Recreational Reading

Summary:

I ran the Earth Day Half Marathon on Saturday April 15th.

Time: 1:38:24
Pace: 7:31

The rest of the story…

The Earth Day Half Marathon is has been the location of my PR for the majority of the last three years. Since my first half marathon effort, (Green Bay, 2001) my PR had improved by about two minutes from the 1:47 range to the 1:45 range. My PR entering the event was from the 2006 Winter Carnival Half Marathon where Nate and I ran together.

I don’t usually run halves with a go get it attitude. However, this particular race falls on a down week with a nine mile tempo run and a twelve mile long run on the schedule. It’s also something of a tradition. Terry, who now lives in Washington DC, was a SCSU graduate, so it was a sort of going home event for her. Additionally, it was where the majority of my running friends turned in fast times. I think the main contributing factor is the training program for Grandma’s. Typically everyone has put their miles in and has decent fitness without having abused the body with the first twenty miler.

The Course:

The course can be summarized in one word: twisty. Not only are there a bunch of turns, there’s a block long out and back section. Some friends are of the opinion that the course is a hard one to run fast on because of the turns. As evidence, they cite the results of Ryan Meissen. Meissen tends to run fast; actually, he tends to win a lot. The theory here is that the course costs Meissen two or three minutes, which at the pace he runs, amounts to around 5%. For comparison sake, in a 5K he would cross the line while I was about a mile out.

My feelings on the course are a bit different. I’m used to running corners, or at least have some experience at it. When I was in high school, back in the last century, I would typically run the first leg of the 4×400 and 4×800 relays because I ran lanes well. Either that or I bitched about it less, which ever. Going back even further, when we ran cross country we attempted to use corners to our advantage in various ways. Whatever the reason, I don’t mind turning or twisting courses.

The Hotel, the night before, and before the race..

The traditional hotel of Earth Day is the Kelly Inn. It’s actually more of a hotel complex then a hotel. It’s layout is somewhat confusing and full of places where the phrase can’t get there from here comes to mind. It’s not particularly cheap. It’s not particularly nice. It’s tradition. It does feature a Green Mill restaurant in the building, so they’ve got that going for them.

I drove to work on Friday then left from downtown to get to St. Cloud. The drive was uneventful. I got to fill up the gas tank on the truck which usually involves some degree of shock and sometimes a bit of swearing. I got to the hotel, got a room, then headed down for some dinner. I got some pasta and a beer, then headed back to the room to watch a movie.

After the movie, I set the alarm clock to go off at 6:30 the next morning. Then, as a backup, I set the alarm on my phone to go off at 6:40. It was getting kind of late. The clock read 12:45 or so when I realize that it required springing ahead to the correct time. Suddenly, it was almost 2AM. So, I turned off the light and got what sleep I could.

I woke the next morning when a shower in an adjoining room turned on. It wasn’t particularly loud, but the sound of running water roused me. When I looked at the clock. It read 7:15. Neither alarm went off, but it wasn’t a total loss. The race wasn’t until 9AM, so there was still almost two hours to race time and 45 minutes to my expected departure time. I put the coffee on, took a shower, and pinned my number on my shirt. When I looked at the clock, it was suddenly 8:30. I got all my stuff together and drove to the start with time to spare, but not much time. Also, I had some coffee, but nothing to eat and I was hungry. Things didn’t seem to be starting out so well.

The race..

The race went well anyway. I felt strong the whole way. Not strong enough to run two of these back to back, but not totally red lined either. If there is a down side to the effort, it’s that my HR limit went basically ignored the entire race. I had set the limit at 172, but only spent about ten minutes below the limit including the walk breaks. It all worked out, but as they say, that’s not sustainable.

Splits go like this: All times from the Polar watch.

When I took the mile ten split, I considered sub 1:40 unlikely. It seemed unreasonable to think that I could run a 5K in under 24 minutes after ten miles. However, I resigned to not take a walk after mile twelve, so my last walk break was at 88 minutes. The decision to not walk turned the last mile and a half or so into a long, high-tempo run. The times of the last two miles reflect the additional effort as well as the HR graph in the Polar software. It’s interesting that my pace per mile dropped by about ten seconds from the 10K mark to the finish.

Last, but not least, are Polar’s effort magic numbers. These are calculated values which are supposed to be statistically relevant for comparison between sessions. Like all magic numbers, take them with a grain of salt. I’ll provide some things to compare this race to.

I do not have a marathon effort handy or I would include it. I seem to remember that effort numbers for marathons trend toward the 1100 or 1200 range. Significantly higher then anything listed above.

Tags: Earth Day Half Marathon, Half Marathon, Personal Record, Racing, Results, Ryan Meissen