2014 Clearwater Half Marathon
Testing My Endurance
In my first race after North Coast 24, my first ultra marathon, I ran my first 5K of the year to test my fitness and speed over the shorter distance. I had expected to run about 27:30-27:45 though I thought fitness-wise I might be capable of running as fast as 26:30. I also thought that I could be as slow as 28:30, since I hadn't had time to do much in the way of 5K type training. I surprised myself with an exceptionally strong, fast last kilometer and finish for a time of 26:50, my fastest in over three years. This race would test my strength and endurance. I didn't have much to guide me in expectations. My long runs still were a struggle and I included walk breaks in about half of them. Coming into the race rested I was confident of running sub-2:30, but doubtful that a sub-2:10 was possible despite calculator equivalents well under that based on my 5K time. That gave me a wide range of twenty minutes, but something around an 11:00 pace seemed to be most reasonable given the course with its two bridges going out and coming back. I was quite concerned about the last bridge coming as it did only a mile from the finish.
I began race preparations with a 13.7 mile run just 8 days before the race with the intention of cutting back mileage, but including a short progression run early in the week and some one minute pick ups later in the week before a day off for travel and a short, easy warm up the day before the race. That plan didn't last past the first day. Saturday's long run left me more tired than expected, so Monday's progression run was transformed into a fartlek run with walk breaks. After an easy recovery day, Wednesday eased into an unscheduled rest day while I was busy with laundry, packing, and last minute activities getting ready for the trip. It wasn't until Thursday that I finally got in a little pace or tempo work, but limited it just a mile of the short run.
Friday was my travel day and supposedly a rest day. Saturday was looking to be busier than originally intended with a tight schedule, so on a whim I headed out for a mile and a half shake out run just to loosed up and get the travel stiffness out of my legs. That turned out to be a good decision, because I had no time Saturday to run. The drive up to Crystal River for the Manatee Festival and lunch with a friend was longer than expected. After lunch and riding out to Three Sisters Springs to see the manatees, it was late enough that I had no time to even stop at my hotel room before driving to Maggiano's for dinner with more friends from the Runner's World and RunningAhead forums and Facebook including Lara, her son Christian, and Damaris. It was a great day for sightseeing and visiting with friends, but poor preparation for a half marathon the next morning. I spent about five hours in the car and it took a toll on me.
I left a request at the front desk for a 5:30 am wake up call. I didn't need it. I finally gave up trying to sleep around 4:45 am and checked out before the requested wake up call. That at least gave me time to find a place to grab breakfast. Of all the possibilities that I'm sure were available, I ended up at McDonald's for pancakes and coffee. I took the coffee with me and nursed it while sitting in the car after finding a parking spot near packet and chip pick up. It was cold even by my standards for standing around pre-race. The poor Floridians were bundled up like it was sub-freezing. Meanwhile I had an hour before the race was scheduled to start. Now and then I'd get out of the car to jog up and down the parking lot to get the stiffness from yesterday's driving worked out, but nothing resembling a real warm up. With a field of close to 2,000 for the three races, I was pretty sure the first half mile or more would be crowded and slow enough that it would serve as a warm-up.
One of the times I was standing in the parking lot Lara ran by, so I followed her and discovered there were heaters set out. We spent much of the pre-race time huddled there keeping warm until it was time for a last minute trip to the port-a-potties. Meanwhile several other friends discovered us there. Despite what was for me a large field, I was able to find my friends in the crowd. Eventually we wandered over to the start where I was immediately confused, because we were lined up to run the opposite direction I thought I remembered from the course map. Then we waited. As we learned later there were problems with chip and number assignments, which explained the long lines pre-race for picking up chips, and subsequent delay in the start as problems were resolved. That later caused delays with compiling the results as well.
Looking around as we waited for the start, I was dumbfounded by how runners were bundled up. It was like no one ever told them to dress for temperatures twenty degrees warmer than it was. Runners were wearing vests, jackets, hoodies, I think I even saw some scarves, not to mention gloves and ear warmers. I was concerned about being over dressed in shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt. If the temperature reached 70F before the finish I'd be much too warm, though in the early morning chill it felt about right. As I was waiting, I noticed the field starting to move. I never heard a command , gun, or horn to start us off, but that didn't really matter back where I was. I followed the crowd and watched for the starting mats so I would know when to start my Garmin.
