2013 Lincoln 1/2 Marathon
Well, it's come and gone, another 1/2 Marathon! That makes 6 1/2 marathons so far (plus the one full). I'm happy to announce that this year I actually beat my best time by a couple minutes. (2 minutes, 16 seconds to be precise).
This year training had gone pretty well up until about about 4-5 weeks before the race. I had been ahead of the training plan, running plenty fast to shatter my personal records, and then life hit. Between cub master duties and my wife working crazy long hours (and my own hours required for work) it kinda squashed training. What was very concerning was that I went out for what I wanted to be a 12 mile run and had to call it quits after 7 'cause I just hit the wall. Not good when you're a week from a 13 mile race. In the end I made some training plan adjustments and managed to salvage this training cycle.
The race itself was pretty decent. The weather looked like it might be bad the night before (50% chance of rain and cold) but then turned to be decent if not near perfect for running. The temp was about 45° at the start of the race and very little wind. We had threats of showers but it never happened. I ended up wearing the perfect attire for the race. I had a technical long sleeved shirt and then another technical tshirt on top of that. Was just rocking the spandex shorts but that was plenty for 45°. I also brought a old pair of socks from home to use as disposable mittens. There were a lot of people with cold fingers who didn't want to carry their gloves or throw away a good pair of glove but those sock mittens were perfect! I also brought a water bottle so I could continue to hydrate while I was waiting the 40 minutes to get to the actual starting line. That also helped me quite a bit.
Once we were off I stayed with the 2:20 pace group for almost the first 10 miles. They slowly crept away from me but the 2:25 group never passed me so I was happy. After about 2 miles my blood was flowing, fibers were warm and I cast the socks off on the side of the road in a pile of other clothes. After that i just ran. Ran into some friends in the crowd which always helps the race go better :)
My wife & kids came out to see me about the 9 mile marker and gave me a new water bottle and off I went. At that point it seemed that it was uphill segment after uphill segment but I pushed through without walking (only through aid statinos per the plan). The previous year I started to bonk at about mile 7 and after mile 10 had to push pretty hard to keep going. This time I was in pretty good shape.
Next major event was crossing the 50 yard line in memorial stadium with a time of 2:24:45. That beats my previous record of 2:26:59 by a couple minutes. I was shooting for 2:15 and I think on target until the final month of training.
Other observations: They upped security at the race due to recent events but it was handled pretty smartly and didn't have a major impact on the race.
The crowd seemed better than previous years. There seemed to be more people and more music. I really dig the road side music whether it's a dude on a trap drum set, a loud stereo, or a full road side band.
I think one of the key factors for me was the extra water (both what I brought and what my family brought). Even though it wasn't hot, I needed more water than provided at the aid stations.
Hats also off to Jen who finished her firat 1/2 marathon, Jenni who left me in the dust, and Missy from AR who I hadn't seen since the last marathon and ran with me for miles.
Of course thanks to all my fans which came out to holler at me as I went by.
Goals: 1) get the 1/2 marathon time under 2:15. 2) start working on another full marathon training set before too long.
Ok, enough rambling for now, I think I might take a little nap :)
This year training had gone pretty well up until about about 4-5 weeks before the race. I had been ahead of the training plan, running plenty fast to shatter my personal records, and then life hit. Between cub master duties and my wife working crazy long hours (and my own hours required for work) it kinda squashed training. What was very concerning was that I went out for what I wanted to be a 12 mile run and had to call it quits after 7 'cause I just hit the wall. Not good when you're a week from a 13 mile race. In the end I made some training plan adjustments and managed to salvage this training cycle.
The race itself was pretty decent. The weather looked like it might be bad the night before (50% chance of rain and cold) but then turned to be decent if not near perfect for running. The temp was about 45° at the start of the race and very little wind. We had threats of showers but it never happened. I ended up wearing the perfect attire for the race. I had a technical long sleeved shirt and then another technical tshirt on top of that. Was just rocking the spandex shorts but that was plenty for 45°. I also brought a old pair of socks from home to use as disposable mittens. There were a lot of people with cold fingers who didn't want to carry their gloves or throw away a good pair of glove but those sock mittens were perfect! I also brought a water bottle so I could continue to hydrate while I was waiting the 40 minutes to get to the actual starting line. That also helped me quite a bit.
Once we were off I stayed with the 2:20 pace group for almost the first 10 miles. They slowly crept away from me but the 2:25 group never passed me so I was happy. After about 2 miles my blood was flowing, fibers were warm and I cast the socks off on the side of the road in a pile of other clothes. After that i just ran. Ran into some friends in the crowd which always helps the race go better :)
My wife & kids came out to see me about the 9 mile marker and gave me a new water bottle and off I went. At that point it seemed that it was uphill segment after uphill segment but I pushed through without walking (only through aid statinos per the plan). The previous year I started to bonk at about mile 7 and after mile 10 had to push pretty hard to keep going. This time I was in pretty good shape.
Next major event was crossing the 50 yard line in memorial stadium with a time of 2:24:45. That beats my previous record of 2:26:59 by a couple minutes. I was shooting for 2:15 and I think on target until the final month of training.
Other observations: They upped security at the race due to recent events but it was handled pretty smartly and didn't have a major impact on the race.
The crowd seemed better than previous years. There seemed to be more people and more music. I really dig the road side music whether it's a dude on a trap drum set, a loud stereo, or a full road side band.
I think one of the key factors for me was the extra water (both what I brought and what my family brought). Even though it wasn't hot, I needed more water than provided at the aid stations.
Hats also off to Jen who finished her firat 1/2 marathon, Jenni who left me in the dust, and Missy from AR who I hadn't seen since the last marathon and ran with me for miles.
Of course thanks to all my fans which came out to holler at me as I went by.
Goals: 1) get the 1/2 marathon time under 2:15. 2) start working on another full marathon training set before too long.
Ok, enough rambling for now, I think I might take a little nap :)