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| (Never going back- at Lehigh) |
Never going back. These three words have become my new mantra over the past three weeks. I cannot believe where I started off in this journey and where I am now. My "debut" half marathon was run in 1:45. I was a rookie, in over my head, and had no idea how to race a half marathon. My main focus was to just make it across the line. The distance intimidated me. Now, I am a full-time marathoner. I qualified for the Boston Marathon by running 3:03 and believe that there is a lot more I have left to accomplish at the distance. Most recently, I ran the ING Hartford Half Marathon on October 13. I had an incredible experience there and ran a new pr of 1:20:38 (6:09 pace)! That's about two minutes faster (per mile) than what I ran in my first half marathon in the spring of 2011. It was great to take part in my first (of many) ING races. It was one of the best organized races I have ever run in. The start/finish area was extremely easy to navigate. The support on the course was amazing, including a cheer zone right after mile 6 where everyone had noisemakers and were shouting words of encouragement. All of the volunteers really picked me up during the race. I am honored to be a part of the ING Class of 2012 and would reccommend Hartford to runners of all levels. The best advice I can give is that to reach goals you need to be able to motivate yourself. You need to tell yourself that you are not going back, that you are a different person who is capable of doing what you believe you can do. Find something, anything, and get lost in it. I found this with running but just make sure you involve others in your life. Support is key in reaching your goals. Share both your successes and failures with others. This will make you stronger.
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| (finishing at Hartford) |
I chose the ING Hartford Half Marathon as a tune-up race prior to the Philadelphia Marathon which is on November 18th. I wanted to test my speed and build upon a 1:26 half marathon pr I had set back in August. I knew that I wanted to push myself in this race and went out just over 6:00 pace for my first mile. I was running right behind the woman who would finish in second place. We were going at a pace slightly quicker than I wanted to at this point in the race so I decided to drop back a little and run my own race. I went through 5 miles in 30:45 (6:09 pace). The course for the half marathon was awesome. We hit some hills in miles 7-9 and I kept my effort the same but ran my slowest miles of the race in 6:15. After this point I ran through a scenic park and then reached 10 miles in 1:01:44 (6:10 pace). I reached a choice at the point. I had run a solid first 10 miles of the race. I was now very tired. My lungs were burning. My legs were burning. I could coast to the finish and still run something in the 1:23-1:24 range and pr by a couple of minutes. Then I thought to myself, not today. This is not the way I run, being satisfied with something less than my best. I relayed to my body that I was not going to go back. I was going to push all the way through to the finish line and leave it all on the course. My mile 10-11 split was 6:00, even with my fastest mile in the race. I then ran a 6:08 for mile 11-12. I finished with a 6:45 for the last 1.1 miles. I ran my fastest 5k of the race (18:53- 6:05 pace) for the last 5k of the race! This is the first time I have had so much strength at the end of a long-distance race. I finished in 1:20:38 (6:09 pace), good for 47th place. My splits were extremely consistent: everything between 6:00 and 6:15. I am very happy with this performance and cannot wait to improve on it in the spring.
This gives me good confidence when looking forward to Philly. I hope to run in the low 2:50s. I was able to run a very even race at a hard pace. My slowest mile was 6:15. I was able to dig deep and run a sub-19 last 5k in a half marathon. That is not an easy thing to do! My training has been a little different for the build-up to this race. Instead of going to the track a couple of times a week, I have been doing my speed sessions on the road. I have specifically been doing interval training where I do repitions for a certain amount of time and then a little recovery time. Examples include 5 x 4:00 hard (2:30 rest), 7 x 3:00 hard (2:00 rest) and 10 x 1:30 hard (1:30 rest). These workouts are good because the recovery is quick. Feel out a workout like this and do it based on effort. I do not have a set distance to run for these kind of repeats. I run as hard as I can for the given amount of time and then focus on my recovery time. It has clearly worked out well as I took six minutes off of my halk marathon time this past weekend. Now, I feel very good heading into Philly. I have some more workouts and long runs to get in, but my confidence is here. I feel like I took a step up this past weekend and took my running to a new level. A 1:20 half would have put me top 10, if not higher at several local half marathons that weekend. I chose, however, to compete in a faster field and cannot be upset with my place based on the time. The Philadelphia Marathon will be the same kind of race. A 2:50 marathon may very well not even secure a top-100 place. This does not really matter though. All I need to do is to try an be better than the person I was yesterday. I need to go to sleep at night feeling a sense of satisfaction in the steps I took that day to improve. Most importantly, I am never going back. I am dream chasing.
Dream On,
David
