Rock the Parkway Half Marathon - Run

Thought I might be able to run under 1:25, I'd dropped a few pounds and recent training runs had me thinking a 6:35/mile pace was reasonable, which works out to 1:26:15 and would have been a fine PR, but I usually race faster than I train so I settled on 1:25 as a goal and the plan to get there was start at 6:45 for the first 3 miles (mile 1 mostly flat, miles 2 and 3 are up so that is easing into it for the start), hold 6:30 through the middle and finish the last 2.5 or three miles downhill miles at 6:15 building to 6 flat. It went pretty close to plan until the gun went off, I started a little fast with a 6:25, then 6:33 and 6:39 and stayed a little faster than 6:30 until mile 8, which kicked my ass (the beat down actually started during mile 7) and miles 11 and 12, while overall flat to descending had enough rolling element to them to keep me from getting below 6:30 until the last mile.

Using the GOVSS approach to account for effort up and down hills, I was 5% above average power for the first 3 miles, dead on for the next 5 miles, then 2-5% below for the rest. Not sure if a more even effort would have resulted in a faster time, it would have been less uncomfortable but I think I handled the near blowup well enough, just went into banking miles mode and staying stride for stride with those around me.

Not get caught up in the rush of people running too fast at the start (and I started third row back), I saw 6:10 for lap pace a couple hundred yards into it, even dipped under 6 flat for a moment before I hit the brakes and let a lot of people pass, knowing that most of them were running well beyond their capabilities. Think I was still in the 1 for 1 trade off area, that is 30 seconds faster in the first part only costs 30s in the end, not a minute or more, but hard to say.

Recon the course a little better, note the difference between the 2 elevation profiles, the blue one is the official race course profile, the thing that looks like a sawblade is what I ran), there were 2 notable uphills in the last couple miles, I can coast along pretty dang fast on a generally downhill segment, and that was the plan, but those short climbs totally broke my momentum. I was still very positive mentally in mile 11 when the first hill revealed itself and it became obvious that going under 1:25 was unlikely, as I certainly wasn't going to mope about a 1:25 or 1:26 something.

Laid in the grass for a good long while and drank some water. Finally got up and walked around, wandered up to the food and had a couple chocolate milks, a nasty organic protein ball, some oranges, and a banana. Walked around and BS'd some more.


Starting too fast (probably). Focused training on building mileage during a ~5 week run cycle building up to the race, maybe next time I do a HM I'll start with enough base mileage so I can spend more time with race pace intervals and hills, run more hills.


I'm not necessarily a fan of the big post race carnival/expo atmosphere but this was lacking a bit, good band and well organized but not a lot of food and drink choices. Although the free Science City entry for the whole family was awesome.