Howdy sports fans! It's been a while since my last race recap (mid-July's boiling Rocketts Landing Tri). Not surprising, as I spent half of August in Israel. I remember trying to track down a race, any race, in Israel (just to have competed in a race in another country). The response from the various track clubs I emailed was uniform: "are you crazy!?! Do you know how hot it is in Israel in August!?!"
Anyhow, on September 11, I ran the Parks Half Marathon. While Jordana has run this race multiple times, this was my first time running (although, I have run on most of the length of the course during my various long runs). I think this may have been the last major running experience that we had not yet experienced together, so I was actually pretty excited to run this just for that reason alone. Now that we have an au pair, we're not stuck so much doing the tag-team running and racing. We were able to head out to packet pickup together. We got our bibs and, the race being on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, our temporary flag tatooes. Ran into several friends at packet pickup.
Race day dawned clear and a bit humid. The temperature and dewpoint were the same (mid-60s) giving us 100% humidity near race time -- as the race progressed, the humidity dropped into the 90s, then 80s! So, yes, it was a bit drippy.
Anyhow, this was one of the most fun pre-race experiences I've had so far. Normally, I'm pretty much alone pre-race. Maybe, it is one of the rare races that Jordana is with me. But usually it's just me. I would stretch and warm-up and wait for the race start - watching the other groups of runners, chatting and joking and hanging out. But now that I have returned to training in a training program (Boston Bound last spring and XMP now), I was not alone. It was a great feeling -- running into groups of my friends, joining in the pre-race banter, making jokes and laughing at jokes. I felt like I belonged. A feeling I haven't felt pre-race since probably my cross-country days back in high school. I guess I solo ran for so many years, I forgot how enjoyable the comraderie can be when running with a group.
But I digest...
I found my starting wave (Parks has unofficial self-policed starting waves based on your expected pace) -- the sub 7:00 mile group. I had two goals for the day: first, run sub 6:30s; second, run a PR (i.e., faster than a 1:26:50). The race started ("when I say go go go") and we were off...
Miles 1 - 3
The race starts near Rockville Metro and ends in downtown Bethesda. Most of the race is along the Rock Creek bike path, but the first 3 miles is along Viers Mills Road. The road is mostly downhill, so I started out at what was probably a somewhat too fast pace. But then, I had not raced in a number of weeks. Further, the last time I raced a 1/2 marathon, I had done a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike warm-up. Amazing how much fresher one feels when one is ONLY racing a 1/2 marathon!
As I said, I took it out a bit fast at a 6:22 pace. Mile 2 was even faster at 6:20. Around mile three, the course turned off Viers Mill and finally entered Rock Creek. The already humid air became even more humid as we entered the forested path which runs along Rock Creek. I hit Mile 3 at 6:37 pace.
Miles 4 - 10
As I said, the heart of the race is the Rock Creek bike path. I've run just about every part of this path at one time or another during either FTM (in 2003), Boston Bound (last winter), or recently with XMP. So this was familiar ground. And it's good to know the course. For example, I knew that almost immediately after passing mile 3, the course would climb a pretty steep hill, known by those in MCRRC as "the Silencer." The marathon and half-marathon programs use this hill to do hill repeats. I did not want to waste energy on this hill, so let ran using constant exertion. I hit mile 4 at 6:43.
After the Silencer, however, the course is mostly level, with the occasional up and down of hills (but these tend to be relatively short, even if they can be steep). I settled into my pace, running mile 5 in 6:32 and mile 6 in 6:25. The problem with these mid-miles, especially on a familiar course, is that I sometimes start to daydream. Sometimes that makes me run fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes even. I ran mile 7 in 6:40, then hit miles 8 and 9 in 6:34, and ran mile 10 at 6:40.
In the days before the race, we had gotten ALOT of rain and Rock Creek had flooded. The race director sent entrants pre-race emails warning us of a potentially wet and muddy course. But hats off to the race crew -- if there had been a lot of mud or debris it was mostly gone. The course was excellent shape. Especially the part of the course that goes under Connecticut Avenue -- I was expecting ankle deep mud. I was greatly pleased to run that dry-shod. Of course, that is not to say that there weren't puddles and mud here and there. Just before Connecticut Avenue, I misjudged how deep one puddle was and got a shoe covered in mud. I shuffle stepped several paces, just to get the mud off my shoe so I wouldn't run unbalanced!
