Race Post-Mortem: Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon 2017

Some of the half-marathoners and marathoners from DC Front Runners, freezing at the finish line.

Saturday, March 11, 2017
Washington, DC
Difficulty score: 5/9

It's been a while hasn't it?

Anyway, this past weekend was my first race of the 2017 calendar year and my first race in over three months.  I had intended to run this race as a tune-up for my very first Boston Marathon; not only would this help me get back into the racing mindset after a three-month hiatus, but it would also serve as the basis of a target marathon time (although a conservative one given the difficulty of this course).  I had done this half-marathon back in 2015; based on that, I decided that I should not be surprised if I finished one or two minutes slower than expected.  Thus, before the race, I had settled on 1:26:59 as a baseline goal; 1:25:59 or better was my "if everything goes right" goal.

Training

So far for this training cycle, I had essentially repeated by training plan for the Richmond Marathon this past November, with a basic weekly structure of:

• Monday: five to seven miles easy (sometimes slower than 9:00/mile) to recover from the previous day's long run.
• Tuesday: tempo run days.  These would typically consist of six to eight miles with four to six miles at 10-miler to half-marathon pace.  I ended up covering the tempo portion between 6:15/mile and 6:30/mile most of the time.
• Wednesday: four to five miles easy to recover from the previous day's tempo run.
• Thursday: longer mid-week run between eight and eleven miles, some of them with progressions to target marathon pace (7:00 to 7:05/mile) or faster.
• Friday: OFF
• Saturday: seven to nine miles easy (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace).
• Sunday: long runs of up to 19 miles.  Typically these miles were covered at the same pace as Saturday's runs, but some of them involved progression to target marathon pace.

So far, I have been able to complete most of my training as written; I have run at least 50 miles per week most weeks these past few months, with a maximum of 59 miles.  I probably would be able to get one or two more weeks of mileage in the fifties done before Boston.

The Race

March is apparently the new January this year.  Race day weather was sunny and 26 degrees Fahrenheit, with a 15 mile per hour wind: definitely the coldest conditions under which I have run a half-marathon.  But 26 degrees was much better than 76 degrees, and I certainly preferred these conditions to the steady cold rain of the 2015 race.  Besides, once I started running, I didn't really notice the cold too much.

The course had also changed slightly from the last time I had done it.  At around Mile 2, after the DC Front Runners water stop and the Lincoln Memorial, the previous route involved an out-and-back segment across Memorial Bridge to the rotary right in front of Arlington National Cemetery.  This was eliminated this year and replaced with an out-and-back segment along a brief freeway leading to I-66.  The race would also end right in front of the DC Armory, instead of in a nearby parking lot as was done in 2015; as a result, instead of a downhill finish, we now had a slight and steady uphill one.

The rest of the route was similar to the one from 2015.  We started at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, going toward the monuments (with a brief dogleg near the half-mile mark) and then turning on 23rd Street toward the Lincoln Memorial.  We then would go down Rock Creek Parkway toward Northwest DC, through Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights, and then along North Capitol Avenue south toward the Capitol for a somewhat hilly finish through Capitol Hill.

Of course, that nasty hill leading out of Rock Creek Park and into Adams Morgan at around Mile 6 was still part of the course.  The good thing about this hill was that it was short.  The bad thing about this hill was that it was quite steep; it was a 140-foot climb over one quarter of a mile, which could really disrupt your race if you don't approach it carefully.  Thus, my plan was to treat this race kind of like a 2 x 6 mile run: I would stick to half-marathon effort for the first six miles before the big hill (and not freak out if my pace wasn't as fast as it was in Shamrock last year), jog up the hill and for the next half-mile for recovery, and then return to half-marathon effort for the last six miles, hopefully closing with an even faster pace.

Map of the new route and the elevation profile (from the race website).

Miles 1 through 6 (6:33, 6:32, 6:32, 6:34, 6:34, 6:27): The first half mile was spent weaving through a lot of people and trying to get onto pace.  My pace slowed when we turned off Constitution, but then when we were about to get back onto Constitution, I took advantage of this small hill to speed up, completing the first mile a little faster than I thought I would: 6:33, when I was expecting to finish it around 6:37 or so.  But what did not make me happy was that I was already running the tangents terribly; even at the Mile 1 marker, my Garmin indicated that I had completed the first mile several seconds before I actually crossed the mile marker.

Mile 2 was relatively flat, with some downhill portions along Rock Creek Parkway, so I spent it trying to keep my pace under control.  I waved to the DC Front Runners as I passed their water stop.  Miles 3 and 4 featured that new segment along the freeway.  I found this slightly more difficult than the out-and-back segment along Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery, but nothing too outrageous; just a bit more rolling hills.  Miles 5 and 6 were the same as the old course; just down Rock Creek Parkway toward that hill leading up to Adams Morgan.  During these miles, I tried to keep an honest pace, yet tried to maintain an even effort on both uphills and downhills.  I tried not to change up the uphills to conserve energy for the hill coming up.  I was pleased to find that my splits for the first five miles were pretty consistently under 6:35.  Since Mile 6 was mostly downhill, I was able to cover that mile even faster.

Mile 7 (7:16): As planned, I turned race mode off for the hill.  I slowed down, pulling myself up the hill and giving high-fives to all the people standing on the side of the course.  I just focused on getting to the top and not worrying about how quickly I was doing it, even though I really wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.  But it turned out that nobody passed me on this hill (but then again, I was also a few hundred feet ahead of the next runner).  And my pace on this hill was about an 8:20/mile; not nearly as depressing as I thought it might be.

After I finished that hill, I ran the next half-mile easy also in order to recover from that effort.  This was something that I decided to try this year.  Last time, I tried to get right back on pace immediately after climbing the hill, which was most likely a mistake; my legs felt drained for the rest of that race.  After climbing the second slight hill on Calvert Street leading to the center of Adams Morgan, I started to pick up the pace again.  Going into the race, I accepted that I would finish this mile quite a bit slower; I decided I would have been happy if I finished this mile in around 7:15.

Miles 8 through 11 (6:32, 6:24, 6:21, 6:16): I was able to get back on track pretty quickly, even in spite of another substantial hill near Georgia Avenue.  But after I crested that hill, I knew I had a fast part coming up on which I could make up a lot of time; Miles 9 and 10 had some very long downhill segments, and I took advantage of this to push the pace a little.  I tried not to overdo it since I remember Mile 12 being another difficult segment.

When I crossed the 10-mile marker, my watch read 1:06:21.  Unfortunately, my watch also indicated I had covered 10.11 miles.  I quickly did some math about how fast I needed to run the remaining 5K.  I was definitely going to be under 1:26:59.  If I kept my pace under 6:27/mile for the remainder of the race, I would finish in 1:26:21, and I would be fine with that.  Anything beyond that was a bonus, and finishing in 1:25:59 or faster was still not out of the realm of possibility.  Mile 11 was still relatively flat, so I pushed the pace a little more; I was able to cover it in 6:16 with a little energy left to get me through the next mile.

