2010 Boulder ‘Backroads’ Half Marathon Results

13.40 mi, 1:47:14, 8:00 min/mi, 162 bpm

Official Results:
Gun time: 1:47:38.7
Chip time: 1:47:14.2
Overall: 124th
Men: 93rd
Men 30-34: 13th

• Nice and cool start at low 50′s, with an 8am start.  Wore shorts, singlet, gloves, and Garmins
• Made it to the start line with about 10 minutes to spare and found my running partner Whitney (actually she found me)
• We chat a little strategy for a bit but really no time to get nervous… but I felt good anyways
• Big crowd for the first 3 miles..eased up around 2 mi but still a little packed
• Whitney and I held some solid upper 8′s.  We were on track for about 8:30 at the top which is what the plan was.  At the turnaround, we were at 8:38…no biggie.  the plan was also to start nailing some mid 7′s during the downhill.
• I was feeling great at this point, and with some discussions with Whitney, we decided it’d be okay for me to go ahead.
• Even though it was mostly downhills from here, I knew there were some flats and couple of small climbs towards the end, so, I didn’t mind that I hit some upper 6′s.  I would try to get some speed going and feel the turnovers come to me.  Felt good and didn’t feel any over-exertion my part
• Gu’ed up around 7 mi but don’t exactly remember when.  I had plan to just play it by ear whether I was gonna take a gel…and I just went ahead and decided to take one, since I was in a bit uncharted territory with my pace
• It simply felt great passing so many people…(no disrespect)… and nobody passed me since the breakaway.  I was actually passing peeps all the way up to the finish.  Love it!   I greeted a few runners and complimented them while they looked strong… the kindly returned the compliment
• After a couple of miles, my pace started to stabilize…in that, I could see that I could put some control into my splits and still finish with an 8 min avg.
• I was running 6′s towards the end and kicked it with a 5ish pace… I didn’t really realize this though… I was just trying to finish.  There were a few folks ahead of me and felt content to just hang behind them but either I sped up or they slowed down but next thing I know, I was next to them…so I kicked it.
• My wife Amy, who was awesome this morning and saw me off at the start, was there..but I missed her since I was concentrating (didn’t want to biff it going 11 mph in front of everyone).
• PR by a couple of minutes
• I think this course was too long.  My GPS data shows a ran 13.4 miles… I would expect some +0.1 variance here, but 0.3?  Hmmm… at my 8 min pace, I should’ve finished under 45 min.  Oh well, still a PR
• Stuck around long enough to watch Andrew Leatherby win the marathon with a 2:33:07.7 time.  I was right there, so I went over there and shook his hand.  What an inspiration these great runners are.  Just amazing.

Congrats to Whitney!

Now, afterwards, I felt great and hung for a little bit.  But once again, I poisoned myself.  Because of my effort towards the finish, I probably produced an abundance of lactic acid.  Because I didn’t do a cooldown, I didn’t give my body the opportunity to reuse it for energy and plain just get rid of it…so I felt nauseous for the next 3 hours.  It sucked…but oh well.  Need to cooldown next time.

Now, did this ruin my marathon in 2 weeks?  Probably not quite… I feel I probably ran this harder than I should’ve…but mostly towards the end.  But it’s no biggie, I felt great and efficient.  I don’t feel like I’ve punished my muscles to any certain un-manageable degr

I’m pretty stoked about my 13th division finish…gives me more goals, like a top 10 division finish.  So, when I really train for a half, maybe I can go sub 1:40… I think it will be possible.

Sweet, up next: more taper and the Denver Rock ‘N’ Roll marathon.   I should be good for a 3:30 finish but I HAVE to pace myself perfectly… that’ll give me the best chance to do so.

Monday Long Run

10.29 mi, 1:40:15, 9:44 min/mi

• Did some trail running in Cherry Creek…no map, no clue… just went for it.  Got lost a little bit but it was nice running in the trees
• Felt good for the most part but the heat took it’s toll on me, eventually…felt really ill when I got back to work
• Ran into another runner named Jeff…actually, caught up to him and we ran for a bit together.  Nice fella.
• I wanted to do 12 mi to make up for yesterday’s DNR but 10 mi will do… I think doing this run probably saved my marathon…I feel like I’m jjuuuuussst there with my base… even though this run sucked… I feel better about it already.
• Now, having said “I feel better” about this run.. I actually had to stop a few seconds in the shade… man it was hot.
• I actually stopped quite a few times to look at some posted signs that turned out to “not be” maps…plus all the traffic… so I imagine my moving pace may just be right at 9 min/mi.

Monday Run

5.09 mi, 41:19, 8:06 min/mi (excluding stoplights…yuck)

• Ran into a guy at a fork in the path and he and I ran together for 1+ mile.  We did 7:30′s and 8′s up the hills.  Exchanged stories…his name was Rudy.
• 80′s and not so bad…shirt-off run.
• Much faster pace than what I wanted to do but with the 1/2 mar race postponed and my sub-mileage performance yesterday, I didn’t mind.  Tomorrow’s speedwork out should be fun…can’t wait!