Miles 11 - finish
Between miles 10 and 11, the course turns right off of the Rock Creek bike path, up Susanna Lane, across Jones Bridge Road and onto the gravel portion of the Capital Crescent Bike path (known as the CCT) that takes you to the finish. The path up to Susanna Lane and the road itself up to the street crossing is one long steep hill. No surprise, then, that I ran mile 11 in 6:55 -- my slowest split of the race.
The CCT is a converted rails to trails. The portion north and east of Bethesda is still gravel. One would think it flat because it looks flat. If you look at the elevation profile, however, it is one steady up hill (not seriously steep -- only railroad grade -- but uphill nevertheless).
They say marathons are a 20 mile warm up followed by a 10K. Well, half marathons are a 10 mile warm up followed by a 5K. Time for my tiring legs to pick up the pace (note to self: best not run back to back 10 milers on the Thursday and Friday before a Sunday half-marathon race). My Garmin was set to show total time, total distance, but pace for the current mile (I always race in that mode), so I had no way of knowing if I was on pace to meet either goal. I ran mile 12 in 6:45, then picked it up again to run 6:38 for mile 13.
Around mile 13, the CCT goes under Wisconsin Avenue in a tunnel under the Air Rights Building. Just before the entrance to the tunnel, and as part of the 9-11 commemoration, Girl Scouts were handing out American flags for the runners to carry over the finish. I slowed down enough to get my flag (did not want to risk dropping it) and entered the tunnel.
As I entered the tunnel, I could hear footsteps directly behind me. I did not want to turn around to see how close (for fear of losing my stride) but the noise made it seem the runner was right on m tail. Well, I'd be damned if someone was going to beat me in the final 1/10 mile. I started to all-out sprint, exiting the tunnel and making the final right turn toward the finish line. 1:25:57! And I was not beaten (although as I later discovered, even if he had nipped me at the finish, my chip time was sufficiently faster that I would have still outplaced him).
Post-Race
It was a great race. I did not meet my first goal -- my overal pace was 6:34. But I was thrilled to have PR'ed by almost a minute, especially when that old PR was from 4 years ago. It's a great feeling PR'ing now at almost age 45!
And then I got to experience the same commaraderie, but now post-race. Meeting up with my running buddies, comparing times and race reports. Cheering Jordana as she set her own PR as well.
It was a good race. I finished 48th out of 2,320 (top 2%) and 7th out of 209 in the M40-44 age group (if I had been a few weeks older, I would have won the M45-49 group, oh well...)
When I plugged my time into the pace calculators, it predicts a 2:59 marathon. So here's hoping...
Marine Corps is just a month and half away.
Anyhow, on September 11, I ran the Parks Half Marathon. While Jordana has run this race multiple times, this was my first time running (although, I have run on most of the length of the course during my various long runs). I think this may have been the last major running experience that we had not yet experienced together, so I was actually pretty excited to run this just for that reason alone. Now that we have an au pair, we're not stuck so much doing the tag-team running and racing. We were able to head out to packet pickup together. We got our bibs and, the race being on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, our temporary flag tatooes. Ran into several friends at packet pickup.
Race day dawned clear and a bit humid. The temperature and dewpoint were the same (mid-60s) giving us 100% humidity near race time -- as the race progressed, the humidity dropped into the 90s, then 80s! So, yes, it was a bit drippy.
Anyhow, this was one of the most fun pre-race experiences I've had so far. Normally, I'm pretty much alone pre-race. Maybe, it is one of the rare races that Jordana is with me. But usually it's just me. I would stretch and warm-up and wait for the race start - watching the other groups of runners, chatting and joking and hanging out. But now that I have returned to training in a training program (Boston Bound last spring and XMP now), I was not alone. It was a great feeling -- running into groups of my friends, joining in the pre-race banter, making jokes and laughing at jokes. I felt like I belonged. A feeling I haven't felt pre-race since probably my cross-country days back in high school. I guess I solo ran for so many years, I forgot how enjoyable the comraderie can be when running with a group.
But I digest...
I found my starting wave (Parks has unofficial self-policed starting waves based on your expected pace) -- the sub 7:00 mile group. I had two goals for the day: first, run sub 6:30s; second, run a PR (i.e., faster than a 1:26:50). The race started ("when I say go go go") and we were off...
Miles 1 - 3
The race starts near Rockville Metro and ends in downtown Bethesda. Most of the race is along the Rock Creek bike path, but the first 3 miles is along Viers Mills Road. The road is mostly downhill, so I started out at what was probably a somewhat too fast pace. But then, I had not raced in a number of weeks. Further, the last time I raced a 1/2 marathon, I had done a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike warm-up. Amazing how much fresher one feels when one is ONLY racing a 1/2 marathon!
