As part of my winter running focus, and run up to the Carlsbad Marathon in January, I decided to take a spin through the Seattle Half Marathon this morning. The race kind of snuck on me - so here's my confession: I never managed to get registered for this race but showed up and ran it anyway. I did so self-supported though; I didn't take any support out on the course and just carried some gels with me. I signed up last year, and I'll get off my arse and sign up when the time comes next year.
I ran the race with a buddy of mine last year. I was just getting my running going and he wanted to break 2 hours so we just did that. This year, I wanted to set a mark that showed that all the running I've been doing paid off. Fortunately, the weather was much nicer than last year's low-30s with pouring rain and sleet. This year, it was high-30s at the starting line under clear blue skies.
I even over-dressed a bit. For that temp, I wore what I usually do for training, and within a mile of the start I was getting pretty warm. But I think it's kind of a wash - the cold weather is hard on your body, so maybe being a little over-insulated isn't so bad.
Anyway, I haven't really ran a Half in years, and the last time I did was in 2002, with a 1:52. I've done the distance in training several times at around 1:47, which includes some slower sections, intersections, etc. So I definitely wanted to go sub-1:40 but knew 1:30 would be a big stretch. I was also a little anxious about how my body would handle that much hard running - my knees and feet have been starting to feel the miles a bit.
T
he Seattle course really is beautiful. It starts off by cutting straight through Downtown, then heading over along Lake Washington, then through the Arboretum over Capital Hill, and back down to Seattle Center. It's also very hilly - I clocked 640 feet of vertical. Basically the first 10K is flat and the second is constantly up-and-down.
I just ran with the crowd for the first mile - doing so in 6:53. I wasn't 100% sure how to pace the race, other than a general idea that I should stick around a heart rate of 160, which is where I've done some of my tempo work lately. But I wasn't sure if I could hold that for 90+ minutes.
1) 6:54, 149 average heart rate
2) 7:04, 159
3) 7:24, 162
4) 7:24, 162
5) 7:50, 160
Anyway, the miles started clicking off and my times are slowing a bit. By the time I got to mile 5, I wasn't in terrible shape, but felt like I might be in trouble - before the hills! Eight miles to go seemed daunting. When I saw my mile 5 split, some real negative-self-talk started happening. There is a steep downhill in that mile where you come off the Express Lanes down a VERY steep hill onto Lake Washington Blvd. That accounted for most of the slowdown in that mile. But I was starting to think getting under 1:40 was going to be a stretch.
But the funniest thing happened; when I got to the hills, I felt better. It's very hilly around my house - maybe that was it - but I was passing a lot of people on the hills. I just tried to keep running the same exertion level, and even through the really hilly section of the course, my splits stayed pretty good. Just like at IMC, I just focused on running hard to the next mile marker.
6) 7:19, 162
7) 7:34, 164
8) 7:58, 166
9) 7:09, 164
10) 7:19, 168
11) 7:30, 166
In fact, I got a bit of a second-wind around mile 9 - and decided to give it a go. This worked pretty well, but didn't last that long. I was starting to suffer by the mile 11 marker.
12) 7:24, 166
13) 6:59, 171
Before I knew it, I was running up Mercer to the stadium for the finish. I hadn't looked at the overall time in a while - I pretty much only was looking at mile splits and heart rate. When I turned the corner into the stadium, I heard the announcer say 1:35. Huh? Really? Whaddya know. Crossed the line at 1:36:40 by my watch.
I'm really pretty pleased with this and makes me look forward to continuing to drive improvement with my running. I had hoped for sub-1:40 but I wasn't very confident about it, it's nice to beat your own expectations. Post race my feet were pretty sore, and my hamstrings were fried, but a few more hours and it's working itself out. Time for Wing Dome.