F^3 Lake Front Half Marathon

Saturday Jan 24^th was the F^3 Lake Front Half Marathon, and it was also my first race and half of the year. Starting in late December I started officially training for the Wisconsin Marathon (May 2^nd), and with this training I have taken to using the PFitz advanced Marathoning training plan (55 miles peak). I’ll get into the training plan itself and changes I’ve been making in another post.  For this post I really want to talk about the half. 

1:51:30 that was my PR for the half last February, I’ve ran a number of half’s since then, but damn it all to hell I couldn’t beat that time. Why couldn’t I? I think there are a number of reasons, training was getting stale and I wasn’t mixing it up enough (Speed work, Distance, Cross training). I give a lot of credit to my new training plan for this PR.  The week leading into the race I took my coaches advice and made a minor adjustment to my schedule. On Wednesday I was supposed to do a 10 mile run instead I did 7 mile incline ladder run, and then Thursday did 5 miles and Friday 1 mile. The hope was my legs would be well rested for Saturday s race.  Something very helpful was I did my Friday Mile during my lunch break, I figured then I wouldn’t have to worry about it later.  Friday I did my best to try and relax and not worry about the race, I mean I have done this distance 8 times now. Needless to say I was still very nervous; wanting to PR will do that to you. Friday night I took my daughter Malina out to dinner to one of our favorite spots Portillos Hot Dogs. The thing with Portillos is that I never make the smart food choice when I go there; I always get the unhealthiest thing on the menu. Reason behind this, is because it taste so damn good. This time thought I made a different choice and got a grilled chicken sandwich and a baked potato, this way I get carbs and protein in one meal. After dinner and spending time with Malina I dropped her off at home and took myself home.  The car ride home seemed like one of those Cadillac commercials, me driving and thinking about the race. “I started running races before it were cool, I just did it because I liked it.”  I got home and laid out my gear for the race, which was my NikeProCobat long sleeve, CES wind vest, shorts and running rights, oh yeah also had gloves and hat. 

Thankfully the race did not start till 10am Saturday morning, and that was a very nice change. I am so used to getting early I Saturday, since I pace with CES and even if I wasn’t pacing most races start super early.  My new prerace morning routine is to eat a banana and drink a bottle of water. That way I have something in my stomach and I am not running on empty. The good thing is before leaving I took Rocky outside and that really helped I gage how the weather felt and thankfully it was nice out. I got dressed and put on my warm up clothes over my race gear, and we were off. 

When we got to the race Yasmin dropped me off and she went to the parking garage to park the car. When I got there I hung out for a min at the start line but the wind was picking up so I went inside. I got to stretch a little bit and warm up. As 10 o’clock approached everyone started to head outside. I should have maybe got out sooner since there was a line to get into the corrals and some people took to jumping the barrier. I opted on the side of caution and waited, turns out the opening was only a few feet from where I was standing. I said my runner’s prayer, crossed the start and turned my watch on. The race started and finished outside of soldier field and headed south on the lake front path.  I must say I really enjoy running on the south end of the lake front path for a number of reasons. It’s nice to not have to worry about bike riders and there is less traffic with the people too.  I wanted to do my best to play it smart at this race and not start too fast or too slow either. I figured if I could keep my pace about 8:30 min mile I can and would PR.  As I started running I noticed my current pace was an 8:15 min mile, now my fear was could I hold that pace.  I had enough confidence that I could in fact do it during this race. As happens with ever race/run my GPS decided to torcher me a little bit my changing my current pace from 8:15 to 11:00 then back up to 8:00 (thanks a lot modern technology.). What I decided to do was change my display from current pace to average pace. My thought was I was far enough in the race that I needed my average pace to stay on point. We ran all the way to the end of the path and turned around and headed back north, and I realized I was half way done with the race. I was keeping a good pace and refused to slow down, also tried to avoid speeding up too much. As I started the last mile I’ll admit my legs started to hurt I wanted to slow down but told myself I can’t, and I looked at my watch my average pace was 8:20. 8:20 with less than a mile to go, I knew I would PR unless something happen. Thank god nothing happen when I saw the finish line, I could hear Yasmin cheering me on and saw her and Rocky. I made my finale push towards the finish. I did it, I PR’D!

I collected my medal which also is a bottle opener and is very cool looking. My legs were sore as all get out after the race, and that is something that hasn’t happened in a while, but then again I haven’t been pushing myself like I did that day. Prefontaine once said “To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.”  Honesty I feel that lately I have been giving less than my best and that is something I am going to change.  On the schedule is more training and some more races coming up.