Stability Through Motion

I PBed! For those new to this blog, that means I ran a Personal Best. I think in America it’s a PR, or Personal Record. This is one of the occasional rewards for running, along with a sense of smugness, the odd T-shirt, a banana and some lucozade. Well I really should have PBed since I haven’t run a Half marathon in two years and a my previous PB was very rusty, but it’s still always nice isn’t it?
Right, as this is a running blog, tis time for some running statistics.

Chip time: 1:25:53

Gun time: 1:26:40 (so it took almost a minute to cross the start line)

—————————
Pace / HR avg / notes
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Miles 1 – 4
6:53 – 191 – slow slow start edging past other runners – nonsense HR readings – strap fell off
6:21 – 211 – bit of catch up here through the town – more nonsense HR readings
6:39 – 159 – on to the prom at last but uphill, strap now secured and readings look right
6:24 – 157 – getting going properly now

Miles 5 – 8 – into the wind
6:35 – 159 – no respite here, battering wind and rain/sleet all the way along the prom, happy with the effort though
6:34 – 159
6:34 – 161
6:38 – 159

Miles 9 – 12 with the wind
6:25 – 158 – These miles were really nice, felt strong – the wind helped for sure
6:25 – 158
6:30 – 159 – Second time up the hill
6:18 – 161

Mile 13 - finish
6:34 – 162 – back into the wind for the final straight mile
1:04 – didn’t lose out in any sprint battles this time, I definitely have more push for the finish these days – intervals paying off?

Lessons learned / remembered
1. Start nearer the front. It was so cold I was reluctant to join the throng until it was too late to get nearer the front. The fact that there’s a minute between my gun and chip times says it all, and then the extra 25s in the first mile indicates the blockages encountered weaving through the town past slowing runners. I’ve got to start remembering that I’m in the top 2.5% of such a mass-participation event, not a middle of the race runner any more.

2. I still don’t need fuel or water during a Half (at least a cool weather Half). Still a big issue for me on marathons, fuelling is not a problem for 13 miles. One bowl of cereal 3 hours prior was all I had.

3. If you’re feeling good, don’t dawdle, push it! It was too easy at times to just relax (well, not exactly relax) into a pack of runners. This is called keeping focus I guess.

Conclusions
I’m happy with the result given the testing conditions and the fact that I’d consciously decided to aim to PB but not go all-out for a sub 3 indicator. Secretly, yes, I would have been happier to have run 1:24:xx and felt more confident about the marathon plan.
I was a bit concerned about endurance, as I’ve been following the lower mileage Furman schedules and not raced beyond 10k for 18 months. But no big concerns – I didn’t spot many signs of fading, the last miles were hard as expected, but not worryingly so, and I seemed to be able to pick up the pace when conditions allowed.

That said, there’s a big step up to 26 miles and my mind still says 3:05 is a more sensible target in April. But I’m in my 40s after all and no longer have to be all grown up and sensible about things!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am and is filed under race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.