Race Results

Well the big news for this week is that I completed my half marathon!   The weather was amazing, there was a slight breeze the temperature was in the mid 50's, the sun was shining, it was perfect running weather.  The race started at 7:30am.  The first mile went really well, I felt good, my legs weren't tight and the pace seemed reasonable.  I missed the first mile marker and had to guess my first mile at an 8:50.  I paid close attention to the mile markers after that.  My 2nd mile was also an 8:50 as was my 3rd mile.  After 3 straight miles of that pace, and the fact that I was still feeling good I decided I could pull off a sub 2 hour half marathon after all.  My 4th mile was actually really fast at 8:30 but my 5th mile slowed to a 9:10.

I ran 9:00 pace for miles 6-9.  During that time I had settled in with a group of 4 other people.  We lost the first one off our group between mile 8 and 9.  We dropped 2 more just after mile 9.  We had hit the 9 mile mark at 80 minutes exactly, 1 minute ahead of 9:00 pace.

I had taken a Gu packet at mile 7 and by mile 9 I felt rejuvenated and ready for my next gear.  I picked up the pace and quick did the math, if I could average 8:30 per mile I would just squeak under the 1:55:00 mark.  My original goal was to break 2:00:00 but I decided to set a new goal.  I focused on 1 runner at a time and worked to pick them off.  I passed at least 20 runners in the last 4.1 miles.  I averaged 8:47 for the last 4 miles and wasn't quite fast enough to break my new goal.

I finished in 1:56:04, the finish was on the track at Augustana College, I passed my last runner on the track and felt really good when I crossed the finish line.  My calves were pretty sore but other than that I wasn't sore, cramping, or overly tired.  Within a couple hours my calves were extremely sore, I dosed with Ibuprofen, took a 3 hour nap, then dosed with Granite City Sirloin Steak and Golden Belgian Beer.  By the time I got up this morning I felt refreshed, my calves are still a little sore but no more than the day after a hard training run.  I'm ready for the next phase of my training year.

My next few weeks are going to see shorter more intense workouts, more weightlifting and stretching, and a reintroduction of bicycling to my regimen.  All of this in prep for the Copper Creek Tri on June 26th.  We also have a bunch of traveling in the next 2 months.  We've got weddings in Milwaukee and Toledo, OH.  My sister's graduation in Des Moines, the Triathlon in Des Moines, plus a family reunion in Milwaukee.  On top of all that we need to find a weekend to go skydiving with my brother and his girlfriend!   This summer is going to go fast.

Here are some stats from the half:  I finished in 1:56:04 which is an 8:52 pace.  I finished 16 out of 28 in my age group, I finished 213 out of 524 overall, and I finished 144 out of 243 males.  I took 19768 steps, burned 2411 calories and 313 grams of fat.  My average HR was 168 with a high of 177 and a low of 110.  I was in my target heart rate zone for 1:51:19, I was above it for 3:11 and below for 54 seconds.  My average speed was 6.75 miles per hour with a max speed of 7.34mph.

Have a great week everyone!