At this point in the race, I was beginning to feel a little warm; either shorts with the long-sleeve black T-shirt or a singlet, arm-warmers, and running tights may have been better options today, even in spite of the cold.  I could have also removed my hat, but I didn't feel like carrying it in my hands as I was running.  Plus, I was having a bad hair day and didn't want that immortalized in my race photos.

Me at around Mile 7 in Columbia Heights.  This is what I was wearing this race, and I thought it may have been a little much.

Miles 12 to the end (6:27, 6:08, 1:30 for the last 0.26 miles): The first half of Mile 12 is generally flat whereas the second half is a steady uphill, though not as stringent as the ones seen in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights earlier in the race.  However, the fact that this appears so late in the race makes it suck quite a bit.  I held my pace steady, trying to conserve just a bit of energy; I decided I would not freak out if my pace for this mile was quite a bit slower.  I did have the mostly downhill Mile 13 to make up some time.

I covered Mile 12 in 6:27, but I still managed to catch and drop several people on the uphill.  Knowing that much of Mile 13 was downhill (but not realizing that due to the changes to the course, the last 0.1 miles were slightly uphill), I pushed the pace a little.  I no longer paid much attention to my pace; I glanced at my watch every now and then to see how much time I had left if I wanted to break 1:26:00.

Thanks to the downhill, I managed a 6:08 mile for Mile 13, but struggled a little when I came to the last uphill before the turn to the finish.  Jeremy was on the side of the course cheering on the half-marathoners and marathoners (at this point the two courses merge together for the finish), which was a very nice surprise and gave me the last bit of energy to carry me through the finish.  As soon as I rounded the corner, I gave it everything I had, hoping that I would cross the finish line before my watch read 1:26:00.

According to my watch, I finished in 1:26:04.  But while waiting for my friends Alfie and Ryan to finish the marathon, I discovered that my time was actually 1:26:02 (6:34/mile).  Apparently, I started my watch too early or stopped it a second late.  Even though I would have really liked to have finished three seconds faster, I think this is what I had in me today.  Plus, it's 71.44 points toward my DC Front Runners Race Circuit score (age grade score times 1.05 for a half-marathon in accordance with DC Front Runners Race Circuit rules), not to mention more than one minute faster than my time for this race in 2015.

And I really did not do a good job of running the tangents today.  I ended up covering 13.26 miles total according to my Garmin.  I did think about whether I could have done more like 1:25:30 had I covered 13.16 miles rather than 13.26.  But then again, this is kind of a twisty, curvy route, unlike the Richmond Marathon or Shamrock Half-Marathon routes.  This could be one of those routes in which it is difficult to run tangents well.  I don't think weaving in and out of people at the beginning helped much either.

5K, 10K, and 10-mile splits from the runner tracker that the race provides.  Looks like the hill didn't slow me down too much.

Next Steps

I have the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in three weeks.  I'm using it as another tune-up race before Boston and as another opportunity to score some points toward the Race Circuit.  It is close to Boston (only fifteen days before), but plenty of people in my running club have done both Cherry Blossom and then Boston with little ill effect.

Now that Boston is less than six weeks away and that I have a half-marathon tune-up race under my belt for this training cycle, I suppose now is a good time to start thinking about target times.  1:26:02 times 2.15 is 3:04:58 (I used the multiplier of 2.15 given my mileage this cycle).  I would be satisfied with that, since it would be a BQ-5:00; I would love to be able to register during the first week of registration for Boston 2018.  Perhaps this might even be a little conservative given the difficulty of the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon course and the conditions on race day.

Of course, these predictions are contingent on the weather in Massachusetts on April 17, 2017.

Other Thoughts

• This course can really eat you alive if you are not smart about race execution.  I think the main thing about this race is patience; I would recommend trying to keep the early miles under control and focusing on conserving energy, not charging up that hill, and then using some of the later miles to make up the lost time from the hill and the segment through Adams Morgan.
• This year, they started the marathoners an hour and a half earlier at 7:00 am, possibly to alleviate some of the congestion at the beginning.  One advantage of this was that some of my friends doing the marathon would finish about half an hour to an hour after me; I got to meet them at the finish without waiting in the cold for such a long time.
• If the cold did affect me, I don't think it was by much.  Waiting for the start did not feel too terrible and even though it took a little longer to warm up, once I hit Mile 5, I was fine; as I mentioned, I might have even been a little overdressed.  I did really feel the cold after the race, though.
• Recovery from this race is taking a little longer than usual; as of Tuesday evening, my legs still felt tired and sore.  Usually, I'm feeling better after a half-marathon at that point.

Race Post-Mortem: Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon

DC Front Runners at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon.  We survived!

Sunday, September 18, 2016
Philadelphia, PA
Difficulty score: 4/10 (2 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up race for my fall marathon this year, the Richmond Marathon.  I had done this race three times before: in 2012, in 2013, and in 2014, and I had thought very highly of it.  Back then, the course used to be flat and fast, and given good weather conditions (or even not-so-good weather conditions in the case of 2014), it was a great PR course.  Plus, a number of DC Front Runners members had registered for it also, which would make for a fun weekend in Philadelphia.

But after last year, the course had changed slightly.  Previously, the first four miles would be spent running through the streets of Center City.  Now, that segment had been shortened to about three miles.  To make up for that missing mile, runners would now do and out-and-back segment along Fairmount Avenue past the Eastern State Penitentiary.  That segment featured some very noticeable and long uphills, the likes of which were not experienced ever on the old course.  The remainder of the course along the river still remained the same.

However, an even bigger issue that foiled my plans during this race was the weather; at the start it was 72 degrees, with almost 90% humidity and a dew point close to 70.  These were perhaps the most undesirable conditions under which I had ever run a half-marathon (even more so than the warm and humid race in 2014 and the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon in 2015).  The warmth and humidity really took a toll on most runners, including myself; I saw many runners out on the course struggling, including a number who were walking or had dropped out, and each of us that ran the race had reported seeing at least several people being taken away in ambulances.

I ended up finishing in 1:27:20 (6:40/mile); not a terrible time, but I knew that under better conditions, I was capable of faster.  But I did place unusually high this time; 150th human overall out of 12206, 122nd male human out of 4965, and 29th out of 688 in the male 30-34 age division.  And I did at least meet my "bare minimum" goal of achieving 70 points toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit: a 1:27:20 half-marathon would translate to an age grade score of 67.02, times 1.05 in accordance with Race Circuit rules to produce a score of 70.371.

The new Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon course.  Map from the race website.

Training

Like my training for Chicago and Hartford, my training during this summer consisted of six days of running per week, with a very similar weekly structure:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: a two-mile warm-up plus 25 to 40 minutes at tempo effort (between 6:18 and 6:36/mile, with adjustments for the weather) followed by a cool-down
• Wednesday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Tuesday's tempo run
• Thursday: mini-long runs lasting between one hour and one hour 30 minutes, with most of these miles being easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile); I did occasionally throw in some marathon effort miles
• Friday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Thursday's mini-long run
• Saturday: 50 minutes to one hour 20 minutes easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile), with hill sprints
• Sunday: long runs of one hour 30 minutes to two hours 30 minutes at 7:48 to 8:24/mile pace, with some of these being fast finish

So far, my mileage most weeks have been in the fifties or high forties.  But my highest mileage weeks were still to come.  Training was made a little more difficult by an unusually hot and humid summer here in DC, but overall, I was able to remain very consistent with my training up to now.

