Even though I haven't been writing about it, I have been getting ready.
A great thing about my first pacing adventure is that it will be right in my neighborhood. I drive on or by the course just about every day, sometimes several times a day, so it's easy to jump on it for practice. Since the last blog post I've done that four times and plan to do it once more this week, probably tomorrow (actually according to the clock and calendar it already is "tomorrow", but it's not to me since I haven't gone to bed yet).
I ran it the first time when we had a nice day on Sunday January 12. I wanted to familiarize myself with the course and get some miles at a relaxed pace. I loaded my Camelback with warm water and threw in a few gels and a Clif Bar. However, I got started late and had a prior commitment, so I had to cut the distance short and push a little toward the end. Still a good run (12.3 miles in about 2:08) and I made it to the ceremony just in time.
Second attempt I had time to take the full 3 hours and aimed to do just that. I set the virtual partner on my Garmin to 13:44 minutes per mile and started my run. I tried not looking at the watch too often and remember the pace I used during the 24 Hour Treadmill Challenge. However, with most of the first couple of miles of the course being downhill, I was quickly a couple of minutes ahead of my planned pace and had to walk awhile to get back on schedule. I had to both slow my cadence and shorten my stride. By doing that and walking up some hills, I was able to hit pretty close to my mark, finishing in 2:58. This was proving to be harder than I expected. I had not anticipated how much it was going to hurt! I think it was because of the stride length change causing me to use muscles differently, but I was as sore or more so than if I had raced it.
Third time really was a charm. I nailed it!
My friend Larry Kelley gave me the suggestion that it would be better to try to keep my effort level constant rather than trying to keep my pace constant despite the terrain. On this run I concentrated on that. I was again ahead of schedule in the early part, but that gave me some cushion to walk up the harder hills in the last third of the course. The sun had set, so I could only check the Garmin when I reached a street light (I'm still working on figuring out how to make the backlighting thing work). I gave up trying to get it exact, and just hit the stop button when I thought I was close to 13.1 miles and 3 hours time. I couldn't believe I hit it exactly!
On my fourth time running the course, I was again short of time, so I just ran it, not worrying about pace. I took it fairly easy in the first 2/3, but then pushed pretty hard in the last 1/3. The result was an unofficial half-marathon PR of 2:14:29! No medal and no fans, but it felt just as good as if I'd had a number pinned on.
I'm probably over-prepared. I'll find out soon.
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