White Rock Half Marathon 2009

My goal for the White Rock Half Marathon was 1:27.(6:38 pace) It was an aggressive goal but I had run this pace in an 8 mile race a few weeks ago so it seemed possible on a good day. Met Jayna & Brittany at Jayna’s apartment only a few blocks away from the race at 7 AM. We walked over to the start dropped off my bag and made a stop at the port-a-lets. Then we moved to the starting corral. I felt great at the starting line.
At the start I took off right on pace and soon found Shaheen as I was going to run with her. We stayed together for the first 3 miles. During mile 4 she started to pull away. I had my watch on autolap and my mile markers were not on with the course. I will do manual lap in future races. I was a little frustrated as my first 3 miles were below goal pace and I was still 6 seconds back. Gotta love all the mental crap we go thru during a race.

Mile 1 - 6:37 +23 ft
Mile 2 - 6:33 +64 ft
Mile 3 - 6:19 -32 ft (downhill)
Mile 4 - 6:38 -4

I started to really slow down during mile 5. It was a little uphill but not enough to cause such a slow down. I think this mile really broke my spirit and I need to attack and handle things better than that. For some reason I never really recaptured my energy level I had earlier in the race. I was also starting to feel thirsty even though I had no plans to drink during this race. I took a cup of Gatorade at mile 7. Just one of those days when I could not get my legs to go any faster and my energy level was low.

Mile 5 - 7:03 +91 ft (uphill)
Mile 6 - 6:43 +47
Mile 7 - 6:55 +15
Mile 8 - 6:56 -92
Mile 9 - 6:54 +52
Mile 10 - 6:45 -18

At mile 11 I was on the Katy trail and I heard the person tell me I was on 6:48 pace. I knew I would need just a little time to get a PR as I was probably right on my old PR’s pace. Mark K. was there telling me to go and pass those guys so I got on my horse and decided to go. So while I passed 6 or 7 people in the next mile I was not able to hold it. Got a little side stitch in mile 12 and I was giving all I had to hold a good pace at that point. Once I hit the last quarter mile I got on my toes and started to sprint.

Mile 11 - 6:31 -26
Mile 12 - 6:45 -54
Mile 13 - 6:48 -60

Final time was 1:28:52 for a 15 second PR. I am not at all satisfied with that. I have worked too hard to be happy with a 15 second PR. I think my training is fine other than I could go a little slower on some days and keep working on the speed work. The biggest change I need is in my diet. I eat way too many sweets, sodas and fast food. I need to cut that out and lose at least 6 lbs. I put on 4 lbs at Thanksgiving and it is hanging around.

St. George Marathon 2009

We caught a bus at the finish line at 4:45 AM in St. George and it was 55 degrees. We got to the starting line at 5:30 and it was 40 degrees there. We sat around bonfires until right before the start. This is the smoothest run marathon I have ever raced.
Mile 1 – 7:53 I started with the 3:20 pace group. Traffic caused this to start a little slow.
Mile 2 – 7:28 By now it was opened up and I was going very easy.
Mile 3 – 7:13
Mile 4 – 6:59
Mile 5 – 7:06 GU 1
Mile 6 – 6:48
Mile 7 – 6:40 Miles 2-7 were downhill and I was still going easy.
Mile 8 – 7:33 This was the biggest hill. ¾ mile long and all that hill training paid off.
Mile 9 – 7:38 More up hills. Miles 9-12 were rollers.
Mile 10 – 7:29 I could feel my toes taking a beating. Both second toes are now purple.
Mile 11 – 7:52 GU 2
Mile 12 – 7:26
Mile 13 – 7:06 Going downhill again
Mile 13.1 – First half 1:35:45
Mile 14 – 7:27 This is the first mile where we started to get in the sun. Great weather.
Mile 15 – 6:57 Downhill
Mile 16 – 6:51
Mile 17 – 7:11 GU 3
Mile 18 – 7:16 Got a side stitch and it hung around for 3 miles.
Mile 19 – 7:39
Mile 20 – 7:20 Last water stop for me. No more water needed.
Mile 21 – 7:11
Mile 22 – 7:35 Each mile from here on I got more confidence I could finish strong.
Mile 23 – 7:30 I still fear the flameout the last few miles.
Mile 24 – 7:21
Mile 25 – 7:21
Mile 26 – 7:16 Broke my heart seeing so many people collapse this late. Just people pushing too hard.
Mile 26.2–6:44 High fiving kids till someone passed me then I turned on the jets and passed then back..
Total – 3:11:49

So this was a very tough marathon on the legs. Both uphill and down. The big jump in mileage was the big difference. 11 min PR. Still have another 12 minutes to shave off to go sub-3. Dream BIG. Post race was awesome. Fruit, cokes, Bomb pops and bread. Bag check was the fastest ever. Then you go to results booth and they see your number and instantly hand you a paper with your official finish time.

El Scorcho Race Report – I signed up for the 50K and it started at midnight. It is 10 loops around a 5K trail. Night time is not my thing and it showed. The weather was very nice for this time of year. It was around 83 degrees at the start. Jayna and I ran it together. We ran the first 6 laps (18.5 miles) together at a sub 8:30 pace. By the 7th lap I was really tired. My legs felt great but my energy was very low. After about 19 miles I let Jayna go ahead and my pace slowed down to a 9 min pace. By the time I finished the 7th lap (21.8 miles) I decided it was time to stop as I was running a 10 min pace. My goal race is the St. George Marathon October 4th. I decided if I stopped now I could recover much faster and resume training again in a few days. Jayna finished as the first women in 4:25. Running in the middle of the night was a lot more difficult then I imagined.

St George Training Plan

The Start

So I guess I will jump into the blogging world. Mostly about my passion which is running. I am still relatively new to running but I am a fast learner and I have found it to be very rewarding. I started running in January 2007. I have learned from my running group, reading books and largely from the RWOL forum and specifically the 3:20 group.