Race Post-Mortem: I'm Older Now, But Still Running Against the Wind

Me on the final stretch along the Boardwalk, trying to fend off the guy behind me.  Thanks to the race organizers for the free downloads of our race photos!

Sunday, March 20, 2016
Virginia Beach, VA
Difficulty score: 2/10 (1 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

In other words, it was my birthday and I ran the Shamrock Half-Marathon with 20-mile per hour winds from the north, which gave us a headwind for the first three miles and a pretty nasty cross-breeze in the seventh and eighth miles.  Thanks Bob Seger.  But it could have been much worse.  The mid- to high-forties temperatures were optimal for a PR.  These conditions were certainly better for a half-marathon or marathon than the 70-degree weather that DC and Virginia had been getting these past two weeks.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was originally going to run the full marathon with the goal of getting a 3:04:59 in order to allow me to register during the first week of registration for Boston 2017.  However, after dealing with some Achilles tendon soreness for the weeks preceding this race, I decided to transfer to the half-marathon.  I actually was not regretting that decision going into this race, since I had good reason to believe that I was in a good position to run a half-marathon PR.  Historically, I have run my best half-marathon times during tune-up races following a training cycle for a marathon, and that was what I was doing here.  Plus, the half-marathon course was flat, straight, and fast.  After two and a half miles north on Atlantic Avenue, runners would then veer left onto Shore Drive and run three miles along the border of First Landing Park.  The next three miles were through Fort Story, past the Cape Henry Lighthouse.  Finally, we would return south along Atlantic Avenue to the finish line on the Boardwalk.  The main thing we had to watch out for were the headwinds during the first segment north on Atlantic Avenue and the nasty cross-breezes in Fort Story, which was very close to the beach.

Map of the half-marathon course from the website.

Training

Obviously, much of my training leading up to the Shamrock Half-Marathon would have been more specific to a marathon.  My mileage during the winter was quite a bit lower than it was during my training for Hartford and for Chicago; most of my mileage since the end of December was in the high forties and fifties, with 58 miles as my maximum.  But I did take my tempo runs at a faster pace; whereas before, they were mostly between 6:30 to 6:35/mile pace, I took them mostly around 6:20-6:30/mile pace this time around.

The structure of my training was very similar to my training for Hartford and Chicago:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: tempo runs.  These would typically consist of a one-mile warm-up, followed by four miles at 6:18 to 6:30/mile pace and then a one-mile cool-down.  Later in the cycle, I started extending the length of the tempo portion to five and then six miles.
• Wednesday: 4-5 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Thursday: tempo runs similar to the Tuesday night ones earlier in the cycle, but later, these transformed into mid-week mini-long runs of 8-10 miles at my typical long run pace.
• Friday: 4-6 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Saturday: 6-8 miles easy (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace).
• Sunday: long runs of between 12 and 21 miles (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace), although some were used as progressions where I accelerated toward target marathon pace (7:00 to 7:05/mile pace) in the later miles.

My mileage for a few of the weeks were very low; I had one 35-mile week during the huge snowstorm that hit Washington DC in late January, and I had a 30-mile week in February when I tweaked my Achilles tendon.  But other than that, I was able to complete most of my training, even with the Achilles tendon soreness.

The Race

When I left the hotel, I already encountered a relentless wind from the north with steady rain.  Waiting for the start was unpleasant, but I knew that running the half-marathon in this would not be nearly as bad.  The day before the race, Socrates had given both me and Danny heat sheets that he had pilfered from the Rock and Roll DC Marathon the previous week, and I was wearing it like babushka in the starting corral.  It helped keep me warm while I waited and shielded my head from the rain; I owe a big Thank You to Socrates for this heat sheet.

After the National Anthem and a somewhat reassuring update on the weather indicating that the rain was going to let up during the race, we were off.  Fortunately, even though my hands were very cold, I had enough fine motor skills left to start my Garmin.

Miles 1 through 3 (6:37, 6:37, 6:34): As mentioned before, for the first two and a half miles, we would be running north on Atlantic Avenue straight into the wind.  My thoughts during these miles were to get behind a group of people to shield me from the wind, and not to freak out if my splits were more like 6:35 to 6:40/mile rather than the 6:25 to 6:30 that I had been hoping for.  I would most likely get a tailwind-assisted finish on the way back.  Also, I made sure to avoid large puddles so that I would minimize the amount of water in my shoes.

The first two miles were tough.  I felt like I was working during these miles.  That could have been a result of the headwind, or it could have been because I did not have much of a warm-up prior to the start.  I had trouble finding a good pack to run with during these early miles.  First I settled behind this relatively large pack, but I ended up leaving them behind after I felt I was going too slowly.  I caught up with the next group ahead, but then ended up dropping them as well.  I finally ended up finding these two guys that were running at a pace approximately what I wanted to do for the early miles.  I tried running behind one of them, but he kept weaving around; part of me wanted to tell him to stop running like a drunk person and to run in a straight line so he could shield me from the wind.  Fortunately, my Achilles tendon was feeling great throughout these early miles.

Miles 4 through 6 (6:26, 6:29, 6:23): Once we made the turn into First Landing Park, we finally got some respite from the headwinds, so I gradually picked up the pace a little.  So did a lot of other people; I got passed by several runners during this stretch, particularly after I realized halfway through the fourth mile that I was going a little too fast at this stage of the race (6:21/mile pace) and slowed down a little.  By the fourth mile, I had finally settled into a good pace and effort level.  I was pushing my turnover a little, but the effort felt controlled.  The effort was not exactly easy on my aerobic system either, but it wasn't stressing it like a 5K or 10K effort would.

