running with a new guy on our team, F., who is a really good time (and a very solid 50+ age grouper), and K., a friend I’ve run with on the team for several years. We always have a great time running together and I really enjoyed having camaraderie.
Mile 6 – 7:12
I may as well mention our 10k split here (one awesome thing about the race was that they had little electronic clocks at the 5k and 10k spots), which was around 44:45. This kind of freaked me out because on Tuesday I had done a workout wherein I had run two 5k’s in about 45:00 and felt like I could never run another 10k that fast. But it was all working for me on Sunday so I just wanted to stay consistent and see if I could keep going at that pace.
Mile 7 – 7:04
I really think this mile was mostly downhill. I did not feel like we were picking up the pace, and I certainly did not want to pick up the pace until about mile 10, but we were just cruising.
Mile 8 – 7:06
Same as the last mile. I swear this was totally downhill. I felt good. Half marathons usually start to freak me out at this point but I think my triathlon training and racing this year taught me how to compartmentalize different parts of the races so I do not feel overwhelmed. I mean really, if I can race for over 5 hours, 95 minutes is nothing, right? Hoo boy, talk about a skewed perspective!
Mile 9 – 7:21
This is where my pace group fell apart. F. took off a bit faster, and K. dropped back. I was kind of in no man’s land for a few miles and I also think miles 9 through 11 were a little bit uphill. I did pass about 5-6 people in this time so I do not feel that it was bad, just a bit slower.
Mile 10 – 7:22
Same as mile 9 for the most part. This was the slowest mile of the race for me but I am just thankful the wheels did not start to come off here. Of course I was pretty sure that unless I totally fell apart I would still PR, but it is always good to try for a better PR!
Mile 11 – 7:19
This mile disappointed me a little. I really felt that I was picking it up by more than 3 seconds! However, I did pass F. right at the end of this mile so that was a mental boost. I was really happy that I never let him get out of my range.
Mile 12 – 7:21
Same as above. Not my best mile. I think if I ran this race again next year I would try to pick it up more in this mile because it’s really pretty flat, and mile 13 is flat or downhill too. But I was still gaining ground on others and not losing any (i.e. not getting passed).
Mile 13 – 7:06, the last .1 - :46
I felt great this mile! I think it was mostly downhill so of course that helped. But I am really happy I was able to pick it up as much as I did and make this my third fastest mile of the race. When I passed mile 13 I started seeing my team cheering, I felt so great. I pumped my fist and then just focused on sprinting to the finish. I have never, ever felt this good finishing a half marathon. I was just so excited and pumped, especially when I saw on the clock that I was under 1:35. The overall time I clocked was 1:34:37, and the race had me finishing at 1:34:39, but I’ll take it.
Post-Race
I ran about a mile with F. and K. and called it a day. I think technically we were supposed to do a 2 mile cool down but I just wasn’t interested! My stomach was unsettled for the rest of the day, but by Monday morning I felt good enough to run an easy 5 miles. Today, which is Tuesday, I ran an easy 7 on a delightfully chilly morning!
Posted by barb at September 18, 2007 2:36 PM
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