Monday, October 19, 2009

1:11:08

I love it when a good plan comes together.

Sunday I ran in the Humboldt Redwoods Half Marathon. This was the mid-season race that I was really gearing up for. On Saturday Dana & I drove 4 hours north into the middle of nowhere. We spent the night in quaint Garberville, then drove the last half hour Sunday morning to the Avenue of the Giants in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park for the race.

My first observation on race day was my lack of nerves. I don't ever help myself by feeling uptight before a race - and I was the exact opposite. I was almost too loose at 19 minutes before the race, when I still had to get back to the car to put on my race jersey, flats, and timing chip, make a pit stop, and do a few strides. With no panic I got all that done and was on the start line 5 minutes before the scheduled start (and 10 minutes before the actual start).

As the race went off, my teammate Todd Rose made his normal wise crack - which means I'll probably have a goofy grin in somebody's photo of the start. The front four runners, including Todd, took off, while I settled into a comfortable pace behind them. Shortly before the mile mark, we established a pack of 5 runners, including my teammate Mike Little and 3 of the rival River City Rebels.

We hit the mile mark in 5:20 - which was 10 seconds faster than my planned 5:30 pace. From training I felt like I could run 5:30s forever, but that 5:20s would wear me down a bit too quickly. I told my teammates & promised myself that I wouldn't run faster than 5:30s for the first few miles. But the pace felt just fine. I figured that over the next hour and five to seven minutes that running a little faster with 4 other people would be a lot easier than running a little slower by myself.

So I committed to this pack and settled in. The pace and the turnover felt pretty quick, but all systems were in the green - legs, stride, lungs, heart. For the next couple of miles I tucked in behind Mike and Rebel Alan Jackson (both over 6 feet tall, so great to draft off of). I felt the first small ache in my legs in the 3rd mile, but nothing big - just keep running. We hit the 2nd mile in 5:24, the 3rd in 5:22 (16:06 total). Rebel Andrew Timmins tells his teammates that he just ran a 5k PR. I took a turn at the lead in the 4th mile (5:20) as we picked up one of the lead 4 runners who fell off. After the 5 mile mark (5:22) I saw Todd Rose not too far ahead. I had told myself not to press anything until after 5 miles. Even though we ran faster than I expected to this point I was feeling good about how the race was unfolding.

At this point I took the lead from Rebel Gus Gibbs, and tried to close the gap on Todd. My little surge put some pressure on the group as Mike dropped slightly off, as did the runner we picked up from the initial lead group. We hit 6 miles in 31:58 (a 5:10 mile), although I think that mile marker was off by 10 to 15 seconds. After 6 miles I had in my mind that there was a mile and a half until the half way turn around. I was a little surprised to see a sign saying "turn around 200 meters". Of course Einstein - 13 divided by 2 is in fact 6.5! Maybe I'm pushing my body a bit harder than I thought... But while the effort wasn't easy anymore, I was still under control and ready for the real race to start after the turn-around.

We turned around & shortly caught Todd. It was now Todd & me, plus 3 Rebels fighting for 3rd through 7th place. I led the group at the 7 mile mark (5:44, but like I said I think the last mile mark was a touch early). After that Todd, Alan Jackson, and Timmons took turns leading. I missed the 8 mile split, but somewhere near there I felt a weird sensation. It was almost a slight dizziness. Or maybe it was the feeling when you waited too long to eat lunch. Regardless, I needed to preserve my energy. I knew it was time to let the rest of the group do the work for a while. At the same time, I decided I just need to keep running with the pack. The group stayed 5 runners strong.

I hate the annoyance of grabbing and slamming down water cups while I'm racing, but the sports drink would help me out. I probably managed 1 sip at each of the last 3 aid stations (the rest on my jersey, the ground, and one accidental splash all over a competitor), but I'm sure that shot of electrolyte and those few calories helped me. I got my split at 9 miles (10:46 for the prior two miles & 48:29 total). The effort was getting really hard at this point, but I told myself just keep running! I could drop back at anytime between now and the finish, but I only had this shot to stay with the group (still 5 strong). There was an aid station around the 10 mile mark, where I lost a few strides on the pack. Gus lost a few additional strides on me. Now it was a real decision to make. It didn't take long as I put my head down and tucked back in behind the 3 runners. Gus' footsteps faded, but 15 seconds later I heard them again. I held my hand back in encouragement. We were 5 runners competing from 2 different track clubs, but after spending the last hour running fast together, it felt like we were one team.

