National Half Marathon - Washington DC

Summary:

Race result: 1:32:12. Faster than I thought for my limited training.

Place: 194 Division: 28/366 Sex: 161/1870

10k split: 45:47 (7:23 pace)

Guntime: 1:32:12 (7:02 pace) - Kind of a ridiculous negative split

I've spent the past week down in Washington DC as part of a radiology conference which lasts 4 weeks. As much as I love LA and SoCal, it has been a definite treat to relocate to the East coast for a change of pace and scenery for a brief period.

My friend Andy from my PhD years lives in DC, and he got me to sign up several months ago for both the National Half Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10 miler while I'm over here. This was a good move - I didn't think much of it at the time, but having races to run is always a joy and one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend morning.

Since becoming a triathlete, I have been running substantially less miles than last year. I have probably averaged 25-30 miles per week for the past 4 months, versus 65+ and even 75+ during peak training last year. Because of my swimming & cycling commitments, I also ended up not following the Pfitzinger 12wk/55mpw plan that I had set out to complete as preparation for this race. With low volume run training, limited speedwork, and no long runs of over 14.5 miles, I was expecting a substantial underperformance today, and realistically set a target time of 1:40, which would roughly correspond to a 3:30 full marathon capability (8 min/mile). My last sprint triathlon had a 5k leg that clocked in at 21:30, or roughly 7min/mile, so I was doubtful that I would be able to run much faster than 7:45s today for the half. (In retrospect, that 5k leg appears to have been 3.5 miles, based on several race reports.) The big question, though, is how much my cycling would crossover to running. I've been running only 25-30mpw, but cycling 4-6 hrs per week, and definitely training way harder on the bike than the run. I was hoping that the cycling would at least partially crossover on the hills, but was very wary of expecting my legs to hold pace for 13 miles, since cycling probably won't cross over well for the long distance pounding.

The National Half marathon in DC is a relatively new race, only a few years old, and is growing rapidly. There were approximately 4000 people running the half, and many fewer in the full marathon, so this race definitely was not a megathon. I think races of this size (San Francisco is similar in size) are perfect for racing - enough people and spectators to have the excitement of a big race, yet small enough to have room to run even from the get-go and no bottlenecks. I suspect this race will become a megathon within a few years if they allow it to grow, as it is one of the flattest courses I have ever run, with only one real hill that everyone seemed to be complaining about, yet would barely even be classified as a hill compared to the mountainous terrain that I have been biking and running on. The weather was spot-perfect for a fast PR, which was a chilly 37 before the start, but warming up to 40 by guntime, and 45 midrace, which was completely comfortable in a T-shirt, short and gloves. GREAT conditions for anybody hoping to PR or BQ.

I felt very relaxed at the start of this race, as I really didn't expect much. I had no idea whether I'd be able to hold any sort of even pace after 10 miles, as I clearly hadn't been doing enough volume to guarantee no fade at the end. My plan was to run just under 8 min/mile for the first 4 miles, and then gradually accelerate (or decelerate!) through to the finish depending on how I felt. I was afraid that I'd be disappointed in myself for not pushing hard from the start (which I normally do in HM and shorter races) but it was very enjoyable to know that I wasn't going to completely destroy myself on the course; I definitely enjoyed the whole experience of the race more as a result.

The gun went off, and people charged ahead as I'd expected. I correctly guesstimated that I was running 7:30min/mile for the first mile (I don't even need a GPS anymore - I can guess my paces nearly dead on) and I was getting passed by hordes of people, likely close to 50-70. Furthermore, a lot of these folks did not look like particularly fast runners, so it was a bit surprising for me, as I felt that the pace was solid. The first 3 miles were dead flat, and I continued to get passed by more people despite holding a rock-steady 7:30/mile pace. This pace felt like a marathon-effort for me, which was relaxed but definitely not easy. I knew that I could easily run into a lot of trouble if I weren't careful, as my 10-12 mile long runs have been done at about 8:10 pace, and I have tended to faded in the final miles of those training runs, so 7:30s were a bit brisk given my limiting training.

Miles 4-6 were remarkably uneventful. I was right in my marathon pace zone, feeling overall very relaxed but starting to breathe moderately hard. There were a lot of runners around me, both male and female, which I do admit, is very different from my races last year, during which I was fast enough to outpace the vast majority of the females and usually ran nearly solo after a few miles. Today, I was just one of the pack, and there were an impressive number of fast females of all shapes and sizes easily keeping pace with me.

At mile 6, the biggest hill of the course showed up. To me, it was a modest incline, not even worthy of the bike climbs that I've been routinely doing on the weekends. To the other runners though, it was as if many of them hit a brick wall. I increased my effort to maintain my pace, and started passing back a lot of the people who had pulled ahead. I think most coaches would disagree with this strategy, as I've heard them advocate going easier on the uphills and regaining time on the downhills so as to keep a more even-keeled heart rate, but for me, I definitely outperform by a large margin on the hills. Even moreso now with the mountain cycling I have been doing, which directly translates to hill running (but not downhill running).

I had absolutely no problem powering up this hill, and had plenty left in the tank even at the top. The backside was a bit less impressive, as I made no progress in passing, and just barely kept pace with the folks around me. The rest of the race pretty much continued in this manner, with me gaining most of my time and placements on the hills, and holding placements on the downhills.

I decided that I felt good enough at mile 7 to start picking up the pace. It wasn't by much, but I opened up the stride to faster than marathon pace, and it felt good. Still not a hard effort by my standards; I definitely pushed significantly harder even on mile 1 in my past HM efforts. I was probably running 7:10-7:15/mile at this point, and now I started to really do a lot of passing. The few guys that pulled in front of me at this point were all reeled in within a mile or two, as I continued to accelerate.

At mile 9, it was racing time, and I kicked the pace up into true HM pace for my perceived exertion. I'd guess about 6:45-6:50min/mile, or slightly faster than that. This felt good, and I enjoyed the strong pace. My legs opened up well, and I was making a lot of forward progress on the field. I did notice a big pack of 30 runners ahead at the 10 mile mark - lo and behold, it was the 3:10 marathon pace group (HM and marathon ran concurrently on the same course.) As satisfied as I was with my performance today up to this point, it was self-humbling to realize that in my marathon-ready state, I would have been nearly a minute ahead of this pace group at this point, with tons of gas to spare. Today, I was working pretty hard, at my true HM pace, just to catch up to them!

I felt remarkably good at mile 11, so I really opened it up at this point. My pace likely dropped to 6:40ish, and I moved ahead of the 3:10 pace group by a fair amount. Breathing was labored at this point, but I felt that I was still well within a controlled lactate threshold effort. Miles 12 and 13 came a lot faster than I had expected, and by the time the finish line was in sight, I realized that I definitely had not pushed to my true race potential. Still, I wanted a solid finish for my efforts today, so I began a 600 yard "sprint" to the finish as soon as the finish was in sight, and came in strong.

The result for my efforts was a 1:32ish half marathon time, which was faster than my optimistic pre-race goal of 1:35. I'm surprised that I managed to run roughly 7:10/mile after a relaxed start, and that my legs held up for the distance without rebelling once despite my limited run training. While this time is a good deal slower than my 1:25 PR, it is faster than the HM I ran during peak training for my first marathon (at 55mpw) so I have definitely retained some ability from last year's hard work. This was also by far the most relaxed effort I've put into a HM, and about equal to how hard I pushed for the Palos Verdes HM which I did as a training run before the San Diego marathon last year.

All in all, it was a surprisingly successful race for me. I'm getting excited to see what I can do again, and am hoping to keep training up in the next few weeks so I can throw down a max effort at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler at the end of this month.