The Race

Initially, predictions for race day temperatures were not ideal but tolerable: temperatures in the low sixties at the start with relatively high humidity.  But as race day approached, the predictions got progressively worse.  I had thought about just powering through the conditions and targeting about the 6:30/mile pace I would have been able to do in better conditions (similar to what I did in Philadelphia in 2014), but the temperature and humidity on race day were higher than any under which I have ever run a half-marathon before.  After some more thinking, I decided to start slower; 6:40 to 6:45/mile pace for the first two miles or so, and then I would work my way down.  After all, I knew the course from Mile 6 on to be relatively fast and along the river; I could use the terrain to my advantage, and hopefully the river would keep temperatures from getting too high.  I also knew based on previous years of running this, the final segment after that bridge at Mile 9 was very fast.  If my start turned out to be too conservative, I could probably make up the time after I crossed that bridge.

Miles 1 through 5 (6:54, 6:40, 6:38, 6:43, 6:34): As planned, the first mile was conservative.  I had no idea how fast I was going for a good part of this first mile because the tall buildings around me were screwing up the GPS signal; at times, my Garmin had indicated I was going as slow as 7:30/mile pace.  It wasn't until I approached the first mile marker that I got an indication of my actual pace; even though my Garmin indicated a first mile split of 6:54, I noticed that I crossed the one mile mark at 6:45.  The second mile was more of the same.  However, during these first two miles, I noticed that surprisingly few people were passing me, yet I was moving ahead of quite a lot of people.  And my Garmin indicated a 6:39 split for the second mile near the actual two-mile mark, which would mean a 6:46/mile pace for the first two miles; a little slower than I would have liked, but not by much.

The segment in which runners go by the start and get to see people from later corrals starting, which had been my favorite part during the Philadelphia Half-Marathon the past few years that I ran it, now occurred at Mile 3 rather than Mile 4.  This part had always been an energy boost as quite a few of the runners starting their races would be quite enthusiastic; plus, this part was flat and fast and was good for picking up a little speed.  I did push the pace a little and ended up doing a 6:38 split for this third mile.  I figured if I could stay around this pace for the remainder of the race and push it a little toward the end, I could go under 1:27:00.

But then I came to the hill leading up Fairmount Avenue.  I wasn't expecting this hill to be this long and noticeable; the course video never showed anything like this (funny how course videos always seem to make hills seem much less long and steep than they actually are).  We did get a bit of a break after the first hill, but we then came to another before the hairpin turn.  I focused on constant effort throughout this segment, and, as expected, it was quite a bit slower; but I kept telling myself that I would get a long downhill on the way back.  I did take advantage of the downhill fifth mile to cover my fastest mile so far, a 6:34.  High-fiving the DC Front Runners on their way out along this segment helped also.

Miles 6 through 9 (6:37, 6:35, 6:41, 6:38): Once that out-and-back segment down Fairmount Avenue was behind me, I knew I had a flat and fast segment along the river.  I focused on keeping a steady pace for the next few miles.  Aerobically, I didn't feel particularly taxed, but my legs were really working.  I found myself catching up to and dropping runners I recognized from the early miles that had pulled ahead.

I have been unable to explain the sudden slowdown in Mile 8.  I tried pushing the pace a little when I saw that my Garmin was indicating I was running at a nearly 6:50/mile pace; I hoped to get the split for this mile down to below 6:40.  After my Garmin indicated a 6:41 split for this mile, I considered the possibility I might be able to pick up the pace a little.  Initially, I thought I was able to; my Garmin indicated I was going 6:31/mile pace for the first half of this mile.  But then the hill leading up to the bridge smacked me in the face; every year that I had done this race, this segment has slowed me down, and this year was no exception.

Mile 10 through the end (6:38, 6:35, 6:34, 6:34, 1:00 for the last 0.17 miles): After the bridge, I tried to take advantage of a downhill segment to accelerate, but my legs just would not listen.  I just could not go faster than 6:38.  But even so, I was still passing quite a lot of people, and no one was passing me.  I noticed a lot of people were not having great days today; I passed one woman and overheard her apologizing to the man she was running with for her performance today.

After passing Mile 10 and some colorful words when I noticed that my 10-mile split was almost 1:07:00, I made one last attempt to pick up the pace.  Unfortunately, when I passed the Mile 11 marker and saw that more than I was more than one hour 13 minutes into my race, I realized that a sub-1:27:00 was not going to happen today.  I even resigned myself to the possibility that a sub-1:28:00 was not going to happen either.  I did my best not to slow down, but I felt like I was just holding on.

But it was almost as if I was closing quickly today; I passed dozens of people as I approached the finish line.  When I got to that last hill leading up to the Art Museum, I mustered whatever energy I had left and tried to cross that finish line as quickly as possible.  My Garmin indicated 1:27:20; I knew at that point I was going to get more than 70 points for this race toward the Race Circuit (my previous calculations indicated I needed a 1:27:41 or better).  Now all I needed to do was find an age grade score calculator to see how much above 70 points I got.

Next Steps

A 1:27:20 half-marathon time would indicate that I was currently in at worst 3:08:00 marathon shape (this half-marathon time times 2.15 given my mileage, training, and experience level would be 3:07:46).  However, since I am only about halfway through my training and because of the conditions, there is a good chance that 3:08:00 would be a little conservative of a target for Richmond.  But it is good to know that even so, I would still likely qualify for Boston by two minutes or more.

What I will use to determine a realistic target time for myself in Richmond would be the Army 10-Miler on October 9.  It will be closer to the day of the Richmond Marathon; provided I execute my training as written, I will have completed a few more higher-mileage weeks between now and then.  Hopefully, the conditions during the Army 10-Miler would be much better than the ones in Philadelphia.

Other Thoughts

• I really prefer the old course, even though I do like the concept of running past a place that was featured on World's Scariest Places.  I wonder whether the course was changed because of all that construction going on.  Perhaps when that is finished, they would change the course back.
• Humidity is a very insidious weather condition.  A lot of people, myself included sometimes, start out thinking they can proceed at a pace similar to what they can do in better conditions and power through the humidity.  Humidity saps your strength and often, you don't realize it until the later miles when you barely have the energy to hang on.  My race would have probably unfolded very differently had I started out faster than 6:45/mile pace.
• To get an idea of how much the conditions may have affected people, a 1:27:20 during the much better conditions in the 2015 Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon race would have been 313th overall, 226th male, and 47th in the male 30-34 age group.
• Working backwards, the race time adjustment calculator for temperature and dew point at runnersconnect.net predicts that given a temperature of 71 and a dew point of 68, a 1:27:20 half-marathon would translate to a 1:24:07 (6:25/mile) under ideal conditions.  Although I'm not sure how reliable this calculator or any race time adjustment algorithms are, I like what it's telling me.

