Asbury Park Half Marathon

Once again, I have been lax in publishing to this blog...apologies. I have actually done a decent amount of training leading up to the 1/2 marathon that I ran TODAY! 13.1 miles, a distance that I never even came close to trying until today. I bested my PR for distance by more than double...

I felt pretty good going into the race, but expecting to feel some pain towards the end, and the in days that follow. Turns out that I was right on both accounts...writing this more than 6 hours after the race ended, I am hobbling around pretty good... ;)

Tracy came to see me run, and drive me home! No one was really interested in being at the front of the start, so there were only a handful of us and, of course, I wasn't shy. Start line was at the Asbury Park Convention Center and I decided on the out-and-back loop that took us down to Sea Girt and back. Pace started out quick, but I kept telling myself to keep it slow. A conversation with my buddy Mike the day before had him telling me to go out easy and consider only an 11-minute pace, since I had never done the distance and not to risk injury.

I tried to keep myself slow and I actually didn't worry about the other runners, but I found myself still at a fast clip. First mile marker I hit at 7:11, a dizzying pace for me that I didn't even have on my training runs. Second mile got me slowing it down and I hit the marker at just over 16:00, meaning that I was averaging 8-minute miles but slowed the 2nd down to about an 8:40 pace...much better and more likely to keep me from dying out. The halfway point had me at a 55:18 split (an 8:27 pace), and about 10 +/- minutes behind the leader.

For the most part, the first half of the course had me feeling OK. Lun and heart were great during the entire run, but I cycled first to sore calves which went away just in time for my quads to burn. Still, the fatigue and burn were OK through about mile 7. It was at around mile 7 that the wheels came off. My hip flexors, which have been a problem for me in the past, were screaming at me. Every stride was pain in one side or the other. Rather than risk injury, I went to a quick walk. The remainder of the race was more walking than running, but I did move into a slow run whenever the hip pain subsided.

In the last half mile, I decided that there was no other choice than to run and finish at a run, so I picked it back up. By this time I was pushing the 2:15 mark and I had decided pre-race that I didn't want to come in any later than 2:20. With that mark in my sights, got moving again. Then, with about .2 to go and finish line in sight, I gave it all that I had left, pulling away from those few people who had been keeping the same slow pace and finishing out, on a run, at 2:19:03 (unofficial).

I can't say that I was excited to finish or had any sort of emotion at the end, other than disappointment that I didn't have a better time. With the exception of my hips, everything else felt like I could have run a decent pace for the last half of the race. Heck, while I don't pretend to think I could keep it up the entire way, I was on pace at the halfway mark to finish at 1:50!!! So frustrating. Sub-two-hours would have been a great result for me and one that would have made me excited at the finish.

So, this benchmark in my training for the 70.3 in October tells me that I still have quite a ways to go, although the experience was a good one, overall. I know what the run is going to be like, even if it will come after a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike. Next step is to get on the bike for 30-40 miles and see what it does to those hips, and research how to fix the hip problem...

I will be back out there just as soon as I can. I WILL finish that 70.3, but now I am determined to do it in good time.