As I said, I took it out a bit fast at a 6:22 pace. Mile 2 was even faster at 6:20. Around mile three, the course turned off Viers Mill and finally entered Rock Creek. The already humid air became even more humid as we entered the forested path which runs along Rock Creek. I hit Mile 3 at 6:37 pace.
Miles 4 - 10
As I said, the heart of the race is the Rock Creek bike path. I've run just about every part of this path at one time or another during either FTM (in 2003), Boston Bound (last winter), or recently with XMP. So this was familiar ground. And it's good to know the course. For example, I knew that almost immediately after passing mile 3, the course would climb a pretty steep hill, known by those in MCRRC as "the Silencer." The marathon and half-marathon programs use this hill to do hill repeats. I did not want to waste energy on this hill, so let ran using constant exertion. I hit mile 4 at 6:43.
After the Silencer, however, the course is mostly level, with the occasional up and down of hills (but these tend to be relatively short, even if they can be steep). I settled into my pace, running mile 5 in 6:32 and mile 6 in 6:25. The problem with these mid-miles, especially on a familiar course, is that I sometimes start to daydream. Sometimes that makes me run fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes even. I ran mile 7 in 6:40, then hit miles 8 and 9 in 6:34, and ran mile 10 at 6:40.
In the days before the race, we had gotten ALOT of rain and Rock Creek had flooded. The race director sent entrants pre-race emails warning us of a potentially wet and muddy course. But hats off to the race crew -- if there had been a lot of mud or debris it was mostly gone. The course was excellent shape. Especially the part of the course that goes under Connecticut Avenue -- I was expecting ankle deep mud. I was greatly pleased to run that dry-shod. Of course, that is not to say that there weren't puddles and mud here and there. Just before Connecticut Avenue, I misjudged how deep one puddle was and got a shoe covered in mud. I shuffle stepped several paces, just to get the mud off my shoe so I wouldn't run unbalanced!
Miles 11 - finish
Between miles 10 and 11, the course turns right off of the Rock Creek bike path, up Susanna Lane, across Jones Bridge Road and onto the gravel portion of the Capital Crescent Bike path (known as the CCT) that takes you to the finish. The path up to Susanna Lane and the road itself up to the street crossing is one long steep hill. No surprise, then, that I ran mile 11 in 6:55 -- my slowest split of the race.
The CCT is a converted rails to trails. The portion north and east of Bethesda is still gravel. One would think it flat because it looks flat. If you look at the elevation profile, however, it is one steady up hill (not seriously steep -- only railroad grade -- but uphill nevertheless).
They say marathons are a 20 mile warm up followed by a 10K. Well, half marathons are a 10 mile warm up followed by a 5K. Time for my tiring legs to pick up the pace (note to self: best not run back to back 10 milers on the Thursday and Friday before a Sunday half-marathon race). My Garmin was set to show total time, total distance, but pace for the current mile (I always race in that mode), so I had no way of knowing if I was on pace to meet either goal. I ran mile 12 in 6:45, then picked it up again to run 6:38 for mile 13.
Around mile 13, the CCT goes under Wisconsin Avenue in a tunnel under the Air Rights Building. Just before the entrance to the tunnel, and as part of the 9-11 commemoration, Girl Scouts were handing out American flags for the runners to carry over the finish. I slowed down enough to get my flag (did not want to risk dropping it) and entered the tunnel.
As I entered the tunnel, I could hear footsteps directly behind me. I did not want to turn around to see how close (for fear of losing my stride) but the noise made it seem the runner was right on m tail. Well, I'd be damned if someone was going to beat me in the final 1/10 mile. I started to all-out sprint, exiting the tunnel and making the final right turn toward the finish line. 1:25:57! And I was not beaten (although as I later discovered, even if he had nipped me at the finish, my chip time was sufficiently faster that I would have still outplaced him).
Post-Race
It was a great race. I did not meet my first goal -- my overal pace was 6:34. But I was thrilled to have PR'ed by almost a minute, especially when that old PR was from 4 years ago. It's a great feeling PR'ing now at almost age 45!
And then I got to experience the same commaraderie, but now post-race. Meeting up with my running buddies, comparing times and race reports. Cheering Jordana as she set her own PR as well.
It was a good race. I finished 48th out of 2,320 (top 2%) and 7th out of 209 in the M40-44 age group (if I had been a few weeks older, I would have won the M45-49 group, oh well...)
When I plugged my time into the pace calculators, it predicts a 2:59 marathon. So here's hoping...
Marine Corps is just a month and half away.
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