In that crowd the early pace was slow. That wasn't a concern, or wouldn't be, as long as it thinned out quickly and I could shift into race pace. We turned a corner or two, jogged up a short slope, then turned another corner to head toward the first bridge for the first time. The street had widened by then so there was plenty of room to run. I haven't made adjustments for the small discrepancy between my Garmin time and distance (13.17 miles) and the official time and distance, but the times are close enough for race report purposes. With the slow start and uphill on the bridge, I was satisfied with my 11:31 first mile. Coming down the bridge I regained a lot of what I lost with the second mile in 10:46. From there I was more concerned with each mile split than I was the running gun time displayed on the digital clocks at the mile markers. As each mile passed I was checking to see if I was cutting into the excess over 11:00 pace based on the gun time. By the time we came off the bridge, even with the marathoners and 5-mile racers still with us, the field was stretched out, which was a good and necessary development as cones set out narrowed our route to a lane on the side of the road.
I settled in to maintain about an 11:00 pace or just under for the next few miles. By the time I realized that the 5-mile runners were on the far side of the road, the leaders had already passed, so I missed seeing Christian. I didn't see Lara either, then all of a sudden I was past the turn-around for the 5-mile race and the field thinned considerably. Mile three went by in 10:55 and that was about when I came up behind Damaris. We matched strides for about a mile, I think, then came to the second bridge. I strode strong up the bridge and at that point Damaris backed off the pace. That mile was slower, 11:19, but I was beginning to pass a few runners who were already slowing down. I don't know if they were half marathoners or marathoners, but it didn't make any difference to me at that point.
As I ran through the middle miles they became a little erratic in pace as I found myself speeding up and passing more runners, then backing off the pace as I felt it was still too early to push the pace. As a results miles five through eight were 10:32, 10:49, 10:43, and 10:37. By this time we had made the turn-around while the marathoners continued. Even with holding back a little I was getting into a racing rhythm and steadily catching and passing runners. Keeping in the back of my mind that I had that final bridge looming with a mile to go, I switched gears mentally and began to race. Miles nine, ten, eleven, and twelve flew by in 10:42, 10:47, 10:31, and 10:39. Keep in mind that included the upslope of the second bridge on the return. By mile twelve I was really beginning to hurt and wasn't sure whether I was holding pace or not until I could read the digital clock.
One mile to go came right near the beginning of the bridge. With the mile markers for the 5-mile race, I could get a split there to see what my last mile was, while still getting my regular splits recorded on my Garmin. If I didn't have the numbers recorded as well as seeing and remembering the clock times as I passed, I wouldn't believe they were possible. Running up the bridge felt like a jog and as I neared the crest there were times when I felt like I paused mid-stride I was going so slow. But I was one of the few people running the entire up slope and passing runners or closing the gap the entire time. Christian was waiting for me at the crest and paced me down the bridge encouraging me to catch and pass as many runners as I could. I think this is the first time anyone has ever paced me to the finish in a race, and I'm really grateful to Christian for doing it. He veered off at mile thirteen with an admonishment to catch those two runners ahead of me. I tried and did, then caught one more after that. That final effort completely exhausted me to the point where I was struggling to maintain my form. I'm hoping no one took a picture as I crossed the finish line, because I had to have looked terrible. I bent over to rest my hands on my knees and thought I was going to fall flat on my face. Some volunteers walked me over to a chair, then fetched the EMTs to check me over. It was another case of pushing myself too hard to the point of exhaustion and near collapse, but that's the way I race. It wasn't until I checked my times later that I saw that mile thirteen was 10:09 and the last .17 on my Garmin was 8:45 pace. My last mile was actually 9:55 from the 4-mile split on the 5-mile course to the finish. No wonder I was tired.
It didn't take too long before I felt well enough to sign off for the EMTs and join my friends. A banana or two, some pastries, a couple cans of Coke, and I was fine. Time enough later for another Coke and pasta. With the earlier issues with the chips and number assignments, I only heard the 5-mile race awards being announced. Results were not posted anywhere, but you could go to the results tent, enter your number, and get your own results, which I did. Gun time was 2:23:17 and chip time was 2:21:30. There wasn't any HM split marker, but my Garmin time at 6.56 miles was 1:11:35, so the second half or 6.61 Garmin miles was 1:09:55, a nice negative split. I'm still a ways from where I want to be, but these results are very encouraging. Even more so was my ability to push up the final bridge and kick into overdrive coming down and into the finish.
I have a lot of work to do to increase my long runs, but my training paces are starting to fall within my target range for my goals this year. Recovery has been quick, also, with no problems running 5 miles the day after and 6 miles a couple days later, all at much faster than my usual recovery pace. Next up is the Jackpot Ultra 12-Hour Race in Las Vegas on February 15th. That should tell me a lot about how my training translates to the longer distances of ultras and their slower paces with walk breaks.