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.

Race Post-Mortem: Pi Day Half-Marathon

Pre-race picture of me, Thorne, and JR waiting in the rain in our corral.  Photo by JR.

Saturday, March 14, 2015
Washington, DC
Difficulty score: 3/10 (0 for weather, 3 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

No, there is no Pi Day Half-Marathon.  This was actually the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon (formerly the Rock and Roll USA Marathon, which before that was the Suntrust National Marathon), which just happened to take place on 3/14/15.

For Spring 2015, I decided I was going to break the cycle of fall and spring marathons that my racing scheduled had been centered upon for the past three years or so and devote a few months to focus on half-marathons, 10-milers, and perhaps some shorter distances.  I had planned a series of shorter races for the spring, including the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon, the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in mid-April, and possibly one of the Crystal City Friday Night 5K races shortly after that.

I finished in 1:27:19 (6:40/mile), about two minutes slower than my PR at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon this past September.  This was also the "longest" half-marathon that I had ever run; when I crossed the finish line, my Garmin read 13.29 miles.  Usually, I am pretty good about covering close to 13.1 miles in a half-marathon race; for other half-marathons, my Garmin reads anywhere from my record "shortest" half-marathon of 13.12 miles in the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon to about 13.19 miles.

Oh well; I guess not every race can be a PR.  I did have a number of factors working against me this time around.  My training did not go as well as I would have hoped, nor was my mileage nearly as high as it was preceding my half-marathon PR.  Even though I did have a string of four or five weeks with mileage in the mid to high forties, I did have a few short interruptions to my training: once at the beginning of the cycle due to some bad hamstring soreness and twice due to sickness.  Also, the DC Half-Marathon course is tricky, and certainly more difficult than the Philadelphia Half-Marathon course; in addition to a very nasty hill near the 10K mark leading up to Woodley Park from Rock Creek Park, other tough segments featured in this course include a long uphill from Woodley Park to Columbia Heights and the rolling hills near the Mile 12 mark.

But at least I did get a good amount of points toward the DC Front Runners race circuit with this race.  A 1:27:19 half-marathon for me would translate into 71.22 points (that half-marathon time from a 32-year-old male gives an age grade score of 67.83; the extra 3.39 points comes from the 5% bonus added to scores for half-marathons in accordance with DC Front Runners race circuit scoring rules).  In general, I'm happy with any score above 70.

Training and the Days Leading Up to the Race

When I sat down to plan my training for this race back in December 2014, I set a goal range of 1:24:30 to 1:24:59 (6:27 to 6:29/mile).  This would have been slightly faster than my half-marathon PR from the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon this past September, and I thought a small improvement like that would have been reasonable.  My mileage was not going to be nearly as high as it was when I was training for the Chicago Marathon, but I figured that would not be a problem; after all, I was training for a half-marathon right now.

Also, I planned to include a little more speedwork, which I pretty much completely neglected while training for Chicago.  During marathon training this past summer, I sacrificed some of my quality workouts to be able to increase my weekly mileage to figures quite a bit higher than I had ever done.  The increase in mileage certainly did help; I got a 59-second PR in Chicago and ran a four-minute negative split.  But including a little more speedwork probably would have led to an even greater improvement.  Three weeks later, when I ran the Veteran's Day 10K here in Washington, DC to capitalize upon my fitness from marathon training, I found I had lost quite a bit of speed.  I finished in 38:55, 45 seconds slower than the 10K PR I ran just seven months before following the Shamrock Marathon (this never happened before; usually, when I run a shorter race after a marathon, I get quite a few PRs, or at least very close to my PRs).  So this time, I included weekly hill sprints and some add-on 300-meter intervals, following suggestions from Brad Hudson's and Matt Fitzgerald's book Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon, hoping that the bit of additional speedwork would help during the half-marathon.

The weekly structure of my training for this half-marathon consisted of five days of running per week at the beginning, moving toward six days per week in the middle of the cycle as my mileage increased.  Each week looked like this:

• Monday: easy recovery runs of four to five miles.
• Tuesday: half-mile intervals done at 3K pace (5:40/mile) at the very beginning of the cycle; in the middle of the cycle, these would be replaced by six to seven mile runs containing tempo portions at 6:25 to 6:30/mile pace, with four 300-meter intervals done at 3K pace added on every other week.  
• Wednesday: OFF
• Thursday: seven to eight-mile runs up the very hilly segment on Massachusetts Avenue Northwest toward American University, in which I progressed to tempo pace for the last few miles.  
• Friday: OFF in the early weeks of the cycle, easy recovery runs of four to five miles later.
• Saturday: seven to nine-mile easy runs plus hill sprints, going from four by six seconds at maximal effort uphill to six by eight seconds.
• Sunday: long runs of between 10 and 14 miles.  The ones toward the end of the cycle included segments at target race pace.

With this training plan, I would have a string of weeks with mileage in the mid to high forties, with two 49-mile weeks in the middle of February.

However, as mentioned before, training did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.  I was dealing with a very sore hamstring during the first few weeks of the cycle, which prevented me from doing the Tuesday half-mile intervals.  I caught two pretty nasty colds; one in the middle of January and toward the end of February, both of which interrupted my training and forced me to forego a few of my Tuesday evening tempo runs as I recovered from sickness.  The snow and ice we got here in Washington, DC made some of the tempo runs and the add-on intervals infeasible, forcing me to replace them with slower runs.  

But I did, like I also mentioned before, get a good string of weeks where I was able to execute my training plan as originally written, and fortunately, these coincided with the highest mileage weeks.  Thus, I was able to get several weeks with mileage in the mid to high-forties, just like I had planned. 

The Race

Race day morning was cold and wet, with temperatures remaining in the forties or low fifties and a steady light rain lasting for the entire morning.  But I found that the rain did not really affect my performance, provided I avoided running through puddles; my shoes were like a sponge, and I really did not want to carry any additional water weight.

When I arrived at the start line, I immediately stripped off the jacket I was wearing and went directly to bag check.  Once again, bag check was arranged by last name in alphabetical order, which is one of the most thoroughly stupid race day logistics decisions I have ever encountered.  They had done this when I ran the Rock and Roll DC Marathon in March 2013, and this not only caused a number of people in the earlier corrals to miss their start, but also resulted in some misplaced and lost bags.  I had always asserted that arranging by bib numbers is the logical way to go for bag check.  This way, at the beginning, more volunteers could direct their attention to the lower-number bibs (i.e. the earlier corrals), making sure they get to the start line on time.  Then afterwards, they could gradually move more volunteers toward the higher-number bibs.  Also, ascertaining a runner's bib number takes a fraction of the time that it takes to ascertain their last name; all the volunteer needs to do is look at the runner's bib, rather than ask "what's your last name?"  Then there is the tendency of a surprisingly large number of people to mix up the second and third letters of my last name for some reason.  Then they would tell me I'm at the wrong truck when I'm really not; that's another bit of time spent dealing with bag check and holding up the line.

