SAVANNAH, Ga. -- After major disappointments in October with the Army Ten Miler and the Atlanta 10-Miler, I hoped to rebound with a race I've always wanted to run: the Rock'n'Roll Savannah Half Marathon.
I'd always wanted to run in it but never was able to have my schedule work out for it. This year there was a kind of serendipity, some friends were going to be in town and the race was introduced at a heavily discounted price of about $50 after another company purchased the Rock'n'Roll series.
Despite that, we had to plan the trip around the race expo. We arrived on the expo's first day, Thursday, since we'd heard horror stories of the traffic jams that happen on the second day, Friday, when most people from out of town attend the expo. The expo is across the river from Savannah on Hutchinson Island and the only way you can get there is by car over a highway bridge or by ferry.
Arriving on Thursday was a breeze. We got in, got our bibs, enjoyed the expo, including a crazy booth sponsored by Brooks where you had to grab as many colored tickets as you could while they swirled around you (one of them was a ticket for a free pair of shoes). I didn't get to do this, but the wife did ... and I probably don't have the permission to post the pictures, lol.
Afterward we checked into our hotel, which was the Courtyard by Marriott, which was convenient since it was about three-quarters of a mile away from the race start at Bay and Bull streets and a half-mile from the finish at Forsyth Park.
On race day I made my way down to the start. It was pretty crowded but my corral was conveniently the first one. I felt a little concerned given my recent race performances and the fact that when I applied for the race I thought a 1:35 half marathon time would be a good goal. (When the race started, I saw a 1:45 pace flag in the first corral so I didn't feel too bad about being there).
This year because of heat concerns, the race announced the start would be 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled 7:30 a.m. start. No big deal. It was actually a little cool and breezy and the conditions really reminded me of some years doing the Publix Georgia Half Marathon.
We started and it wasn't crazy fast. Visibility was pretty good, I think it was only 30 minutes before sunrise there.
The first five miles are out along an industrial area, which is not really that interesting. My hope was to run maybe an 8-minute mile pace and I largely succeeded in going about 8:05/mile for the first three miles. Mile 4 was 8:13 and I was a little worried about the dreaded slowdown.
Mile 5 was 8:36 and so I knew I would be slowing. Incidentally a third of a mile into Mile 5 you are in the downtown area and this included some brick-lined streets, which reminded me a lot of running in the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K last year in Richmond, Va. Fortunately I was wearing some very cushioned shoes that I'd never before used in a race, my Hoka One One Clifton 3s because of a weird happenstance.
When I checked into the hotel on Thursday, I immediately realized something was wrong -- I had a bag containing my Clifton 3s, which I only have used on very easy runs, and a pair of flip flops. The shoes I'd planned on using in the race, my Newton Gravity Vs, were nowhere to be seen. I lamented leaving them at home in the study while carrying the other bag instead.
So here I was in the race, clip-clopping along with a pair of shoes I had never raced in. They actually felt fine.
By Mile 7 I'd slowed to about a 9-minute mile pace and I stayed at this rate for two miles until I slowed to 9:45 for Mile 9. When you go 1-2 minutes per mile slower than you started out, you get lots of people passing you. I slid into the slowest mile time for a non-marathon race in recent memory at Mile 10, 10:20.
But it was here that I realized that if I somehow kept my running under a 10-minute mile for the last 3 miles I would at least break 2 hours. So I focused on this and told myself Mile 11 would be crucial (9:21) to set up a good Mile 12 (9:06) to make sure I had enough time banked to break 2 hours in case I had a bad last mile.
But I continued at this pace (9:05) for Mile 13, despite being warned that this last mile has a gradual hill. It looked like two separate hills, really nothing to be concerned when you run in Atlanta every day (and have experienced the mega-hills of the Atlanta 10-Miler).
I was glad to see the Mile 26 sign for the marathon portion of the race, since it meant I had .2/mile to go! I waited until I passed the Mile 13 marker and then just kicked it the last tenth of a mile at a satisfactory pace (6:34/mile).
I finished and I was glad! 1:56:04, which is my slowest half marathon in two years but definitely something that has been instructive to me. I did the distance, running at least 10 miles in training runs and having done two 10-mile races prior to this race. But I did not do very well with interval training (when I tried to do 7:15/mile interval runs for a 1:35 half pace it did not work out as well as I wanted) and my speedwork was choppy.
I remain confident that I have the speed to run the way I would like (I've run under 1:50 in 11 of the 34 half marathons I've run) and sometimes a(nother) slow race is a good kick in the pants to get myself going. Of course, I've been saying this and writing this since August, so I will have to focus and make sure I put down the right road work for a good spring.
As a postscript, it was only after I returned back to Atlanta that I discovered I had brought my Newton running shoes all along! They had fallen in between the second and third row of seats in my car and I did not notice them in my rush to unpack the car when we had to leave it with the hotel valet (the only parking option we had with the hotel).
Time: 7:20 a.m.
Temp: 57 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, sleeveless (Team BEEF), shorts, cep compression socks, Phidippides Headsweats visor, Nike X1 sunglasses, Hoka One One Clifton 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment