Ilanarama!

Friday afternoon Britt and I drove out to Moab with the bikes in the truck; we had a pleasant dinner at Miguel's with our friends Kevin and Nora (as per tradition) and I drank a margarita (also as per tradition), then went back to the motel (the Gonzo Inn, where Karah and I usually stay) and took a soak in the hot tub (you guessed it). It was a lot more fun to have Britt along, which was not not as per tradition, but I hope it becomes one.

In the morning we got up and had coffee and breakfast cookies with Kevin and Nora (yep), then caught our respective buses for our respective starts. I was running the Canyonlands Half for my fourth time, and Britt would be running the five-miler; he's not really into racing, but he runs four miles with me a couple of times a week, so I figured he'd be fine.

It was a relatively warm but cloudy day, with only a light breeze - welcome weather after the ferocious headwinds of 2011 and 2012. After a quick porta-potty stop, I found Karah and the rest of the Grand Junction girls, and we chatted, resting among the red rocks while waiting to be allowed to move up the canyon to the start.

I lined up a bit in front of the 1:40 pacer; based on my last few tempo runs of around 7:32 pace, and my average mileage of around 44mpw, I figured 1:38-ish would be a good goal. Maybe I had a shot at a PR, under 1:37. My plan was to go no faster than 7:20 for the first mile (it's sharply downhill and oh-so-easy to go too fast - last year I ran 7:20 that mile, and the year before, 7:18) and no faster than 7:24 (1:37 pace) for the next three miles, then play by ear.

( The race )

( And then we went mountain biking. And eating. And biking again. )

Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend, A+ would run (and bike) again!

...or, taper is overrated. :-)

After running the 25K of the Durango Double on Saturday, I got a quick leg massage, drank a couple of beers, and then went home to rest up for Sunday's half marathon. (I should add that I got to the race start - and home again - by bicycle. Needless to say, I rode home SLOWLY.) I did a little stretching and foam rolling, and I iced my calves.

My legs were starting to ache by evening, and when I woke the next morning DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) had set in. Oddly, the part of my body that hurt the most was my butt! Walking around the house in the morning helped loosen up my muscles, as did the hike to the start, about 3/4 of a mile - and 350 feet vertical - at the college on top of the mesa behind my house. It was quite cold, and I wore a jacket and gloves along with my short-sleeve top and running skirt, intending to send them to the finish in my drop bag. I ended up keeping the gloves on, and in fact didn't take them off until mile 9 or so.

I said hello to several of the people I'd run with the day before, and other local runners I knew, and we all jockeyed for position at the start. Both the half and full marathon were starting together, as had the 25K and 50K on Saturday. ( And we were off! )

One of my favorite races is coming up again on Saturday, the Steamworks Animas Valley Half Marathon. It's a beautiful rolling course along the edge of the valley north of town, and the race finishes at a sports club with a pool, massage therapists, and free burgers and beers from one of our excellent local brewpubs. This will be my fourth time running it; for the last two years I have been injured and volunteered instead (I worked the finish line in 2010 and directed traffic in 2011), so I am really looking forward to racing it again!

This was my first race in Durango, in 2004; I ran a 2:01 on fairly casual training. Four years later, in 2008, I ran it again, but I had had back problems over the winter and didn't start running again until only 6 weeks before the race, and I clung desperately to my entirely unrealistic sub-2-hour goal until it was too late. I finished in 2:03, feeling miserable.

But I trained carefully that summer, and in October I ran the Baltimore Marathon in 3:54, which the discerning person will note is equal to two sub-2-hour half marathons back-to-back. So in 2009 I hoped to come in under 1:50 at the Steamworks Half...and entirely shocked myself by running a 1:44:19, which got me third place among over-40 women.

I've run other half marathons since then, all but one of them faster than this time, but that was the last time I ran this course. It's at my local elevation (as opposed to the Moab races, which are about 2500 ft lower) and it's a rolling course with a rather rude uphill finish, so I'm not expecting to PR - but I am hoping to improve my "course PR".

I had been training fairly well and consistently this spring after rebuilding from my January marathon, averaging 45mpw and incorporating some speed and tempo runs, but I hit a setback a couple weeks ago when suddenly running just felt wrong and things were hurting. I took a week mostly off, and then ramped up again last week but only got about 32 miles in, and I didn't run anything fast at all. I was worried I'd lost a lot of fitness. But then this week I tossed in a short tempo run - and felt great! In fact, all my runs this week have been fast, with low HR, and I've felt really good. So I am starting to believe I might have a decent race after all. Cross your fingers for me!

My big goal is sub-1:40. Well, I'd also like to win my age group (40-49F, as it's a small race), but there are at least two other strong contenders running. But 1:39:xx will delight me, and 1:38:xx will put me OVER THE MOON. I will be content with something under 1:42. And then I will drink lots of beer.

