by This was my first race and therefore my first race report, so cut ol' Jake
some slack, eh? :)
Sunday January 26, 8:00am start time.
It was a fine morning, just about perfect for running, a bit on the chilly
side without being cold.
Pre-race:
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Good lord, look at all these $#%& people!,....turns out, according to the
race announcer, that this was the largest crowd in the event's long history,
with over 5,000. There was a 5K event starting simultaneously, but the
overwhelming majority of the crowd was in it for the 1/2M.
I guess Jeff Galoway was in town, as he was beifly introduced and prodded to
say a few words. Either the words were of no interest, or my mind was too
occupied drinking in the sights and atmosphere to recall what was even said.
The plan:
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I probably sabotaged my race time a little by running a 12.5 mile too fast
(too close to full effort) a week prior, during my group's long run on a
tougher course, but I felt quite good pre-race, so I planned to try to go
just a little faster than last week, and hope that the race atmosphere
and/or my add adrenaline might pull me along a bit faster still.
I figured a 7:45 average pace seemed like a pretty good (and easy to compute
target splits) goal to try to get close to, preferably just a touch faster
if I felt good. I happened to be lined up relatively close to the front next
to another runner in my group who tends to run a little faster than me on
hard weekly long runs. I guessed she would most likely keep a pace very
close to my target, so I'll at least start by running alongside her.
I wasn't too afraid of starting a little too fast, so long as it was within
reason, of course.
The race:
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So, the cable car bell was finally rung (ain't that cute?) and we're off!
Being pretty close to the front, it only took me 10-12 seconds or so to
cross the start line, cool...
So there I was running along in my first race, feeling more like a wild
buffalo than I ever have before. Glanced back over my shoulder after about
100 yards, and whoa....cast of 1000's, literally...the human stampede was a
pretty cool sight to this newbie runner.
After a while, there's the first mile marker. A volunteer is calling out
the times, and I hear "7:16" being yelled at my little
group,...D'oh,...quite a bit faster than I wanted,..hoping it wouldn't come
back to haunt me (much) later in the race.
Mile 1 -2 is almost all gently down hill and I let gravity help me as much
as I can. The marker comes up pretty quick and somebody yells "7:06" as I
pass by, with seemingly little effort! Yikes, all the talk of people
getting amped up at the start of a race certainly seems to be true...again,
all I can do now is try to slow it up a bit and hope some more that I'm not
using up all my mojo prematurely.
Mile 3 is gently rolling, I let my running partner scamper off in front of
me. split time ends up being 7:40, that's more like it.
Miles 4 - 8 are beautiful, along the great highway in San Franciso, just
along the beach / Pacific Ocean. I know from the course map that miles 9 -
12 come after a turnaround point, where these miles are run along the same
highway, in the opposite direction. I notice a ways through this mile 4-8
section that there seems to be a substantial breeze at my back, and a quick
glance at the local shrubery shows everything leaning pretty good to the
direction I'm running in now, but as for the next section coming back, miles
9-12,....I have a very bad feeling about this :(
Mile #4 : 7:42 nice
Mile #5 : 7:37 nice again
Mile #6 : 7:26 hrmm,...not too bad, but...
Mile #7 : 7:36 that's better, I hope I'm not burning out...
Mile #8 : 8:02 no real problem, first slow down for water and ate a Gu
Then we turn around and prepare for 4 miles of pain, against a strong and
gusty headwind.
Mile #9 : 7:37 man, that was a lot of effort, *no* way I can hold this
effort to the end
Mile #10 : 7:54 yep, headwind's suck all right
Mile #11: 7:59 see above, ugh, I think running uphill would be easier
Mile #12: 8:40 rough mile, walked for about 15 seconds, working to get some
water in me
Whew,...now we finally get to turn away from that 4 mile wind tunnel of
hell...
Naturally, after the wind, we turn onto a long gradual uphill section (ugh),
right when it's time to dig in for a strong finish...
I didn't see a marker for mile #13, but I dug pretty deep and I think I
pulled out a pretty gutsy (for me) 8:04 for the final 1.1 miles, the .1
portion (approx) being a perfectly sloped downhill to "sprint" to the finish
line.
I watched the clock tick 1:40:50 right as I passed the line, so I'm guessing
that my "real" (but unofficial) time is 1:40:40, due to the 10 seconds I
spent getting to the starting line (no chips in this race).
I was hoping to finish somewhere between 1:41 and 1:43, so I was happy about
my time in general, however I'm a little bummed about that long tough battle
against the wind. So much energy "wasted" there,...I bet I could have gone
sub 1:40 had it not been for that unfortunate section,...Oh well, I guess
that can be said for lots of races...woulda, coulda, shoulda, etc...
I never actually asked myself "what the $%&* are you doing here",
though...hrmmm, and at the same time I really can't imagine myself running
that course any faster, under the same conditions,...that's really what I
wanted to be able to say to myself at the end.
Luckily, I felt no pain whatsoever at any moment before, during, or after
the race, aside from the expected feeling of "generally wooped" in my legs
Anyway, overall, a great time was had by all, and I am definitely looking
forward to competing in more races as my running career matures.
Next stop:
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Napa Valley Marathon, March 2
Time to start working seriously with some of those race time predictors I
guess...
Thanks for reading...