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Comments: I knew from my previous few workouts that I was in the best running form of my life right now so a PR was within reach. The only issue was going to be my left foot which was very sore yesterday from a gout flare-up. Fortunately, it did not present any problems at all. I was planning to start out the race around a 7:15 pace, but ended up a little quicker as there were more downhills during the first 5K. I came in just around 22 minutes and my initial plans to use the 1:35 pacer was out the window as I was running faster than that pace. I figured that if they caught me, I would hang on and still get a PR (my old PR was 1:36:59). I was watching my heart rate to make sure I don't redline myself too early, and game plan was to keep it in the low 150 range until at least halfway. When it would climb to around 155, I would slow down until it went back to around 150-152 bpm. After the halfway mark, I let it go up to around 155-156bpm and by mile 9, I knew I had a PR in the bag as long as I didn't blow up so on a couple of water stations, I made sure to walk a little bit, get water, and take my gel (which I took around mile 8). Around mile 10 I was starting to struggle but latched onto another runner who was going my pace and the friendly competition kept the intensity up. Decided to start calling out some 'targets' to reel in and we both went after a few people and caught up/passed them. At this point, I was defnitely running around 6:40/mile pace and it was getting pretty painful. On the finishing few hundred meters, he started sprinting and I didn't really have much more (and didn't want to risk an all out sprint) and came in a few seconds behind. However, I looked at my watch and saw that I broke 1:34 for a new PR of 1:33:44! What would you do differently?: A few things would have made my race just a little bit better: 1. Don't do a hard 75-minute threshold interval on the bike on Friday evening. 2. Probably better to have done my active recovery ride on Saturday morning instead of Saturday evening 3. Push and suffer just a little bit harder and not walk as long as I did on one of the water stops - cost around 10 seconds. 4. Might have been good to have another gel - take 1 at 10K, then half of another around 15K. 5. Sleep earlier (only got about 5.5 hrs of sleep)  Post race
Warm down: Not much of a warm-down, just waited around finish line area. I did walk a lot - including about 20 minutes to get back to the start. What limited your ability to perform faster: See above - Event comments: I still think the Dallas Marathon was better but this wasn't bad. Swag was not the best considering how expensive the race was (Hot Chocolate swag was better). Last updated: 2015-02-16 12:00 AM
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United States
Competitor Group
52F / 11C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 187/8486
Age Group = M 45-49
Age Group Rank = 20/431
Woke up at 5am. Was not sure whether I was going to be able to race because I had a minor gout flare-up to deal with from Thursday afternoon. Definitely wouldn't have been able to run if the race was yesterday. I figured I would know when I warmed up if I should line up to take the start. Had a rice cage, banana, and peanut butter for breakfast, along with another banana on the drive down. Left the house at around 6:08am but got to my office parking garage which was about 4-5 blocks away with no issues and was there in time to do the morning ritual.
Ran about 1.5 miles total, but stopped to make 2nd and 3rd porta john breaks. Legs were feeling heavy so in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done such a hard bike workout on Friday evening and should have ridden the 30-minute active recovery workout on Saturday morning, not late afternoon.