The 10 mile split was 54:04. Man I'm hurting at this point but felt encouraged by knocking well over a minute off my 10 mile PR (I forgot to mention that at every step past 5 miles I was setting a post-college PR for that distance). As tough as it was here, I could start to taste the finish.

After the 10 mile mark, Gus' footsteps disappeared. Then I lost contact - barely. The 3 runners weren't far in front of me, but I wasn't part of the group anymore. I didn't give up, and a few times I even closed some of the gap. 5:36 for the 11th mile. I had slowed down, but not egregiously. The 3 runners weren't far ahead. Surge this slight uphill. Surge this slight downhill. They didn't get away but they didn't get any closer. Now inside of 2 miles, I'm throwing any and all caution out of the window. It was going to hurt, but I was going to finish, and finish with a really fast time. The 3 runners weren't getting any further away, and 2nd place came into the view for the first time since maybe 4 miles into the race.

Somehow, my 12th mile was one of the fastest of the race in 5:19. At 1:05:01 & my brain seeming capable of simple math again, I figured out I needed to run a few seconds faster than 5:30 pace for the last 1.1 miles to crack under 71 minutes. To do that, I had to contend with the toughest feature of the course. The Highway 101 overpass was a very short, but deceptively steep hill just past the 12 mile mark. As the 3 man pack hit the slope they suddenly seemed in reach again.

I leaned into the hill and gave it everything I had. The gap was closing down to 10 meters. Then as they crested, Alan Jackson made his decisive move. Those few strides that he sprinted downhill while I was grinding out my last uphill strides were all it took. He was gone. Rebel Andrew Timmons responded, and Todd was just behind him. The gap grew to 20 meters, then 30, and it only got worse. I leaned into the downhill, but just had nothing left.

With a half mile to go, my 6th place finish was set in stone. I was running against the clock. True to Humboldt county's reputation, someone was smoking dope on the side of the road. While one to two breaths tasted terrible, I cracked a smile, and tried to use that to push harder. As I neared the finish I was tying up & my stride started to fall apart. My last mile was 5:34 (+33 sec for the final 0.1) for a finishing time of 1:11:08. It was a 5:26 average pace.

Todd Rose finished 5th in 1:10:51, right behind Alan Jackson & Andrew Timmins in 1:10:45 and 1:10:48. Gus Gibbs, who had been battling the flu for 3 weeks, had a solid half marathon debut in 1:12:08 for 8th, and my teammate Mike Little was 9th in 1:12:31.

While I lost the race for 3rd place, I have no regrets. I ran an aggressive, mostly intelligent race, and I ran tough as hell. I felt like after the race I had given it my all. My training over the past 4 months has paid off enormously. I've had some strong cross country races, but there's nothing quite as satisfying as running a huge PR. I could update pretty much all of my PRs on my blog page to the right, but I'll save those till I run those official distances.

Sorry this was longer than usual. It was a memorable race for me (and fun) so I wanted to get my thoughts down. So if you got this far thanks for reading. And if you scrolled ahead to see how it ended, thanks as well for reading.

4 comments:

  1. Great Post. Congratulations!
    love, mom

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  2. I laughed out loud at "Of course Einstein - 13 divided by 2 is in fact 6.5!"

    Great post! Very inspiring!

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  3. Great race, Jamey. I love this part: (I forgot to mention that at every step past 5 miles I was setting a post-college PR for that distance).

    And really a nice write-up as well. Very gutsy to push the effort off of a blistering pace. That's the Gifford I know and love.

    I'm psyched to see how this strength plays out in shorter races this fall. You're gonna fly.

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  4. Wow - that's amazing! I am still sticking with around the golf course at a very slow pace:-) Tell Dana "Hi" for me - sounds like marriage has done well for your racing too.!
    love........Cathy

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