But regardless of my ranting, bag check was not a complete disaster.  I was able to drop off my bag within three minutes.  Of course, given that I had very little faith in bag check at this race, one logical thing to do could have been not to check any bags; but given the rain, a change of clothes for after the race and an umbrella would have been really nice.  Besides, I wanted to see my friend Socrates finish his first marathon, and I probably would not have been able to go home and change between when I finished and when he would pass the 26-mile marker where I planned to see him.  I was also very glad that bag check did not lose my bag.

As I mentioned before, the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon course is quite difficult.  The first six miles or so, in which runners go east on Independence Avenue, out and back along Memorial Bridge, and then north on Rock Creek Parkway are relatively flat and fast.  The next three miles are difficult; at around the Mile 6 mark comes the Shoreham Drive hill connecting Rock Creek Parkway to Calvert Avenue, which is short but steep.  But even though this hill is what most people bring up when talking about the difficulty of this course, the more difficult segment is yet to come; the next two miles through Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Howard University feature quite a few uphills and downhills.  Once runners reach North Capitol Avenue, the course does allow for faster running again, but it does become a little tricky again once we turn onto K Street; the course features several turns and uphill segments.  The last mile, fortunately, is mostly downhill.

Map of the Rock and Roll DC 2015 course, from the website.

The start through Mile 6 (splits: 6:40, 6:33, 6:35, 6:38, 6:38, 6:40): After a slightly slower first mile to transition into my target pace, I wanted to aim for about a 6:30 to 6:35/mile pace during these first six miles.  I managed to run in that range for the second and third miles, which covered Independence Avenue and Memorial Bridge, but once I turned off Memorial Bridge onto Rock Creek Parkway, I found that keeping that pace was actually a little difficult.  As usual, I focused on hitting the tangents and not wasting energy weaving in and out of people.

For the first half of the sixth mile, I was able to drop back down closer to 6:30/mile.  But when I arrived at the hill, my pace slowed again, as expected.  I tried to relax and just make it to the top.  I was able to pass several people on this hill, but I did not focus too much on that.  I did not want to expend too much energy on this hill; after all, I still had seven more miles to run.

Miles 7 through 9 (splits: 7:02, 6:40, 6:34): After finally reaching the top of the hill, I ran down the Calvert Street bridge toward Adams Morgan, through a large inflatable plastic blue arch that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever.  Mile 7 is, in my opinion, easily the most difficult mile of the half-marathon.  In addition to the fact that it starts on that nasty uphill, runners have to face two more hills in this mile: one on Calvert Street right before the large intersection with Columbia Road and one on Columbia Road right before entering Columbia Heights (and right past where I live).  Neither of these hills are super long or steep, but they are enough to slow most runners down quite noticeably.  What also makes this part of the race difficult is that here, runners would need to find their rhythm again after that hill up from Rock Creek Park; that was what I spent much of this mile doing myself.

Mile 8, which features a long downhill stretch followed by a relatively substantial uphill segment, is less difficult, but still not a particularly fast mile either.  I was able to get closer to my original pace during this mile.  By the time I was running through Howard University at Mile 9, I was right back to where I was before that hill.  But during this portion, I began to encounter some slight headwinds, which were somewhat annoying, but not debilitating.

Miles 10 through the end (splits: 6:24, 6:20, 6:27, 6:23, 1:44 for the last 0.29 miles): North Capitol Street is a much faster segment than any part of the race that preceded it; even though the course does have a few uphills due to the underpasses, most of this part is straight and gradually downhill.  I took advantage of that and sped up once I turned onto North Capitol Street for a bit of a late-race kick.

I had managed to bring my pace down to 6:20 to 6:25/mile here, which was pretty uncomfortable.  During these miles, I was focused on just maintaining this pace until the end of the race.  But I did notice a few familiar faces on the sides during this portion, including the DC Triathletes spinning on the side of the course who called out my name as I passed, and Chris from DC Front Runners.  I did also notice that some people that I passed back near Howard University or Columbia Heights were now flying past me.

I had forgotten about the tricky parts of Mile 12 until I was staring at an uphill portion on 13th Street Northeast leading up to Constitution Avenue.  I was really pushing, and an uphill at this point was not something I wanted to see.  After reaching the top of this hill, I began the gradual descent toward the finish line at RFK Stadium.  Shortly afterwards, the marathoners, after having run with the half-marathoners for the past 20K or so, split off.  As I watched some of the marathoners turn right toward the more desolate and less aesthetically pleasing second half, I began to feel glad that I was not them.  At this point, I had barely enough to get me to the finish line.

I kept my pace steady for the thirteenth mile, although looking back, I could have been more aggressive, particularly since it was almost entirely downhill.  But I did put in one last surge once my Garmin indicated I had run 13 miles.  I gave it all I had and tried to break 1:27:00, but unfortunately, there was too much distance between myself and the finish line.  After finishing, I waited for Thorne, JR, and other members of DC Front Runners who were also running the half-marathon to finish before claiming my bag from bag check and changing into a dry shirt and dry socks and shoes under an overpass.

Remember, kids: let this be a lesson to you to always try to run the tangents.  The difference between running 13.29 miles and 13.15 miles can be a minute or more.  In this race, I finished that last 0.29 miles in one minute and 44 seconds.  Compare that to the last 0.17 miles in the Rehoboth Half-Marathon and the last 0.15 miles in the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon, both of which I ran at a similar effort and covered in 58 seconds and 51 seconds respectively.  Had I hit the tangents better and ran 13.15 miles rather than 13.29, I probably could have finished closer to 1:26:00.

Next Steps

My next race will be the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler on April 12, which will actually be my first 10-miler ever.  I'm not sure what to expect during this race; I'm currently not in as good shape as I hoped I would be, and with less than three weeks to go, whatever shape I am in right now is essentially the shape I will be in on race day.  But I do think I can still manage a pretty good finishing time; I hear from many people who have run that race that the course is fast, flat, and very conducive to a PR (or in my case, a strong 10-miler debut).

I am also considering doing the Crystal City Friday Night 5K five days after the Cherry Blossom.  For this race, I'm even less sure what to expect.  I have not raced a 5K in over a year, and I have not done any training for a 5K.  I suppose I could expect to finish in under 19 minutes; under 18:30 would be fantastic.  But after this 5K race, I would be done with racing until fall.

Race Post-Mortem: Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half-Marathon

Post race with my age group third-place trophy.  Photo courtesy of Craig.

Saturday, December 6, 2014
Rehoboth Beach, DE

Difficulty score: 2/10 (0 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

Initially, I had planned to run the Jingle All the Way 8K (which was temporarily transformed into a 5K this year due to construction near Freedom Plaza) this weekend, but instead decided to register for the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half-Marathon after learning that three other members of DC Front Runners were running the marathon.  I had several reasons for wanting to do this race.  I knew a weekend in Rehoboth Beach would be fun, even in December; actually, I prefer Rehoboth on "off" weekends when it is not inundated by beach-bound people from Washington, DC.  But also, I wanted to do a half-marathon for some points toward my race circuit total score.  DC Front Runners has a race circuit in which your score for a particular race equals the age-graded score according to USA Track and Field.  However, by the rules of the race circuit, those that complete a half-marathon receive an additional 5 percent bonus on top of their age-grade score (i.e. their circuit score for that race equals the age-grade score times 1.05); as a result, half-marathons are one of the best race distances for maximizing your race circuit total score.  

