I was a tad nervous entering my first half-marathon distance race on Sunday. I felt under-trained and unprepared. Since Grandma's Marathon in late June, I think I've only run 3 long runs, none of them consistently timed, and none further than 12 miles. However, I had begun doing speed work once a week and biking regularly on non-running days. I set an ambitious goal for myself to qualify for the D Corral at the marathon. I had never run even close to an 8:30 pace on a long run, but wanted to give it a shot.
I can now say without hesitation that the Distance Classic was a break-through race for me. On race morning the temps were in the low 60s, completely unreal for mid-August. I woke up early to go downtown with Cassie to help set up their tent in the charity village. Saturday night I was at the White Sox and Red Sox game at The Cell, and so it goes without saying that I didn't get an adequate amount of sleep, although I was good at the game and stayed hydrated with water and gatorade instead of eating junk food and drinking beer. It was chilly downtown at 4:30 in the morning, but I was feeling good. After meeting up with a few friends before the race, Jon, Erik and Kevin, I went to the starting corral and lined-up with Jon.
I wanted to line-up near the 1:50 pacer, but it was impossible to get close since it was so packed, so I was actually near the 2:00 pacer. The race waves started and I saw the 1:50 pacer go with the second wave, but I was stuck with the third wave. While I appreciated the wave start, I already felt like I had failed at my goal since I was left to my own devices to qualify. After about 5 minutes of waiting, our wave was off and running. I wanted to keep my pace around 9 min/mile for the first half, and then 8:30 or faster the second half. I had some issues with my watch at the one-mile marker, if you see my split below was over 9 min. It was actually about 8:50 and the second mile was closer to 8:45. The rest of my splits were as follows:
Mile Splits:Mile 1: 9:16
Mile 2: 8:22
Mile 3: 8:39
Mile 4: 8:45
Mile 5: 8:37
Mile 6: 8:21
Mile 7: 10:09
Mile 8: 8:23
Mile 9: 8:12
Mile 10: 8:48
Mile 11: 7:46
Mile 12: 8:05
Mile 13: 8:21
Mile .1: :53
You're probably wondering what happened at Mile 6-7. I'll come back to that. I felt great through about 11 and a half miles, then it got painful. I took 2 clif shot blocks right before the race and at miles 5 and 10, in addition I also sipped Gatorade during the race. Instead of drinking the entire cup like I have done in previous races, I just drank a little and it made a big difference because it allowed me to run through each water stop and I didnt over-drink like I did in Duluth. The second half of my race was about 6 minutes faster than the first, so I had a great negative split.
After my 10 minute mile at the half-way point I felt the qualifying time slipping away so I picked up the pace despite fears that I was going to bonk big time. When I hit mile 12, I was pretty sure that I would miss the D Corral qualifier, since I was pretty spent and needed to run close to a 7 min. final mile. I wanted to stop running so badly during the last mile, but I held on and finished in 1:52:33, which is an average pace of 8:36 per mile. I ran the entire 13.1 without walking once, which was another break-through for me.
After looking through my splits following the race, I was completely baffled by what happened between miles 6 and 7. I knew that I hadn't slowed my pace that much. I hadnt even run over a 9 minute mile the entire race. I felt the distance must have been off by a bit, but of course could not prove anything. While I was disappointed to miss the D Corral qualifier time I was extremely happy with how well I ran. I left feeling like a sub 4 hour marathon was well within my grasp.
I spent the next couple hours cheering on runners near the 13 mile mark and had a great time. The race was well-organized and the course was beautiful. I have only two complaints: No GU or Clif Shots were provided on the course, and the tech t-shirt was HUGE. I think I will drown if I wear it running. Otherwise, I'd definitely recommend this race, although the weather will probably never again be this perfect for a mid-August race ever again.
P.S. Yesterday, on my way home from work I got a text from my friend Jon. It turns out that the course was measured incorrectly and was actually about .2 miles longer at the half-way turnaround. I knew it! The Chicago Marathon adjusted their qualifying time for CDC finishers to make the D Corral to 1:53, so I qualified like I hoped! My average pace was 8:29 for 13.1 miles. I am thrilled that I reached my goal and that I have an even better chance now of running a sub 4 hour marathon in October. Two months to go! Let the hard training begin.
