this race reports a bit late, but ive been takng the advice of a person who i really look up to for being an amazing runner and a truly great guy: he told me the key is to spend less time talking about running and more time actually running. as usual it hasnt all benn running, but training of some sort has been much more seious and race-specific now that im racing regularly.
ive run a few races beyond marathon distance but never bothered to race a half marathon, until last weeked. and its true that one of the best parts of racing a new distance is a guaranteed PR.
at first it peeved me to be racing in another small where people seem to be scared of me because i wasnt born there, but on the way down i began to accept the fact that its not the small towns -its me. living a full hour outside chicago makes me feel as if the rest of state should be like the oswego area, but you after less than an hour of driving south, i became fully aware that my trip to McNabb, shocking as it may have been for me, wasnt a journey to one small pocket of completely rural illinois. most of this state is organized into towns of well under 2000 people each.
the course was pretty perfect for running fast, but the conditions were the kicker. we took buses out to the starting line and ran two roughly square loops (of about 5.5-6 miles each) before running back to the school where the finish line was set up. the wind was pretty stiff, 35-40 miles per hour during the race, and considering that we ran stright into it on the hilly portion of the loop, the splits werent great. i stayed right around 6:40 the whole time, but my pace dropped to over 7:20 each time i hit the wind. the sun was feeling suprizingly warm at the start and by the time i was pasing the 8 mile mark it felt hot. i havnt been hitting the sauna like i should and going from about 40 degrees in training to above 70 racing doenst feel too great. i was just glad that i was as naked as legally possible. i dont know how people were running with shirts and arm warmers. however im sure the heat was more of a shock to me than most others: lake effect sucks.
i was fellin burnt by the last mile. i saw my pace bouncing from 6:40s to 7:00 and didnt care to much either way. i knew for sure i was gona break 1:30 and all things considered i was content with that.
finishing in 8th place, and under 1:30, made me very happy. with the conditions like they were the only way to measure my performace accuratly is to consider who i finished in front of as well as who i finised behind. i finished in front of atleast two people that have recently enough run 2:40s for a marathon. -thats when i knew my run was a success.
now to recover, train hard, and get ready for round two on april 3rd.
No comments:
Post a Comment