Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

That was the best I had in me today...nothing spectacular but honestly about what I thought was reasonable, although I had hoped for a bit more. Slightly bummed I didn't go under 1:25 but what difference does it realy make? The only time that means much of anything is my PR from the spring (1:23:41). Every time I race my primary goal is to set a new PR but I just haven't had enough time to regain my base from Boston...2 months without walking will tend to do that to you :) Today was an honest effort and gives me a good idea of where I'm at.

Pacing felt comfortable out of the gate although we clicked off a 6:27 which was a bit faster than I had planned to open up with. My HR hit ~170bpm and settled in by the first mile mark. The next mile was about the same and we finally settled into a string of 6:35 splits. After mile 6 I decided that if I wanted a chance at a PR I needed to pick it up a bit so I pushed a 6:26 but it didn't feel like a pace I could maintain for another 6 miles...gotta try anyway. I was starting to feel a bit suffocated by my soaking race singlet so I peeled it off and carried it in my hand although it weighed a couple pounds from being so wet. Mile 8 included the bridge so I expected a slower split (6:40) but I hoped to recover and knock off a solid string of splits over the final 5 miles. I ditched my shirt in the bushes around mile 9. The next 4 miles were tough and I didn't feel especially motivated. My legs were starting to feel heavy but I wasn't havinbg any cramping issues. 2 miles down Atlantic were uneventful and not all that comfortable...not close enough to the finish to start feeling positive about being done yet. I wanted more fluids and it was starting to get hot in the direct sunlight. Some hashers were at about 10th street so I swiped a couple cups of beer as I cruised by. By the time I made the final turn onto the boardwalk I was really feeling tapped out. I could see the finish in the distance but I knew it was still 2+ miles away so I still wasn't very excited and I couldn't seem to muster up any sort of surge. My HR had made a steady climb through the run and was now sitting around 185bpm. That last 2 miles generally sucked. When I hit the 13 mile mark it was obvious that I wouldn't go under 1:25 so I just shut it down and jogged easy the last 150m. I could have kept pushing and trimmed ~15 seconds off my finish time but I decided to just enjoy the crowd and finish with a smile rather than hit the line and fall over. I gave it my best effort but fell a bit short of my goals.

Don't know that there's much I could have done better today. I might have held back a bit longer and felt better coming down the final 2-3 miles but I honestly don't think that had a whole lot of effect overall. I ran an even split but didn't really have anything left over the final 3-4 miles.

Probably got a mile of jogging and 2 miles of walking total. Took me a bit to gather myself and start walking straight but eventually I got my shit together and got out of the finish area. I swung back to claim my singlet from the bushes and jogged up to 10th street where the Hashers were handing out beer. I had a cold one and waited for Katie to come by. I jogged the next 10 blocks with Katie, Kelly, and Dawn before heading off to the car to swap out some gear...got the wet shoes off, slipped into my trusty flip-flops and headed back to the boardwalk to catch the girls on the final mile. Found Katie and jogged it in with her.


2 months of lost training time.


This is usually a great race but this year they dropped down a couple notches in my opinion. This is a huge event with 20,000+ runners and I know it's a major production but that doesn't give any excuse for poor planning. I've never done a large road race that didn't have aid stations every mile. I believe there were only 8 or 9 stations over 13 miles today. They usually have gels available around the 9 mile mark...none this year. There was plenty of water available at the end IF you finished by about 2 hours or so. By the time my girlfriend finished (about 2:40) they were completely out of water and were recycling the wet towels. There must have been several thousand people that didn't get water at the finish. On top of that, when she went to the medical tent for a bag of ice for her knee they told here they were only helping people who were passing out...wouldn't even give her a bag of ice.