[pre-race report]

Cliff notes version: 1:43:54, my worst time on this course and only 23 seconds faster than my spring 2009 half, my first race after getting serious about running, but I'm happy with it as a comeback considering I only started running again after my stress fracture ten weeks ago. (Also, it barely qualifies me for the NY Marathon for the last year before they tighten their standards considerably. I might have to run it next year.) 6th in my AG (out of 123), 30th woman out of 1144, 127th human being out of 1733.

( The play-by-play )

This was my third Other Half, my sixth race put on by the Moab Half Marathon organization, and the first in which I did not take home a trophy or medal[*]. And I'm okay with that. Comparing my run this year with the previous two years, I don't see anything I could have done differently. I paced reasonably. I worked at an appropriate effort level. I raced with what I had on the day, and that is all I could do.

( The post-game analysis )

So I know that this year's racing season is a work in progress, and it's barely begun. The Winter Sun 10K is in seven weeks. We'll see what happens.

[*] Well, actually, I did get a medal, as The Other Half gives finisher's medals to everyone who runs. This year's medal is not only attractive but useful, as it's a combination race medal/bottle opener! (Photo courtesy of my friend Paul, paulbe.)



And that reminds me that in fact I DID get a PR this year. One reason I love this race is because the Moab Brewery supplies free beer (in souvenir pint glasses) at the end. I learned last year that all Utah beer is 3.2 (that is, relatively weak) due to Utah's bizarre alcohol regulations. But I don't mind, because that means I can drink a whole lot! I had three pints direct from the tap, plus two other people decided they didn't want to drink and I got half of each of their beers, for a total of four. That is a post-race Beer PR! (And I still felt entirely sober driving home.)

After 13.1 miles of it, I can now report that "running against the wind" really sucks. I was feeling good, well-trained, at a good weight, and healthy; in other words, I was ready for a PR, but the weather had other ideas. Strong south winds that funneled up the Colorado River canyon made the race a lot harder than it was last year. Still, I ran 1:40:25, which exactly ties my Other Half time from October (2 weeks after a marathon and a hillier course), and as the wind indiscriminately affected everyone, I ended up with 3rd in my age group, same as I did last year with a 3+ minute faster time.

( Gory details )

It was still a great weekend. Dee, an imaginary friend from RWOL, flew in from the midwest to run this race, and ended up taking first place Masters female even though she was disappointed in her time. I had margaritas at Miguel's the night before the race, and beers at the Moab Brewery after, with a bunch of other RWOL friends, including my usual race roomie Karah and our friend Kevin. (Karah's report has lots of great photos - I stole the one above from her - and is here on her blog.) The next day Dee and I visited Arches National Park despite the continued miserable windy weather, and it was fun hiking to the pretty arches even though the sky was cold and gray and the air hazy.

Despite the lack of PR, I still feel fairly confident about my upcoming marathon on May 1st. And I'll be running another half marathon, the local Steamworks Half, in June, giving me another chance at a PR.

I 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.

I ran the Steamworks Half Marathon this morning. It was my third time running this race, but my first time actually managing to train for it, and so I had high hopes for doing far better than the slightly more than 2-hour times I had run before. I always have multiple goals, and as I posted over at runners, these were mine:

Fallback goal: better than 1:56 (my current half marathon PR, which was actually the first half of the Baltimore Marathon)
Stated goal: better than 1:50
Seekrit goal: 1:48:xx
All the stars align and someone throws magic pixie dust on me: better than 1:48

Well, the pixie dust was flying, apparently: I ran 1:44:19, third place among Masters women (40-59) out of 37, and 8/140 women overall. I am, to put it mildly, stunned. Especially since that works out to be just under an 8 minute mile - and I ran maybe a total of 4 miles during training at that speed. Even my speed miles were mostly in the range 8:05-8:20, which I found it hard to sustain for the full interval distance of 1-4 miles - so how come I managed to do slightly better than that for 13.1?

I started out running at what I thought was a comfortable pace, and kept sneaking glances at my Garmin, thinking, oh, it must be reading off, there is no way I am running that fast. And then I hit the first mile marker and it still told me I was running too fast. Yet my heart rate was well within what I had laid out as my "don't run faster than this or you will suffer" level. It was downhill, so I reasoned, hey, I'm just getting a boost from the hill Same thing happened the second mile. And the third. And by then I just figured I would roll with it, keep the pace, see how I felt, and much to my surprise I felt pretty good until about mile 12, when I just wanted it to be over, damn it, but talked myself into finishing by promising my body it could keel over after the finish line. (Which it did.)

Then I drank three beers. \o/