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ilanaramaAs I said in my previous post, I signed up for the Berkeley Half Marathon as my first race in my new age group. That's F60-69 for Berkeley, though for many races it will be 60-64. Either way, I'm a relative young-un, so even though I was expecting to run slower than any of the half marathons I've run since 2008, I was hoping that I'd manage to win my new age group. (Spoiler alert: I did, and I did!)
I stayed in the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, which was literally two blocks from the start. The expo was about 3/4 mile away, which I figured would be a good energizing walk for the day before - except oops, I accidentally brought my sweatpants and a pair of tights to the gear check, rather than sweatpants and jacket, and so I walked back to the hotel to get my jacket, then back to the expo, and then I walked over tomrkinch's place so I could meet her and also pet her (extremely friendly and beautiful) cats, and then we walked to a restaurant for delicious Indian food for dinner. So I ended up with a total walk of over 7 miles, oops?
Race day dawned with perfect weather, cold and clear. I wore shorts and singlet, with a junky long-sleeve t-shirt on top I discarded before the start. For breakfast I ate an oatmeal cookie washed down with coffee nice and early so that I had time for bodily functions and my pre-run strength + flexibility routine, then I walked over to the start where I took in some water, got rid of some water, and headed for the corrals.
I had entered 1:45 on my sign-up (rounding down from my goal of sub-1:50!) and was assigned to corral B, but when I looked for the pace group signs to figure out where to place myself in the crowd, I saw the 2 hour pace group at the FRONT of corral B and realized that I'd better move up! I spotted the 1:55 pacer way ahead, but there were too many people in front of me for me to move very far forward, so I started the race at nearly the very back of corral A.
By the time I crossed the timing line, my Garmin told me I was moving at about a 12 minute pace, a bit off my goal :-) I was actually surprised that I was able to come nearly to pace by the first mile mark considering the density of the crowd. The gradual climb and the crowd around me kept me from pushing too hard early - I'm always amazed how much easier it feels on race day to maintain a pace that felt so hard in training!
Eventually I passed the 1:55 pace group, and as we climbed through the campus on what I think was the steepest part of the course I caught sight of the 1:50 pacers ahead. I figured that as long as I could keep them in my sight (and as long as they were pacing well) I'd come in under 1:50, since I'd started quite a bit behind them. On the long downhill that started around mile 4.5 I started catching them, and I passed them shortly before the 6 mile mark. (In fact when I reached for a water cup I think I accidentally cut off one of the pacers who was trying to get the energy gel drink there - sorry!)
I did slow to a walk or jog in order to drink water at every aid station (except the last, which I skipped because it was on the far side of the street from where I was trying to run the tangents). Still, I felt pretty dehydrated that afternoon and the next day. For fuel, I had a small tootsie roll in my pocket that I had picked up at the expo, and I ate it around mile 6. (I tend not to eat much during races, not even marathons.)
Looking at the course map ahead of time, I hadn't realized that we had to climb an overpass a little before mile 8, and I felt a bit apprehensive as we approached and I could see people running on it - but for some reason the actual climb didn't feel like much, just a little bump. It was really cool to be running on the overpass and see the leaders coming back from the out-and-back, and I just had to cheer them on!
The next stretch was super flat and fast, with the wind at my back, and then I ran around the turnaround and boom, right into the wind. Fortunately I am a small, skinny woman, and there was a nice selection of larger guys ahead of me, so I worked my way up by tucking in behind one, drafting for a while, and then passing him and finding another windblock to draft behind. It wasn't long before we turned back to the east, no longer directly into the wind. It was also nice to get back in the shade of the neighborhood houses.
I had been warned about the final miles being all uphill, but I didn't find it a problem. Partly this was because of my altitude-enhanced lungs, partly it was because the course had frequent turns at intersections, which resulted in interspersed flat sections and also avoided the demoralizing view of a long uphill ahead. And partly it was because, I think, I paced pretty well; I was running the same pace in mile 13 that I had in mile 1, except instead of feeling easy and relaxed it was the fastest I could possibly manage!
I crossed the line at 1:49:33 on the finish clock (gun time) and 1:48:47 chip time, which was good enough for the age group win by almost ten minutes! My Garmin read 13.21 so decent but not superb tangent running.
Stats and splits:
In addition to winning the 60-69F AG (1/27) I was 111st female out of 1049, and 624th human being out of 2673. The race also reported intermediate split times at various points, and I found it fascinating that at the second timing mat at mile 4.2 I was in position 628, dropped to 669 by the mat at 9.2, but was back up to 624, almost the same as I had been before, at the end!
My mile splits were really consistent, considering the hills and descents. I'm especially pleased that my first and last miles were the same pace:
1 | 8:23
2 | 8:20
3 | 8:02
4 | 8:18
5 | 8:15
6 | 7:54
7 | 8:01
8 | 8:12
9 | 8:13
10 | 8:22
11 | 8:18
12 | 8:25
13 | 8:23
0.2 | 1:40 (7:57 pace)
Even though my finish time was about 1:20 slower than my last half, the Thirsty Thirteen, it was a considerably better performance and I felt orders of magnitude better about it.
