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Southern California Half Marathon - Run


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Irvine, California
United States
55F / 13C
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 53m 37s
Overall Rank = 514/3922
Age Group = 30-34M
Age Group Rank = 19/63
Pre-race routine:

I got talked into doing this race the day before just as I got back from a ride. I have been focused on frequency and slower pacing for the last 8 weeks and SLOWLY building up my mileage. The week before I peaked at 28 miles for the week and averaged 5-6 runs each week averaging a 9:00-9:30 pace for most of those runs. Running is my weakness in a big way so I'm working to make it a strength this 'winter'. I viewed this as a long training day and my plan was to start easy to warm up over the first 2 miles and let the crown calm down and then bring it down to 9:00 miles and try to be as consistent as possible with that pace and TRY to come as close as I could to 2:00:00 as I could. 5 years ago I ran a 2:18:00 (10:30 min/mile pace) here at this same race so I knew what to expect out of the course.
Event warmup:

Woke up around 4:45 and had some orange juice, toast and a clif bar. Sipped water on the drive in. I rode in with Bobby and found an easy spot to park and I walked over to register. Registration maybe took 5 minutes. Super easy and quick. Met up with Jim, Wade, Tex, Nathan and Eric and hung out until about 20 minutes before the race. Easy jog to warm up and then joined the herd with the rest of the mules. This race is an event on the docket for a Program for kids to prep for the LA Marathon and trying to get yourself into the appropriate corral was impossible. The kids need some help understanding how to run in a huge congested group. I'm shocked more people didn't hit the deck.
Run
  • 1h 53m 37s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 08m 40s  min/mile
Comments:

Started off exactly where I wanted to be. The crowd made sure I stayed easy the first 2 miles. Once I got the mile 2 I kinda zoned out and woke up at mile 5 after ticking off some faster miles than I expected. I remembered Jim saying the mile 5/6 was downhill and to take advantage of it...which I did by holding the pace but recovering from the harder effort. I felt amazing so I kept the pace up. I told myself at that point 'lets run this thing and see what happens!'. So I let it roll. I slowly kept my pace up and as I crossed the 'Mile 9' sign and ran back onto the river trail I saw Bobby! I didn't expect to be within 10 minutes of him at the finish so to see him was a HUGE boost to my confidence and gave me a monster rush of adrenaline which helped carry me through the next miles. As I came to the 10 mile point I knew I was going to suffer over the last 5k. I walked through the aid station and had some Gatorade and water and ran to the next aid station and repeated. I knew I was going to need to focus to get this done under 2 hrs. As we turned back onto the riverbed I found this shorter woman that was running a PERFECT pace. I got right on her shoulder and turned my mind off and just focused on keeping her in contact. She pulled me through that 12th mile at an 8:18 clip which gave me another HUGE boost! We doubled back under the bridge and ran that last mile side by side chatting it up...maybe too much because we slowed to a 9:00 pace. As I finished Jim was there to greet me - totally shocked to see me. I stopped my watch and when I saw that I not only broke 2 hrs I DESTROYED my previous PR by 25 minutes! I ran completely out of my mind and had a huge helping of 'Runners High' after wards.
What would you do differently?:

Train more. I wasn't fully prepared for this and I think that helped my performance. I didn't have time to think about it. My expectations were low and I just left it out there. I should have grabbed some water earlier.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around the expo area and had some oranges and a bottle of water. Found Bobby as he finished and got a damn selfie with Jim...

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I honestly am shocked and stoked on my time. In no way did I expect to be able to run as strong as I did. It certainly fires me up to continue training for Oceanside 70.3 as I'm hoping to go sub 6hr there and I'll need a solid run like this to make that happen.

Event comments:

The only issue I have with this race is the kids. I'd rather deal with a mass swim start than the beginning of this race. It's pure chaos. Other than the first 2 miles the race was great. Totally Stoked on my run.




Last updated: 2017-01-09 12:00 AM
Running
01:53:37 | 13.1 miles | 08m 40s  min/mile
Age Group: 19/63
Overall: 519/3922
Performance: Good
Avg HR - 155 bpm. Mile 1 - 9:20 Mile 2 - 9:24 Mile 3 - 8:53 Mile 4 - 8:38 Mile 5 - 8:21 Mile 6 - 8:29 Mile 7 - 8:13 Mile 8 - 8:13 Mile 9 - 7:54 Mile 10 - 8:49 Mile 11 - 8:46 Mile 12 - 8:18 Mile 13 - 9:00 0.1 - 7:52
Course: Run along San Diego River Trail and along streets in Irvine. Lots of out and backs.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %?
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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