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Canyonlands Half Marathon Race Report
Mar. 22nd, 2010 02:11 pmI am afraid that this report is longer than the race. Longwinded storytelling at the beginning, numbers and analysis at the end.
( Longwinded storytelling )
Final results: 1:37:17 gun time, 1:37:01 chip time. This is a PR for me by 4:43! 3rd in age group (45-49F) out of 172, 37th woman out of 1942, 213 human being out of 3282. I am still a very long way behind #1 and #2 (at 1:27:55, and OMG she is 49!, and 1:32:57) but #4 was 1:39:21 so I had a comfortable lead on her. The Runworks calculator spits out 1:33:40 for a sea level equivalent half, which, yeah, right. For a half at 6600 ft. I have to interpolate but it suggests about 1:39, which makes sense as that's a 7:35 pace, what I was aiming for in my training.
I attribute this great race to six things:
1) I had a really solid marathon training cycle up to 2 weeks ago, with 3 weeks in the 65 mpw range.
2) I was slightly injured - not enough to interfere with my racing, but enough that I took quite a bit of time off before this race, so all my training fatigue was gone.
3) The altitude advantage of living and training at 6600 feet and racing at 4000 feet.
4) Perfect weather; I run better in the cold.
5) A fast course, very gently rolling with a slight net downhill.
6) I am pretty well attuned to my body for pacing longer races without blowing up, even when the splits are faster than expected. So I didn't hold back out of fear - I knew (or at least, was fairly sure) that I could maintain pace.
( Numbers and analysis )
ETA: If you want to be amused by the sight of me gasping like a landed trout as I race toward the finish line, here are the official pictures. Some of them (from the middle portion of the race) aren't too bad, but mostly? I look like a fish.
( Longwinded storytelling )
Final results: 1:37:17 gun time, 1:37:01 chip time. This is a PR for me by 4:43! 3rd in age group (45-49F) out of 172, 37th woman out of 1942, 213 human being out of 3282. I am still a very long way behind #1 and #2 (at 1:27:55, and OMG she is 49!, and 1:32:57) but #4 was 1:39:21 so I had a comfortable lead on her. The Runworks calculator spits out 1:33:40 for a sea level equivalent half, which, yeah, right. For a half at 6600 ft. I have to interpolate but it suggests about 1:39, which makes sense as that's a 7:35 pace, what I was aiming for in my training.
I attribute this great race to six things:
1) I had a really solid marathon training cycle up to 2 weeks ago, with 3 weeks in the 65 mpw range.
2) I was slightly injured - not enough to interfere with my racing, but enough that I took quite a bit of time off before this race, so all my training fatigue was gone.
3) The altitude advantage of living and training at 6600 feet and racing at 4000 feet.
4) Perfect weather; I run better in the cold.
5) A fast course, very gently rolling with a slight net downhill.
6) I am pretty well attuned to my body for pacing longer races without blowing up, even when the splits are faster than expected. So I didn't hold back out of fear - I knew (or at least, was fairly sure) that I could maintain pace.
( Numbers and analysis )
ETA: If you want to be amused by the sight of me gasping like a landed trout as I race toward the finish line, here are the official pictures. Some of them (from the middle portion of the race) aren't too bad, but mostly? I look like a fish.