I stayed in the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, which was literally two blocks from the start. The expo was about 3/4 mile away, which I figured would be a good energizing walk for the day before - except oops, I accidentally brought my sweatpants and a pair of tights to the gear check, rather than sweatpants and jacket, and so I walked back to the hotel to get my jacket, then back to the expo, and then I walked over to
mrkinch's place so I could meet her and also pet her (extremely friendly and beautiful) cats, and then we walked to a restaurant for delicious Indian food for dinner. So I ended up with a total walk of over 7 miles, oops? Race day dawned with perfect weather, cold and clear. I wore shorts and singlet, with a junky long-sleeve t-shirt on top I discarded before the start. For breakfast I ate an oatmeal cookie washed down with coffee nice and early so that I had time for bodily functions and my pre-run strength + flexibility routine, then I walked over to the start where I took in some water, got rid of some water, and headed for the corrals.
I had entered 1:45 on my sign-up (rounding down from my goal of sub-1:50!) and was assigned to corral B, but when I looked for the pace group signs to figure out where to place myself in the crowd, I saw the 2 hour pace group at the FRONT of corral B and realized that I'd better move up! I spotted the 1:55 pacer way ahead, but there were too many people in front of me for me to move very far forward, so I started the race at nearly the very back of corral A.
By the time I crossed the timing line, my Garmin told me I was moving at about a 12 minute pace, a bit off my goal :-) I was actually surprised that I was able to come nearly to pace by the first mile mark considering the density of the crowd. The gradual climb and the crowd around me kept me from pushing too hard early - I'm always amazed how much easier it feels on race day to maintain a pace that felt so hard in training!
Eventually I passed the 1:55 pace group, and as we climbed through the campus on what I think was the steepest part of the course I caught sight of the 1:50 pacers ahead. I figured that as long as I could keep them in my sight (and as long as they were pacing well) I'd come in under 1:50, since I'd started quite a bit behind them. On the long downhill that started around mile 4.5 I started catching them, and I passed them shortly before the 6 mile mark. (In fact when I reached for a water cup I think I accidentally cut off one of the pacers who was trying to get the energy gel drink there - sorry!)
I did slow to a walk or jog in order to drink water at every aid station (except the last, which I skipped because it was on the far side of the street from where I was trying to run the tangents). Still, I felt pretty dehydrated that afternoon and the next day. For fuel, I had a small tootsie roll in my pocket that I had picked up at the expo, and I ate it around mile 6. (I tend not to eat much during races, not even marathons.)
Looking at the course map ahead of time, I hadn't realized that we had to climb an overpass a little before mile 8, and I felt a bit apprehensive as we approached and I could see people running on it - but for some reason the actual climb didn't feel like much, just a little bump. It was really cool to be running on the overpass and see the leaders coming back from the out-and-back, and I just had to cheer them on!
The next stretch was super flat and fast, with the wind at my back, and then I ran around the turnaround and boom, right into the wind. Fortunately I am a small, skinny woman, and there was a nice selection of larger guys ahead of me, so I worked my way up by tucking in behind one, drafting for a while, and then passing him and finding another windblock to draft behind. It wasn't long before we turned back to the east, no longer directly into the wind. It was also nice to get back in the shade of the neighborhood houses.
I had been warned about the final miles being all uphill, but I didn't find it a problem. Partly this was because of my altitude-enhanced lungs, partly it was because the course had frequent turns at intersections, which resulted in interspersed flat sections and also avoided the demoralizing view of a long uphill ahead. And partly it was because, I think, I paced pretty well; I was running the same pace in mile 13 that I had in mile 1, except instead of feeling easy and relaxed it was the fastest I could possibly manage!
I crossed the line at 1:49:33 on the finish clock (gun time) and 1:48:47 chip time, which was good enough for the age group win by almost ten minutes! My Garmin read 13.21 so decent but not superb tangent running.
Stats and splits:
In addition to winning the 60-69F AG (1/27) I was 111st female out of 1049, and 624th human being out of 2673. The race also reported intermediate split times at various points, and I found it fascinating that at the second timing mat at mile 4.2 I was in position 628, dropped to 669 by the mat at 9.2, but was back up to 624, almost the same as I had been before, at the end!
My mile splits were really consistent, considering the hills and descents. I'm especially pleased that my first and last miles were the same pace:
1 | 8:23
2 | 8:20
3 | 8:02
4 | 8:18
5 | 8:15
6 | 7:54
7 | 8:01
8 | 8:12
9 | 8:13
10 | 8:22
11 | 8:18
12 | 8:25
13 | 8:23
0.2 | 1:40 (7:57 pace)
Even though my finish time was about 1:20 slower than my last half, the Thirsty Thirteen, it was a considerably better performance and I felt orders of magnitude better about it.
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Date: 2023-11-22 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-11-22 11:36 pm (UTC)