Not My Day - Kaiser Recap

This morning I ran 1:13:13 for 9th place in the SF Kaiser Half Marathon. While I ran 3 minutes faster than last year, and had a decent place in a race with 7000 runners, I can't help but be disappointed. Heading into the race, I thought all signs pointed to a PR - good overall mileage, and consistently strong workouts in terms of pace and volume. But early on, as the race started to unfold, it just didn't seem like my day.

The plan was to pace ourselves at 5:20 per mile, with teammates James, Jonathan, Todd (who was just running the first half of the race), and I working together. The first mile in 5:20 didn't feel too bad, but then on a slight downhill we picked up the pace to 5:14. Even before the split it felt a little too fast, so I started to back off. Alone in 6th place now, I tried to keep a steady pace in the 3rd mile, while I watched a group of 4 pull away. I hit my 3rd mile in 5:21 (15:55 total), although I think the mile market was about 5 seconds too far forward. My 4th and 5th miles - still running alone - fell off badly in 5:38 & 5:40. In the 6th we headed downhill toward the ocean, and Todd fell back to run with me. I picked up the pace on the downhill (shocker), and averaged 5:23 for the next 3 miles. I went from struggling to pace myself alone after going out too fast, to feeling some serious tightness on the outside of my lower right leg, which radiated up to my hamstring. The pain wasn't terrible, but it was very distracting and made it that much harder to find a smooth stride and rhythm.

Around mile 7, we left Golden Gate Park, and headed for a roughly 3 miles out & 3 miles back section of the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean. While it's a beautiful stretch, being able to see so far ahead with almost no scenery change, plus an almost guaranteed headwind one of the 2 directions, makes it a serious mental challenge. Todd dropped off around 7 miles, and said "find your rhythm" as I started down the Great Highway alone. I just tried to keep my sights set on James up ahead. From 7 miles to 9 miles, I barely ever took my eyes off his back. A 20 second deficit shrunk to 12 seconds, then finally to 6 right before we turned around. Miles 9 & 10 were in 11:02 to hit 10 miles in a respectable 54:29 (still under 1:12 pace).

On the run out on the Great Highway, I felt no wind, despite seeing the mile marker flags ripple in the wind. So sure enough at the turnaround just before the 10 mile mark, I felt the fierce wind that I would have to fight for 3 miles. I wish I could say I didn't give up at that point, but the numbers don't lie. My last 3.1 miles were run in 18:40 - slower than 6 minute pace. My legs felt completely dead & it was a struggle to keep a decent pace going. I lost two spots in the last 3 miles, but didn't put up any fight to stay with them.

I should be happy that on a day when nothing really went the right way for me, that I finished with a respectable half marathon time, and 9th place out of 7000 runners. But it was a tough one to swallow. I hadn't had a bad workout in 2010, and my bad day had to come on race day. Maybe I didn't back off enough on my training this past week. But I had trained pretty hard up to the Clarksburg 30K last fall, and that didn't bother me. Perhaps I was nervous leading up to it. But I felt pretty loose on race morning.

I think I have to just chalk it up to an off day. A runner's body is a fickle instrument. You train hard & smart to prepare yourself for race day. But despite your best efforts, every now and then it just doesn't come together. One thing I could control, that I should have done better, was to keep focused and pushing hard even when the day was going great. Being prepared is crucial, but you still have to fight during the race. On a day when you feel great, it's pretty easy, but the rest those days it takes a lot of toughness.

Next up will be the Redding 10 miler on March 6th. Until then, I'll keep the mileage rolling, the workouts strong, oh and make some good ski turns :) I'll be ready to roll in Redding!