Brooksie Way Initial Report

In my 3rd half marathon and 2nd Brooksie Way Half, I finished in 1:49:09. This was a PR by 7 minutes and beat my goal of 1:50. More to report in the near future!

See the overall Brooksie Way 2012 Results Here

The Waiting

Tom Petty sang about it back in '81 and it still holds true. The waiting is the hardest part.


There is a lot of waiting going on in our household lately. Top on the hit parade is this little lady:

Cute little baby face

 Baby girl is due in about a month. Mama is ready to go any time she's ready to make an appearance.

The other thing I'm waiting for is the Brooksie Way Half Marathon, which is on Sunday, September 30. I've been ready to go for a couple weeks now, and even more so after the past week.

Last Sunday, we had the Brooksie Way practice run. As I hadn't run the course since last year and because I hadn't run 13.1 miles since March (my recent long runs have been in the 10 mile range), I thought it would be a good idea to participate. I ran with a few people from my half marathon team from work. My goal was to run the course "easily" with steady pace, and that is what I did. Other than on a couple of Brooksie's infamous hills, I was never really breathing hard and just concentrated on my pace and strides. I was helping a teammate finish strong, so I tried to go up hills at a good pace and slowed on the down hill to let her catch up. It seemed to work pretty well as she set an unofficial PR in a practice run (and hopes to drop about 5 minutes next Sunday).

We ran the course in a little over 2:10, which is about 20 minutes longer than I hope to run next Sunday. I think I made the correct decision to not push too hard and not race the thing. I was able to get the confidence that the distance shouldn't be a huge issue, my legs got the work and I relearned the course.

 

I am as ready as I think I can be for this race. With Princess C on the bike Tuesday after work. I had a great 5k run. I felt really strong, my legs felt strong - I can only hope I get something close to that on race day. This morning I had a decent run as well, doing half of a half marathon at about 30 sec / mile off race pace. There is a balancing act between staying fresh and keeping "in practice" and not doing too much and injuring or straining myself. I really wish the race was tomorrow as I'm having "taper madness", even if it is only for another week. I need to get through the week, do as well as the race as I am capable of, and get ready for baby time. I think the race is keeping me occupied and I'm not as anxious about baby girl and the whole birthing process (believe me, I know I have the easy part in this) as I otherwise would be.

After the race, the rest of the racing calendar for the year is blank. I plan to race, but will do so as our family schedule allows. I still have 5k and 10k goals to hit for the year, but if mama, baby or the kiddies need me, running races is a very minor consideration.

The waiting is the hardest part, but I think I'm ready for it all. Ready as anybody can be. Sing it Steven!

Camp Lael Race and Good Tempo Run

There are two races that I plan to do every year because they involve causes my family and I support. The first is the Open Door Julie Run, which was in June and the Camp Lael 5k Run / Walk, which was on Saturday. A 5k race wasn't really in line with my half marathon training at this point, but I had no intention of missing it. This is the only race ever where I was the defending champion and I don't know if I'd ever have the chance to run a race like that again.

 
Out of the 30 or so person field this year, there were only 3 "competitive runners" including myself - everyone else either ran sporadically or walked. The other two were both men in their mid 20's and both looked to be in good shape.

I went to the race expecting not to need to run hard, based on last year's experience, but had a race on my hands. One of the guys was doing what looked like wind sprints in the parking lot and my wife said "Uh-oh, you're going to have to run". She was right.

The course was 3 laps around the camp, for the first loop, we were all basically together. I didn't feel like I "had it" at all, but I was holding on. Mid-way through the second lap, the young tall guy and I pulled away from the other guy. It was obvious to me that the tall guy was stronger than I on this day (he was the one running around before the race). I just tried to hang close and hoped that he'd tire. On the last half of the last lap, I noticed he was having some issues and decided to pass him on the downhill of the second to last hill and did. I tried to speed up enough to put some distance between him and me, but he was the fastest uphill runner I've ever seen and caught me on the last hill. He got a few seconds on me and despite my furious finish were I nearly caught him, he edged me out to win.

I wasn't "on" today and have been training for longer races at a slower pace, but I'm happy with how I did overall. The pace wasn't that special, but with the very hilly course (can I get a flat one someday?) and rocky terrain, it wasn't bad. This was the first distance race I have ever run where I was basing my pace on what others were doing. I'm not sure this was a good thing. This was a tough course, but my pace during the second mile, and overall, was slower than I would have expected. I thought we were going faster than we were - it was different actually racing against someone.

The cool thing about racing against someone is that there was strategy involved, at least on my part. I wasn't having a great day, but I hung around, hung around, hung around and then made a move. It wasn't enough to win, but I felt like I had the upper hand mentally and gave myself the best chance to win.

I planned to so a "long, easy" run today of about 11 -12 miles, but I just didn't have time, so I scaled it back to 8 and it ended up more of a "tempo" run. I was still planning to take it easy, but starting out I felt surprisingly good considering I raced the day before. My legs felt good and the cool weather (around 50F to start), certainly helped. I didn't look at my watch but once or twice, but except for the first two miles (where there is a big downhill on the first mile), I got faster mile after mile. The splits were: 8:43, 9:01, 8:37, 8:36, 8:23, 8:21, 8:16, 8:03 and there was a sub-7 minute pace finish for the last .13 miles. I couldn't have planned negative splits any better. This run was right at the pace I need to hit my half marathon goal. Very happy with the run and a good confidence builder.

Do you ever race against someone rather than against the clock or yourself? How'd it go?

Before a "big" race, do you ever have that run that makes you think "I'm Ready!"? Were you?

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