Pittsburgh Half Marathon ~!
So I ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon on Sunday!
Before I went into the race, I had decided that my goal times were 2:20 (low end) and 2:10 (high end) - I would have been perfectly happy with the low-end time, about a 10:40 mile, and the high-end goal (a 10:00 mile) was for if I felt really good going into the race.
Well, I'm not really sure I felt all that good, but I pushed really, really hard, and I pretty much made my high-end goal time for myself. 13.1 miles in 2:10:56 was my official finishing time.
yes, I am still a little weird sharing my real name online (even though like 75% of you probably know it anyway)
[HM] Pittsburgh Half Marathon by seventhe on Garmin Connect
Race Report!
The race itself was good. Not necessarily great, but good. We came in and found parking fairly easily, and found some porta-potties, but then we had trouble finding Corral D, where we were supposed to start. Labeling was OK but not great and the volunteers didn't really know what was going on. We got to Corral D seriously 1 minute before the race start time (although part of that was our fault - we left my brother's house late and then accumulated lateness as we went on, which actually stressed me out - I really like to have a calm little breather before we run, and nobody else we were with seemed to give a crap that we were running late!), although Corral D didn't start until nearly 10 minutes after the "gun", so it wasn't a big deal, just a bit stressful.
The course was alright. Parts of it were really cool, and parts were just "meh I am running through a city." I really liked going over all the bridges -- except that the bridges were all inclines!, so having to run giant hills over each river made it less enjoyable. I like the crappy parts of cities so I liked those parts. The spectators were pretty good too - a LOT of people turned out to watch, and they had signs and air horns and stuff like that.
There were bands along the course, too, and my brother's band got a place right along the half marathon course, which was awesome! It was really cool to come running down that stretch and hear their music echoing off of the city buildings (it sounded awesome, guys, play loud in cities more). Boulevard of the Allies played on Boulevard of the Allies, that was pretty cool.
One downside about the race was just that it was crowded. I realize it's a huge race and that there were approximately a bajillion people registered, but it was still just packed. I expected it to thin out a lot more than it did; I must run a pretty average time, because I was just crowded the entire race. I had to dodge around people for the entire 13 miles, and I got stuck behind slow people and then had to speed up to dash around other people and walkers. It made the race harder, IMO, because it was hard to just settle in at a pace and cruise. Even at the end, all I wanted to do was find a pace and sit there and grit it out, but I still had to play the dash-and-dodge game right up to the finish line. I realize that's what you get with a huge race but it kind of sucked.
My Own Race!
I had set myself a lower and upper goal for time, and my plan was to start out easy and then speed up if it felt okay. But as the race started, I felt myself rethinking that. The faster pace was a little easier to keep than I expected, and I started thinking, I should start out at the higher-end pace. If I start slower I may not have as much energy at the end to speed up, but if I start out faster maybe I can keep it or close to it. So I settled in right about at a 10:00 mile.
The water stations were really crowded and hectic and messy, and I kind of took 1-2 sips of water and then ditched it, because I wanted to get around the crowding and the slowing-down people. At about mile 5 I ate my first Shot Blok and then I think I ate about one a mile. I drank more water when I could, but the course actually had too many water stations in the first part and not enough in the second part, in my opinion.
I was okay until mile 8-9.
Mile 8 just sucked. Mile 9 just sucked. Mile 10 hit and "I only have a 5K left" became "oh fuck, I still have to run a 5K." My energy was just drained; I had eaten all but 1 of my energy blocks and I still just felt empty. My legs were dead, my calf injury hurt, my ankle hurt, my breath was starting to catch. Mile 11 sucked. "Two miles left!" the crowd was yelling, and all I could think was, you're not running! two miles is a lot!
I spent these last few miles just thinking, keep your breath. if you can keep your breath, you can keep your pace. Now granted I already thought I had slowed down a lot more than I actually did, because it felt grinding. But it's true: if I lost my breath, I knew my asthma would hit, and then I'd be in trouble. So the last few miles all I was thinking was keep your breath, keep your breath, keep your breath.
At the end of mile 11 I ran past Jim's band, and that was an awesome pick-me-up, knowing that they were coming up and then seeing them all, and hearing the music all the way down that road. But it didn't last long, because I'm pretty sure there was a bridge after that, which meant a hill. "Last hill," somebody yelled at me, "then it's all downhill from there." I didn't have the breath to reply anything as snarky as I would have liked. I don't even really remember mile 12.
