TITLE: My Latest Half Marathon
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 26, 2006  4:31 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
<A HREF="http://www.ateamshrine.co.uk/hannibal.php">
   Hannibal Smith</A>
of television's
<A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084967/">
   The A-Team</A>
used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
I do, too, but some days work out better than that.

My
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2006-06.html#e2006-06-20T14_28_32.htm">
   plan</A>
for the
<!A HREF="">
   Sturgis Falls half marathon</A>
yesterday was conservative: 8:00 minutes/mile.
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-06.html#e2005-06-27T14_11_34.htm">
  Last
year</A>
I was shooting for 7:00 minutes/mile and fought some
humid weather on the way to a finish of 1:34:11, a pace
of 7:11.  This year, after being under the weather
persistently for a couple of months and working through
hamstring soreness, I scaled back my expectations to my
target marathon pace.

The weather this year was perfect for a race: cloudy,
not too breezy, and temperatures just under 60 degrees
Fahrenheit.  Just before the starting gun, one of my
friends said, "I hate when the weather takes away all
of my excuses."  Yep, because then it's just me out
their on the course.

It can be tough to start a big race "on pace" because
the adrenalin and the presence of the big crowd usually
encourages a fast start.  After 1 mile, I had run 7:32
-- a half-minute too fast.  But I felt good, and the
pack had thinned out, so I kept on.  My second mile:
7:32.  Still feeling good.  The third mile took me
7:44, but I still felt good and actually thought I'd
been a little cocky over the last mile.  So I kept on
running.  And I found a very nice rhythm.

This may have been the steadiest ten miles I have ever
run:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
7:32 - 7:32 - 7:44 - 7:35 - <BR/>
7:35 - 7:33 - 7:30 - 7:34 - <BR/>
7:36 - 7:29
</BLOCKQUOTE>

There was a glitch in the course's 11th mile due to road
construction, so my time for that "mile" (6:13) is
certainly inaccurate.  Then I ran back-to-back miles
of 7:21 and sprinting home the last 1/10-mile in 37
seconds, for a finishing time of 1:37:15 -- only three
(or maybe four) minutes slower than last year.

I felt great the whole way, though when I was done I
felt as if I had run a marathon.  I'm beginning to learn
that pain and soreness are not a function of one's time
or one's fitness, but a function of the combination of
time and fitness.  On this day, I ran about as fast as
I possibly could have, given my fitness level, and my
body told me so afterwards.

The only bad news of the day was that I finished off the
medal stand for my age group -- by two seconds!  To be
honest, though, I don't know if I had two seconds left
in me at the end of the race, so I have no regrets.

Now, I'll spend a couple of days doing easy runs to
recover and then proceed with a training plan for the
<A HREF="http://www.twincitiesmarathon.org/">
   Twin Cities Marathon</A>
on October 2.  I don't have a lot of time, and I have
more work to do that I had this time last year.  But
yesterday's race makes me eager to face the challenge.
-----