Space Coast half marathon

Good luck on your race and don't forget to follow-up with a race report!

Still Tri'n
Michael

Good Luck let us know how is goes.

Thanks for the encouragement. I will give a report afterwards. I hope it cools down soon though! Still in the 80's and hot on long runs!

I wish it would warm up..... It is rainy and expecting more rain to come and the dreaded cold front moving in. Enjoy the warmth and I do know what you mean about the heat...good luck!

I do take advantage of living in Florida! I've lived in VA, ID, IL and WA and moved back home to Florida :-) It is better than the summer. I just started running this past summer and it was in the 90's with 100% humidity! I guess I should stop complaining now huh

My first race is complete!!!

I just started running last summer. I'm not sure why I didn't want to start with a 5k, but decided to run in the

local half marathon for my first race. I think I wanted to build up the endurance before trying for speed. Get a

good base of slow miles first. I had never ran more than 2 miles before, but Body For Life had helped me transform

my body and get my cardio fitness back up.

I basically followed Jeff Galloway's book with the run/walk training plan. Two weeks before the race I had my last

long training run of 11 miles. The last week I started my taper with a 6 mile run Sunday, 4 miles on Tues and 2

miles on Friday with no cycling that week. Just rest and enough running to remember how :-) I also carb loaded some

that last week. But with Thanksgiving, it's hard to get 70% calories from carbs. I got good night's sleep the last

few nights. The night before the race I dreamed my back tooth cracked in half and I woke up with a slight toothache

and have had it a couple of days now! Pretty strange.

My race was at 7:45am Sunday, so I got up at 5:30am. I had 2 cups of water with a Bagel and very light cream cheese,

a banana and a little coffee. I turned on ESPN and watched it while getting ready. I was a little tired so I closed

my eyes on the couch for about 5 mins. It was cold out (Florida style anyways down to 50 degrees:-) ). I got on the

road about 6:!5. The race was only about 15mins away from the house.

The close parking lot was full since the full marathon started earlier at 7am. Where I parked was about 1/2 miles

away, but the walk was a great way to start loosening up. I got to the race in time to watch and cheer for the

marathoners to start. Then I got my race chip (for timing race) and went looking for a port-a-let before the lines

got too long. About 7:15 I had a gel pack and started light stretching and some slow jogging. My family wasn't

coming for the start (I just wanted to focus and not worry about them) so I had to check in a bag with my sweats and

jacket. Then it was chilly! I kept walking to try to stay warm. We were right on the river so a breeze and high

humidity. About 15min prior I needed to go to the batroom again but the line was huge. I had to skip it.

Finally got to the starting line. Got warmer as everyone packed in (300 people). I of course went to the back of the

pack! Finally we are off. I took off slow as planned and watched most everyone else leave me far behind. I had

planned to run 4mins and walk 1 min throughout the race. The first mile I was a little faster than planned, but was

still near the back of the race. I felt an urge to speed up, but kept my pace. About mile three there was a

port-a-let at a construction site and I was able to find some relief :-) This put me almost last. After that I

started finding my pace and hit a nice zone and was feeling pretty good. I started trying to reel people in at that

point. I would focus on the person or group in front of me to keep me going.

About miles 5 my right knee was getting intermittent sharp pains. Usually when I get this it goes away after walking

a few seconds. This time it kept coming back. Lucky for me, someone had mentioned brining aspirin with you, so I had

4 advils. I took those at that half way point after seeing my family there cheering me on. I had passed about 20

people by then. I was getting discouraged because I was feeling great and now me knee was hurting. The advil helped

and it didn't hurt anymore after that. The massage therapist said it was the band connecting upper and lower leg was

too tight and told my how to rub it out next time. I was worried about an injury.

At mile 7 I realized I was running much faster than my ultimate goal pace. I was worried about bonking at the end.

Luckily it was cool out. My biggest problem on my training long runs has been the heat and subsequently the heart

rate getting high from that. I decided to keep the same pace and decided I would just gut it out if I had to.

At mile 10 I still felt strong. My heart rate was still good and I started to speed up some. By now I had passed

another 15-20 people. I was still focusing on the person in front of me to keep me thinking about anything else. At

mile 11 I passed a group and there was know one within 1/2 mile! I targets that group and sped it some more. I'm

still feeling strong. I saw my family again at mile 11.5 and that felt great and pushed me more. At mile 12 I

decided I had a lot of strenght left and was going to not take any walk breaks and catch that last group. I did have

to take a couple of 15 sec walk breaks to catch my breath but legs were fine. I finally caught that group right

before mile 13 (race is 13.1) and was running faster than at any part of the race. My last mile was by far my

fastest mile!

I ended up finishing in 2:33:57! Not a great time, but was for me. My first goal was to finish in less than 3 hours

and my ultimate goal was 2:45:00 and I beat that by almost a min per mile!!!! My legs were still strong, but my

cardio fitness (wind) kept me back some. What a great experience! I didn't even finish last in my age group (2nd to

last :-) ) I felt so good all day (other than my nap of course) and just couldn't believe how strong I felt. I

started to question if I should have went faster, but I was already getting faster than planned and couldn't risk

bonking before I finished. Now I know what to expect next time. This gave me a great running base to start my

triathlon training in January. I will resume running next week (easy) and easy cycling Wed.

So, for those of you who say you can't do it, I say you can. If I can then you can too!

great rr cam!  detailed and gave us some insight on how u trainined for it.  whats next?

Thanks Ron. A little and easy cycling this week. Next week I start running and finally weight training again. I had stopped the weight training for the race.
In Jan, I will start tri specific training, but only the cycle and run until I get used to cycling longer distances and probably start swimming in Feb. I may change my mind and start swimming in Jan, but that will be the most burdensome to my schedule due to the pool being 30mins away.
I am planning a local Sprint tri in June and a local Olympic in Oct and the half marathong again next Nov and the Disney half the folowing Jan. If my training is going well, I may sneak in some more sprints over in Clermont. Those are big events, so I kind of want to do one here locally first. Clermont is a nationally recognized events and the USAT training center is there.

Great job Cameron. It is great that you were able to beat your ultimate expectation especially since it was a half marathon. Keep up the good work. Send some warm weather up here. It is supposed to get down to thirteen degrees tonight with Lake Effect Snow.

Ditto's on your race!

Still Tri'n
Michael

where do u live kgart...lake effect snow...sounds like ohio? (or any of the other several states around the great LAKES...5 of them?)

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Thanks guys! It was a great experience.

KGart, that's why I live in Florida I have lived in VA, IL, ID & WA and moved back to sunny Florida. I hate snow!!!

LAra, my folks were over and I was trying to be polite and then finally just rolled over on the couch and was out about 4 hours after the race :-O

If I had my choice I would be living down there too. But my wife says that she would not be able to stand the heat in the summer and that she will miss her family. I told her what is the difference if your spending all summer in the house down there or all winter couped in up her. At least there is no snow. I prefer the gulf coast though.

Yes, the heat can take time to get used to. I grew up here so a little easier for me. I have friends from North Dakota and it took them a year. The key is to move down between Nov-MArch and give yourself time to get used to humidity and some heat before summer. So many people move down in August before school starts and that's the hottest time of year with 90-100% humidity :-)

Plus, we have AC everywhere!

Ron,
I live in Rochester New York on the shores of Lake Ontario. Nice place to live in the summer time but hate it in the winter.

yeah, i just recieved that horribly annoying weather warning on tv about sleet/snow...yik!

Great job.

Mark

Thanks Mark. Nice to "kinda" meet you!

Cameron