Mile 13 I tried to pick up my pace. I don't think it worked; "finish strong" turned into "don't fall over." But I looked at my watch and realized that if I could not fall over, I would be making a pretty good time. I think that alone dragged me across the finish line, hahaha.
13.1 miles! It is a lot!
I was really surprised to look at my Garmin chart and see my pace not really slow down as much as I had expected. Because I felt like the last ~4 miles were just awful and slow and gross. But apparently I kept about the 10:00/mile through that entire thing.
On Training!
I just wanted to put a chart in here. Here's what I ran to train for the half, against what I had planned to run. Overall I was able to stick with it right up until the end, when I hurt whatever I did in my calves.
I would also like to point out that I haven't been sick since February, the week of the 13th specifically. Go me! :D
If I had it to do over again, I'd make the following changes:
I haven't taken a week off of running since January 1st.
I am really proud of jennyclarinet and I -- we talked about doing this while dressed in togas and drinking Four Loko!, and look what it turned into. Without Jenny I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with this, but knowing that Jenny was training hard and that we were going to do this together (even though we didn't run together) made me stick to my training plan during the hardest semester I've ever had, when it would have been really easy to quit. I had Denis training too, and I knew Jim would be playing, so there was a lot motivating me to keep up the work. It certainly wasn't easy, but hey, if I can work a full-time job that makes me endure 11-hour days and hold a full-time graduate semester workload and train for a half marathon...
And that's the story of how I ran 13.1 miles. My legs hate me now. The end!
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/268427.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.
Before I went into the race, I had decided that my goal times were 2:20 (low end) and 2:10 (high end) - I would have been perfectly happy with the low-end time, about a 10:40 mile, and the high-end goal (a 10:00 mile) was for if I felt really good going into the race.
Well, I'm not really sure I felt all that good, but I pushed really, really hard, and I pretty much made my high-end goal time for myself. 13.1 miles in 2:10:56 was my official finishing time.
yes, I am still a little weird sharing my real name online (even though like 75% of you probably know it anyway)
[HM] Pittsburgh Half Marathon by seventhe on Garmin Connect
Race Report!
The race itself was good. Not necessarily great, but good. We came in and found parking fairly easily, and found some porta-potties, but then we had trouble finding Corral D, where we were supposed to start. Labeling was OK but not great and the volunteers didn't really know what was going on. We got to Corral D seriously 1 minute before the race start time (although part of that was our fault - we left my brother's house late and then accumulated lateness as we went on, which actually stressed me out - I really like to have a calm little breather before we run, and nobody else we were with seemed to give a crap that we were running late!), although Corral D didn't start until nearly 10 minutes after the "gun", so it wasn't a big deal, just a bit stressful.
The course was alright. Parts of it were really cool, and parts were just "meh I am running through a city." I really liked going over all the bridges -- except that the bridges were all inclines!, so having to run giant hills over each river made it less enjoyable. I like the crappy parts of cities so I liked those parts. The spectators were pretty good too - a LOT of people turned out to watch, and they had signs and air horns and stuff like that.
There were bands along the course, too, and my brother's band got a place right along the half marathon course, which was awesome! It was really cool to come running down that stretch and hear their music echoing off of the city buildings (it sounded awesome, guys, play loud in cities more). Boulevard of the Allies played on Boulevard of the Allies, that was pretty cool.
One downside about the race was just that it was crowded. I realize it's a huge race and that there were approximately a bajillion people registered, but it was still just packed. I expected it to thin out a lot more than it did; I must run a pretty average time, because I was just crowded the entire race. I had to dodge around people for the entire 13 miles, and I got stuck behind slow people and then had to speed up to dash around other people and walkers. It made the race harder, IMO, because it was hard to just settle in at a pace and cruise. Even at the end, all I wanted to do was find a pace and sit there and grit it out, but I still had to play the dash-and-dodge game right up to the finish line. I realize that's what you get with a huge race but it kind of sucked.
My Own Race!
I had set myself a lower and upper goal for time, and my plan was to start out easy and then speed up if it felt okay. But as the race started, I felt myself rethinking that. The faster pace was a little easier to keep than I expected, and I started thinking, I should start out at the higher-end pace. If I start slower I may not have as much energy at the end to speed up, but if I start out faster maybe I can keep it or close to it. So I settled in right about at a 10:00 mile.
