1:21 and that's okay

My last tune-up race before Chicago was at the Salem 'Wicked' Half Marathon two weeks ago.  My goal for this race was to simulate how I will feel at Chicago.  I originally picked out the time goal of 1:17 and as you can see from this title I was four minutes off.  That's quite a bit of a difference.  When the race began, the eventual winner (in 1:06) took off and one person followed close behind.  I quickly found myself in a third place pack.  I was running alongside two other runners from the start and we were battling for 3rd, 4th and 5th place.  We took turns leading and pushing the pace.  Our first mile was reached in 5:45.  We slowed a little, as the course featured some rolling hills early on, but reached 5 miles right on 1:17 pace.  After 5 miles, however, my day was beginning to end.  One of the guys I was running with made a little break and gapped me by out 10 seconds by mile 6.  This was discouraging.  I did not slow down; he picked up the pace.  I simply could not go with the move.  I then began to fall off pace and found myself running alone.  I reached 10 miles in 1:01 and was not where I wanted to be.  I worked through a stomach cramp at around 10.5 and actually stopped at a water station to take in fluids and stretch.  This probably cost me around 45 seconds or so.  I ended up 8th (dropped a little due to the stop) in 1:21:10.  I did take home 1st place in my age group and took home a pint glass!  Without the stop, I would have been in the mid-1:20 range.  My technical PR (I say technical because the course was long) is 1:19:56.  I would not have been too far off of that.  I still feel like my half marathon PR is pretty weak because I feel I can continue at this pace for 26.2 miles.  All of my recent races have been run on 'tired' legs, meaning there was no serious taper.  I am not giving myself a chance to run fast at this distance.  The week before Salem, I peaked with a 100 mile week.  My long run the week before was 22 miles with the last 5 at 5:54 pace.  During the week of the race, I totaled 90 miles.  I ran 16, 14, and 10 miles, respectively, the three days before the race.  This is not how one taper's.  I am not dissatisfied with this effort because I am aware that I trained through the race.  It is not a matter of not being to hold the pace I wanted to run, but to do it on depleted legs.  I think that I did a good job of simulating how Chicago will feel.  On fresh legs, I should be able to duplicate this effort and run in the low-2:40s.  This is my goal for Chicago.  I am putting my target on a sub-2:43 marathon and will be happy under 2:45.  If I have the right day and run closer to 2:39 that will just be an added bonus.  It is also important to note that I very recently (yesterday) started physical therapy at Foundation Performance to treat my hamstring.  It was diagnosed as a strain and appears more serious than I thought.  The doctor is not crazy about me running Chicago, but when have runner's ever listened to medical professionals?  We always know best (please note the sarcasm- but this is actually how we tend to think).  I am planning on a sizable break after the marathon.  I have never taken more than a day off before jumping back into training and this needs to stop regardless of the outcome of the race.  Many elite runner's take two weeks completely off from running after a marathon.  I will be satisfied with one and then one week of light running (read as no workouts).  I am starting to get more excited for Chicago.  I am confident that my PR is about to drop in a very big way.  After this, I will rest and recover so that I can have a small indoor season where I can focus on distances from the mile through 5k.  I also want to road race before this in November and December and concentrate on the 5k and 10k.  It will be fun to do some faster running!  For now, the focus is making it through Chicago and taking care of my health.  I am ready for a BIG result in the Windy City.

David