When I saw my splits for the fourth and fifth miles, I realized I might have a chance at a half-marathon PR.  I just needed to keep my paces for most of the remaining miles under 6:30/mile.  My Achilles tendon was still holding up wonderfully.  Meanwhile, as I rounded the turn into Fort Story, I mentally prepared myself for the more difficult seventh and eighth miles.

Miles 7 through 9 (6:30, 6:33, 6:26): I remembered from my experiences during the Shamrock Marathon two years ago that these two miles through Fort Story and past the Cape Henry Lighthouse were difficult due to the winds.  The race course was very close to the beach, and headwinds and crosswinds during this stretch could be brutal.  As I ran through Fort Story, I made a plan to run behind people, and to keep the same effort level as I held during the previous miles through First Landing Park.  I was expecting my pace per mile to get slightly slower during these next two miles, but I reminded myself of the tailwind waiting for me during the last three miles of the race.

I tried looking for a pack to run with, but again could not find one.  Whenever I would catch up with a group of people, I would end up passing them and trying to catch the next group up ahead; it must have been my lack of patience or the desire to just get out of this stretch of the race.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find that my pace didn't fall off nearly as bad as I thought it would.  Like during the Shamrock Marathon when I ran through this stretch, I felt like my bib was going to blow off; although I knew the safety pins would hold it in place, the rattling sound of the wind against my bib was unnerving, and I regularly used my right hand to press it against my torso as some sort of reassurance.

Miles 10 through the end (6:17, 6:18, 6:19, 6:08, 0:57 for the last 0.16 miles): By the time I left Fort Story, I was running by myself.  The next group of people were about a quarter of a mile ahead.  But just like I expected, the headwinds that gave us all so much trouble in the beginning was now a tailwind giving us a bit of help in these last miles.  Plus, more spectators were out now cheering on the runners, and that made things feel easier.  I accelerated a little, but kept my pace no faster than 6:15/mile; I still had four more miles to go, and I didn't want to burn through whatever energy I had left too quickly.

When I passed the 10-mile marker, my Garmin read 1:05:02.  I quickly did the math and realized that I was on track for a pretty substantial half-marathon PR.  I kept telling myself during these last miles that I just needed to stay faster than 6:27/mile to get a PR.  Plus, I was very happy to find that the moment I crossed the 10-mile marker, I had covered 10.05 miles according to my Garmin; I know running tangents should be very easy on a very straight course such as this one, but still, I wanted to cover as little distance over 13.1 miles as I possibly could.

I wanted to speed up even more thanks to my typical late-race impatience, but the more rational part of me told me just to keep at the 6:15-6:20/mile pace that I was currently running.  Of course, the pace wasn't easy at all; I was going at nearly 10K pace.  But I kept telling myself that all I needed to do to get my half-marathon PR was to stay at this effort level for two more miles and not screw up.

After I veered toward the left for the last half-mile of the race, I was shocked to hear somebody screaming my name.  As far as I knew, Socrates and Danny were the only two people from the DC Front Runners down here, and they were supposed to be lining up in the starting corrals for the full marathon.  As I got closer, I realized it was John; I knew he had mentioned a while ago about possibly coming down to Virginia Beach to spectate and heckle us, but I did not know he actually was here.  It was a very welcome surprise, and it gave me a boost to carry me through the last mile.  He even made signs for us:

Me after the race, holding the sign that John made for us.  Go Miss Pam!

I actually was closing in on the next runner up ahead (who I met after the race and actually turned out to be from Arlington).  I picked up the pace a little and passed him as we both rounded that last right turn onto the boardwalk.  As I could see the finish line up ahead and noticed on my Garmin that I was one hour and 22 minutes into the race, my thoughts were: "Would it be possible that I would not only break 1:25:00 this time, but break 1:24:00?"  I accelerated even more.

But finish lines are always quite a bit further than you think.  I did not break 1:24:00, but I finished in 1:24:31 (6:27/mile), a PR by nearly 45 seconds.  This was also the sixth race that I needed to run in order to complete the DC Front Runners Race Circuit, and it contributed to my point totals by quite a lot; a 1:24:31 half-marathon at my new age gives me an age-graded score of 69.26, which, times 1.05 for a half-marathon in accordance with Race Circuit rules, gives me a score of 72.723.  Plus, I finished 59th out of over 6700 finishers, which means I finished in the top one percent of finishers, a feat that I have not accomplished until now.

Also, according to my Garmin, I covered 13.16 miles.  I'm slowly regaining my abilities to run tangents well; the past two half-marathons that I had done, I covered over 13.25 miles.  Having a straighter course certainly did help, but also, I didn't try to actively hit the tangents this time around, unlike my last two marathons.  Perhaps the secret to minimizing the distance you cover in a race is just to run in a straight line and not worry about it too much?

Finally, my Achilles tendon held up just fine through this race.  It was a little sore afterwards, but the next morning when I woke up, I felt nothing.

Next Steps

I plan on taking about a week off from running, which will hopefully give my Achilles tendon time to recover completely.  Then I plan to run a few 5K races.  Every April, Pacers holds a series of Friday night 5K races down in Crystal City.  I have participated in these in the past and enjoyed them.  I plan to run the April 8 and April 15 races, and then that will be the end of my racing season.  Then I will reduce my running significantly as I focus on dancing and piano for two months or so.  Afterwards, I plan on beginning my training for my Fall 2016 marathon.

Even though I think I made the right choice by transferring to the half-marathon, I am now looking forward to doing another marathon.  I still have not chosen my fall marathon; I have two friends who are considering running their very first marathon in the fall, and I think it would be nice for us to do the same race.  So I think the next step is to peruse findmymarathon.com and find a fall marathon that is reasonably fast, not at altitude, and in a city that we would actually like to visit.