I was not expecting to run a PR this time.  I would not consider this half-marathon course a PR course; I knew from my first time running this course in 2012 that the half-marathon course is deceptively tricky, primarily because miles 7 through 11 take place entirely on trails of packed dirt and gravel.  However, I did know I was probably capable of a 1:26:00 to 1:27:00 on this course, and that would have gotten me a score of 71 to 72 points, a high score for me.  Plus, with a time like that, I would have a relatively good chance of placing in my age group; I finished in 1:28:12 in 2012 and had won third place in the Male 30-34 age group.

Thus, I set finishing in 1:26:59 or faster as my primary goal, hoping that was enough for me to place in my age group.  Running a PR and finishing in the top 10 overall would have been bonuses.  My plan for this race was to firmly stick to a 6:35 to 6:40/mile pace for the first six miles, before we reached the lengthy trail segment.  I would allow about a five second per mile slowdown for the trail segment, and after the trails were behind me for the last mile and a half or so, I would pick up the pace to make up some time.  Given perfect execution, I was expecting to just dip below 1:27:00.  I was also hoping that the trails would help me overtake some runners by draining their energy, and I aimed to pass some people during my surge during the last mile.

I ended up finishing in 1:26:30 (6:37/mile), which translates into 71.89 points toward my race circuit total score.  That time was also good enough for third place in the Male 30-34 age group.  It was not a PR (my half-marathon PR was 1:25:12 at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon earlier this year), nor did I finish in the top ten overall.  But I was happy with my 15th place finish; with 1400 finishers in this half-marathon, this was probably my highest overall placement in any race.

Training and the Days Leading Up to the Race

My preparation for this half-marathon was not particularly thorough.  When I had registered, I had just finished recovering from the Chicago Marathon and had less than five weeks to get myself back into half-marathon racing shape.  I probably would not have been able to get my weekly mileage much above 40 miles, but that would have to do.

This time, I made sure that I was a little more serious about my tempo runs and speed workouts.  During my training for Chicago, I had turned my focus away from these toward increased mileage.  But when I ran the Veteran's Day 10K four weeks after Chicago, I realized that this decision probably was not a particularly good one.  Whereas I was able to run a 10K PR in the 2013 Veteran's Day 10K in 38:19 following the Wineglass Marathon and another 10K PR in the 2014 Pike's Peek 10K this past April in 38:10 following the Shamrock Marathon, I finished the 2014 Veteran's Day 10K in 38:55.  Given that I had been able to PR in shorter distances following previous marathon training cycles, I concluded that I had indeed lost speed; my body simply could not go faster than the 6:16/mile pace I ran that day.  Looking back at my workouts at garminconnect.com, I noticed that many of my tempo runs may have been too slow this summer; I knew I would have to slow down my tempo runs due to the heat and humidity here in Washington, DC, but I think I slowed them down a little too much.  Also, I had done no track workouts, hill sprints, or hill repeats during my training for Chicago.

During the weeks leading up to Rehoboth, I ran five to six days per week, with a tempo run on Tuesdays, hill repeats on Thursdays, long runs of up to 13 miles on Sundays, and easy runs of four to six miles elsewhere.  I made sure that I hit a 6:20 to 6:25/mile pace during my Tuesday tempo runs, until the two weeks before the half-marathon, during which I ran my Tuesday tempo runs at my target race pace.  I was able to run one 35-mile week and one 41-mile week.  I would have liked a string of weeks of mileage in the forties, but what I had was still better than nothing.

I drove with Brian to Rehoboth Beach the day before the race, arriving at around four in the afternoon.  Our first stop was the expo, where we picked up our race packets and I picked up a visor in case it rained on race day morning; I had stupidly forgotten my visor back in DC.  We then went to check into our hotel, after which we met Eddie, Thorne, and Jacques for dinner.  Given the 7:00 am start of the race, that was pretty much the extent of our activities that day.

The Race

Race morning temperatures were great; when I arrived at the start line, it was 48 degrees.  The weather forecast predicted that the temperatures would not exceed 55 degrees that day.  However, the humidity was extremely high.  I felt it when I was running; I could feel sweat just dripping down my body even as early as mile 3.  Many of the runners agreed that the humidity was high enough to affect most people's race performances that day.

As I mentioned before, the Rehoboth Beach Half-Marathon is a deceptively tricky course.  That would most likely not be evident to first-timers during the early miles; the first six miles are fast, being flat and on asphalt.  Marathoners and half-marathoners start together in downtown Rehoboth Beach, on Rehoboth Avenue in front of the bandstand near the boardwalk and go through subdivisions of Rehoboth Beach before running along the shore down Ocean Drive.  Near the terminus of Ocean Drive, half-marathoners go back down Ocean Drive toward the start while marathoners continue north along a trail.  The remainder of the half-marathon is the last ten miles of the marathon; half-marathoners travel through another subdivision before crossing Route 271 and entering the Junction and Breakwater Trail.  The next four to five miles are an out and back segment on this trail.  The surface of this trail portion can be problematic, particularly when it is wet; often, you will slip backwards a little for every step you take.  Also, I knew from my run on this course in 2012 that a seemingly never-ending trail segment could be very mentally draining, particularly for first-timers who did not know they would be running five miles on this packed dirt and gravel; I certainly was blindsided by this when I ran this course for the first time in 2012, and it took enough out of me that I slowed down during the last few miles.  We then retrace our steps back toward downtown Rehoboth Beach, finishing right next to the building where Rehoboth Beach Running Company is located.

Map of the half-marathon, from the race website.

The start through 6 (splits: 6:37, 6:33, 6:37, 6:37, 6:36, 6:35): I used the first mile to ease into my target pace, being careful not to waste any energy weaving around people and trying my hardest to hit all of the tangents; after all, beating my competitors would be much easier if I covered 13.17 miles while they ended up covering 13.27 miles, a difference that could translate into more than 40 seconds at the pace I intended to run.  From that point up until I arrived at the trail segment, I focused on staying within the 6:35 to 6:40/mile range.  Since 6:36/mile felt relatively comfortable, I decided to run on the faster end of that target range for this portion of the race.

I was not really focused on passing people, although I found I was able to easily pass several half-marathoners and marathoners while running at my target pace.  On Ocean Drive, a few other half-marathoners passed me, including one named Alex, who I formally met after the race, and another guy in green who looked to be about my age that I didn't really see again after we got off Ocean Drive.  I spent most of the Ocean Drive segment trying to catch up to Alex and this other runner, only to have them surge right back ahead of me.  I could not drop Alex; for the remainder of the race, we would be locked into a battle to beat one another.  The other guy, on the other hand, I knew would not be a problem; his breathing was a little too heavy at that point in the race, and both Alex and I quickly dropped him.