The water stations were really crowded and hectic and messy, and I kind of took 1-2 sips of water and then ditched it, because I wanted to get around the crowding and the slowing-down people. At about mile 5 I ate my first Shot Blok and then I think I ate about one a mile. I drank more water when I could, but the course actually had too many water stations in the first part and not enough in the second part, in my opinion.
I was okay until mile 8-9.
Mile 8 just sucked. Mile 9 just sucked. Mile 10 hit and "I only have a 5K left" became "oh fuck, I still have to run a 5K." My energy was just drained; I had eaten all but 1 of my energy blocks and I still just felt empty. My legs were dead, my calf injury hurt, my ankle hurt, my breath was starting to catch. Mile 11 sucked. "Two miles left!" the crowd was yelling, and all I could think was, you're not running! two miles is a lot!
I spent these last few miles just thinking, keep your breath. if you can keep your breath, you can keep your pace. Now granted I already thought I had slowed down a lot more than I actually did, because it felt grinding. But it's true: if I lost my breath, I knew my asthma would hit, and then I'd be in trouble. So the last few miles all I was thinking was keep your breath, keep your breath, keep your breath.
At the end of mile 11 I ran past Jim's band, and that was an awesome pick-me-up, knowing that they were coming up and then seeing them all, and hearing the music all the way down that road. But it didn't last long, because I'm pretty sure there was a bridge after that, which meant a hill. "Last hill," somebody yelled at me, "then it's all downhill from there." I didn't have the breath to reply anything as snarky as I would have liked. I don't even really remember mile 12.
Mile 13 I tried to pick up my pace. I don't think it worked; "finish strong" turned into "don't fall over." But I looked at my watch and realized that if I could not fall over, I would be making a pretty good time. I think that alone dragged me across the finish line, hahaha.
13.1 miles! It is a lot!
I was really surprised to look at my Garmin chart and see my pace not really slow down as much as I had expected. Because I felt like the last ~4 miles were just awful and slow and gross. But apparently I kept about the 10:00/mile through that entire thing.
On Training!
I just wanted to put a chart in here. Here's what I ran to train for the half, against what I had planned to run. Overall I was able to stick with it right up until the end, when I hurt whatever I did in my calves.
I would also like to point out that I haven't been sick since February, the week of the 13th specifically. Go me! :D
If I had it to do over again, I'd make the following changes:
- Intervals and hill training should start earlier in the program, and longer tempo runs later. I did it the opposite way to get my mileage up first, which made sense, but I could have thrown in 1-2 intense sessions way earlier in the training.
- SLOWER ON THE LONG RUNS. Part of the point of the long run is to train your body on how to continue moving for that long period of time, without the strain of your race pace and the intensity of tons of miles. My long runs were slow, yes, but I think it would have been more helpful if I had done longer time runs. My longest run was 11.something miles and I did it in like 2 hours. It would have been more helpful to stretch past my target times - 2:10, 2:20, 2:30 of running, for example - by slowing the pace rather than adding more miles. My body would have been more used to the strain of that much activity and I think the race would have felt a lot more balanced.
- More fartlek practice (kind of like interval training, but not regular - speeding up, slowing down, darting, sprinting, resting, at random paces and times), because that's what a lot of the race was like: go fast around this little chunk of people to pass them and then maintain your pace, and then you're stuck behind these other people so slow down until something clears up and then sprint past them again. It would have been nice to be able to keep a pace for the entire thing but apparently reality is: races are crowded!
- Put in more miles on a rest week, but allow them to be slow and easy miles.
I haven't taken a week off of running since January 1st.
I am really proud of jennyclarinet and I -- we talked about doing this while dressed in togas and drinking Four Loko!, and look what it turned into. Without Jenny I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with this, but knowing that Jenny was training hard and that we were going to do this together (even though we didn't run together) made me stick to my training plan during the hardest semester I've ever had, when it would have been really easy to quit. I had Denis training too, and I knew Jim would be playing, so there was a lot motivating me to keep up the work. It certainly wasn't easy, but hey, if I can work a full-time job that makes me endure 11-hour days and hold a full-time graduate semester workload and train for a half marathon...
And that's the story of how I ran 13.1 miles. My legs hate me now. The end!
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/268427.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.