Miles 7 through 11 (splits: 6:37, 6:50, 6:39, 6:38): The trail portion did not slow me down nearly as much as I thought it would.  Other than my split for mile 8, I was still able to more or less maintain a 6:35 to 6:40/mile pace for this segment of the race as well.  I still cannot figure out why my pace for mile 8 was that much slower.

Here, I focused on staying away from the patches of loose gravel and dirt and on running on the more packed-down parts of the trail, as well as hitting the tangents.  I ran by myself for most of these miles.  I was able to see a pack of three or four people several hundred feet in front of me.  I was able to put a little distance between Alex and everyone else behind me.  On the way out, I tried to maintain a steady effort; I did not focus too much on trying to close the gap between me and the runners in front of me.  I felt this point in the race was too soon to begin making any moves.  Besides, like I said before, I was trying to let the trails do some of the work for me in draining the energy of some of the more reckless runners in front.

As I approached the turnaround near the mile 9 mark, I counted 20 people in front of me.  I figured that if I finished in 21st place overall, I would probably have a pretty good chance of placing in my age group in this race.  Besides, at least five of the people in front of me were not in competition with me for an age group award.  Among the 20 people in front of me, I counted two women, including the eventual female winner and the Women's Masters winner, and two guys that were clearly younger than 30 years old.  Remembering the awards structure from 2012, the male winner was not eligible for an age group award either.

I was actually closer to the pack ahead of me than I had thought.  I changed my plan to speed up and start trying to overtake runners at the Mile 11 mark.  However, I would not have cleared the trail portion yet at that point.  But I figured I could probably classify this move as a little risky and not totally stupid; this new plan would have me running 0.7 miles of my end surge on trails, which was doable but possibly difficult.  I did inadvertently speed up a little before I hit the Mile 10 mark anyway; that was probably a result of me getting excited as I got to see some other friends from DC also doing the half-marathon as I ran back toward downtown Rehoboth.

I ended up passing three people between the Mile 11 and Mile 12 mark, two of which I overtook on the trail portion.  One of these people was the eventual Women's Masters winner.  However, I did discover that Alex was not far behind me; I could hear his friends cheer his name as they ran past me in the opposite direction.

Mile 12 through the end (splits: 6:25, 6:18, 0:58 for the last 0.17 miles): At this point in the race, I just stopped looking at my watch and focused on passing as many runners as I could.  I passed a few more people, and was now in 16th place.

With about half a mile left to go, Alex surged past me.  He put in a hard enough move that I could not respond to it.  Initially, I resigned myself to the possibility that he would beat me after all, but soon, I noticed I was catching back up to him.  As I chased him toward the finish line, I passed another runner, positioning myself back in 16th place.

After running across the bridge over the canal and around the roundabout on Rehoboth Avenue, I then gave it all I had left.  I passed Alex right back and started chasing the next runner in front of us.  I could not catch him, though, but Alex was unable to catch me.  I rounded that last turn and crossed the finish line, finishing four seconds in front of Alex.

Alex and I then talked a little after we received our medals and heat sheets.  We both were very happy to learn that we were in different age groups.  Even though I crossed the finish line before he did, he may have started far back enough that his net time, which would be the basis of age group awards, was faster than mine (his net time actually turned out to be a few seconds slower than mine).  After seeing Joey, Chris, and Jason finish their races, I returned to the hotel to get my wristband, which I forgot that morning but needed to get into the finisher's tent.  In my hotel room, I checked my phone; I selected the option of having my results texted to me after I finished, and there, I learned that I finished in 1:26:30, 15th overall, and third in my age group.

I returned to the finish line to watch some of the marathoners finish.  Eddie won the marathon, and I was very happy to have witnessed that.  Unfortunately, since the half-marathon awards ceremony would take place between about 10:00 and 10:30 am, about three to three and a half hours after the start of the marathon, I was unable to see Brian or Thorne finish.  But I was able to catch them afterwards, and we did all get to attend the marathon awards ceremony and see Eddie receive his life preserver and box of wine.

Next Steps

I plan to start training for the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon (March 14) soon.  I have begun sketching out a twelve-week training plan, in which I have been sure to also incorporate some intervals, hill sprints, and hill repeats.  But my training for that does not begin until December 22.  For the next two weeks or so, I do not really plan to do much running.

Finally, congratulations to Brian and Thorne for running marathon PRs in Rehoboth, and also congratulations to Eddie for winning the marathon.  

Race Post-Mortem: Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon

Some of the DC Front Runners who ran the Philadelphia Half-Marathon.  Can you see the humidity in the air?  Photo courtesy of Marcel.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Philadelphia, PA
Difficulty score: 1/10 (0 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

This past Sunday, I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up for the upcoming Chicago Marathon.  My intentions in running this race was not only to get back into the racing mindset as my last race was the Pike's Peek 10K this past April, but also to get a half-marathon time to serve as a basis for determining a realistic goal for Chicago.

I finished the half-marathon in 1:25:12 (6:29/mile), an improvement over my PR on the same course last year by 13 seconds.  This came as a pleasant surprise for me as race morning weather, 68 degrees and 88 percent humidity, was far from ideal for a PR.  I was prepared to finish this half-marathon one minute or two slower than my half-marathon PR.  Initially, I thought that was going to happen when I finished the first mile in 6:41.  But during the next few miles, I settled into a 6:30/mile pace and was able to maintain that pace until mile 10, at which point I accelerated to a 6:25/mile pace.  I cannot say exactly how well I would have done had race day weather been the ideal racing conditions of this race last year.  But my ability to run a half-marathon in this warmth and humidity faster than I did last year in temperatures in the low fifties gives me hope that I will be able to run a marathon PR in Chicago.

Training and the Days Leading Up to the Race

In preparation for Chicago, I had increased my mileage quite a bit.  During my training for Shamrock, my weekly mileage was in the high forties and low to mid fifties for most weeks.  But during this cycle, my weekly mileage was in the high to mid fifties and low to mid sixties for most weeks.  I had hoped the increase in mileage would help me improve my marathon time even more.  My weeks consisted of one tempo run on Tuesdays, a mini-long run of eight to fourteen miles on Thursdays, an easy run of six to ten miles on Saturday, a long run on Sunday, and recovery runs of five to six miles on Monday and Friday.  I had to sacrifice one tempo run each week in order to be able to achieve this kind of mileage; whereas during my training for Shamrock, I did two tempo runs per week, during this cycle, I only did one tempo run on Tuesdays.  The remainder of my miles for the week were easy or recovery runs, which meant that most of the time, more than 90 percent of my weekly mileage was run at 7:40/mile pace or slower.  The mileage itself was strenuous; I could not imagine running a second tempo run each week.

The Philadelphia Half-Marathon took place the week after a 61-mile week, my last truly high-mileage week for the entire cycle.  After a tempo run on the Tuesday before the race and a recovery run on Wednesday, I began a brief, four-day taper for the half-marathon consisting of an eight-mile run at around 8:00/mile pace on Thursday and a slow, four-mile shakeout run on Friday.

Before the half-marathon, I had been checking the race day weather obsessively.  The forecast at the beginning of the week indicated sub-optimal conditions; 62 degrees at the start of the race and relatively high humidity.  As the week passed, the forecast progressively got worse; by the day before the race, most weather sites predicted the temperature at the start of the race to be 68 degrees and the humidity to be in excess of 80 percent.  What was especially annoying was that the weather on the morning of that Saturday before and on the morning of that Monday after were both predicted to be much better; lower humidity and temperatures in the high fifties.  I adjusted my goal time for this half-marathon from running a PR to a time between 1:26:00 and 1:27:00.  This was somewhat annoying, but this was not my target race.

The Race

The morning of the race, I told myself that I should just power through the unpleasant racing conditions.  Warmth and humidity should not have had as drastic effect on my performance in a half-marathon as it did on my performance in a marathon.  Even if I was unable to run a PR this time, I should have been able to run a 1:27:00 or faster on this course.  Besides, the Frederick Half-Marathon in 2012 took place under similar weather conditions, yet I was still able to run a PR there.

Philadelphia is a fast course, and I knew that I at least could use that to my advantage on race day.  During the first four miles, we weave through Center City, down Broad, Market, and Arch Streets, before returning to the start near the Art Museum and heading north on Kelly Drive along the Schuylkill River.  We run along the Schuykill River for about four miles before crossing a bridge to the other side.  We the run south on Martin Luther King Drive along the other side of the river before the uphill finish near the Art Museum.  For the most part, this course is flat, aside from a gradual but long downhill segment between miles 5 and 6, a gradual and long uphill segment before the bridge crossing the river, and the relatively steep but short uphill finish.  Not only was more than half of this course adjacent to the Schuylkill, but much of it was also shaded and surrounded by trees; I anticipated the river and the trees to be very helpful in staving off overheating during this race.

Map of the Philadelphia Half-Marathon course with mile markers from the website.

Originally, I made a plan to take the first two miles a little slower and settle into a 6:35-6:40/mile pace, which I would sustain until after the bridge across the Schuylkill at around mile 9, at which point I would reassess and decide whether to accelerate or hold that pace for the remainder of the race.  My first mile was indeed my slowest at 6:41; many people flew by me during this first mile, but I ended up passing many of them back later in the race.  After training through the hot and humid DC summers for the past four years, one thing I had learned about my body was that in order to run my best on hot and humid days, I needed to start slow.

The second mile was somewhat faster at 6:36 and the third mile was significantly faster than my original target pace range at 6:28.  I finished the fourth mile, meanwhile, at 6:19, which would turn out to be my fastest mile during this race other than the last mile.  This was mostly an effect of adrenaline; as the runners starting in the earlier corrals return to the start during this mile, they get to see those in later corrals starting their races.  Many of the runners from the later corrals were quite enthusiastic, and this had an energizing effect; due to this, together with the flat and straight course in this segment, this mile has been fast for me all three times I ran this race.

Me at around the 5-mile marker.  Photo courtesy of Lavar.

As I headed toward the river, my pace slowed slightly to a 6:28/mile pace.  Lavar was on the side of the course near the mile 5 mark, watching the race; the photo to the right is of me at this point in the race.  Over the next three miles, I focused on maintaining about a 6:30/mile pace and on running the tangents.  Surprisingly, even in a race of more than 15 thousand participants, I had plenty of room around me throughout most of the race and I was able run most of the tangents.

Mile 9, not surprisingly, was the slowest mile aside from the first one.  This mile consists of a long, gradual uphill leading to the bridge across the Schuylkill, and many finishers of the Philadelphia Half-Marathon would agree that this one is one of the more difficult miles.  But having run this race twice before, I knew what to expect during this portion of the race, and told myself not to panic when my Garmin indicated a slower pace than the preceding miles and to conserve energy for the remainder of the race.  After all, the last four miles down Martin Luther King Drive were very fast and perfect for a late-race kick.

After I crossed the bridge, I began to accelerate, aiming for faster than a 6:27/mile pace.  However, this was where I began to really notice the effects of the humidity.  I felt like I was working; I was able to go a little faster, but I struggled to go much faster than 6:27/mile pace.  Miles 10 through 12 were all between 6:22 and 6:27.  Even though these miles felt difficult, I was happy to find that I was still passing plenty of people during this part of the race.

When I crossed the 12-mile marker, the clock read a little over 1:18:00.  I then realized that I actually had a chance at a PR during this race; I needed to run the thirteenth mile in about 6:15 to 6:20 and cover the last 0.1 miles in about 45 to 50 seconds.  After doing the math, and seeing Lavar again near the mile 12 mark, I picked up the pace, completing the thirteenth mile in 6:18.  At the hill leading up to the Art Museum and the finish line, I gave it everything I had.

I waited in the finish area for the other DC Front Runners to finish their race.  I was happy to report that even in spite of the warmth and humidity, several other members also got half-marathon PRs.  We all walked around the finisher's area before we returned to our hotels to shower.  Since Thorne and I were leaving at around 7:30 pm that evening, we decided to have lunch with some of the other DC Front Runners and explore Philadelphia a little.  We got to visit the Reading Terminal Market and the City Tavern, supposedly one of the most haunted places in the United States.  But otherwise, we really did not do much because we were so tired.  Note to self: if I want to explore a city, I should spend at least one more day there following the race, since I will not have the energy to explore the day of the race.

Next Steps: Chicago Marathon Time Prediction

As mentioned before, I had intended to use my time in this half-marathon as the basis of a prediction for an appropriate marathon pace in Chicago.  Since the weather was not ideal and hopefully was much warmer and more humid than the weather in Chicago would be on race day, my performance in this race may not have as much predictive power for my marathon.  I could adjust my race time for temperature and humidity and use the corrected half-marathon time, which would most likely be a minute or more faster, as the basis for my prediction, or I could be conservative and use the 1:25:12 as the basis.

I decided to do the latter.  Not only do I believe that being conservative in marathon pacing would hurt much less than being aggressive, but I do not know how reliable calculators to adjust for temperature such as Daniels Running Calculator are.  I cannot imagine anyone has actually validated these calculators; I actually am having trouble thinking of a study design that would be able to help assess whether the adjustments for temperature and humidity are anywhere near the true effect of these conditions.  The last thing I want is to believe a calculator that tells me I should have been able to run a 1:23:30, for example, in optimal racing conditions and pursue a goal based on that, only to have that adjusted time actually be an overestimate of my current fitness.

According to the Maclin calculator, a 1:25:12 on the Moderate setting of aggressiveness translates to a 3:02:04, or 6:57/mile.  I selected the Moderate setting given my mileage throughout this cycle.  If I did manage to run that time in Chicago, I would be very pleased.  I had qualified for Boston by 13 seconds during my last marathon, but due to the number of applicants exceeding the available number of slots in the Boston Marathon, only those who ran more than 62 seconds faster than their qualifying standards will be able to actually run Boston in 2015.  If I were to finish about three minutes faster than my 3:05:00 qualifying standard, then my chances of being able to run Boston in 2016 will be so much better.

So in Chicago, I will plan to target a 6:55 to 7:00/mile pace.  I will reassess at the 30K mark, and if I have the energy, I will accelerate at that point.