raceday +5

So the race was this past sunday, and while i meant to be on here both the night before (but didn't want to pop the hotel's $15 for wifi just to do so) and sooner after, here i finally am. ok. the good news is that indeed i finished. not like some i saw limping their way through, certainly not suffering to any extent. that alone is cause for major jump for joy. i set out to do a thing, and got it done.

• training
• shoes
• resting when i didn't feel well rather than overtraining (ok, i did some of that early, but learned my lesson)
• doing the longs
• living in a hilly neighborhood
• saying loud and often enough that i was doing it, so to back down would have been equally public
• not setting overly ambitious goals
• managing the race itself (sleep, fuel, pace)

all of these had a role to play.

i think the biggest disappointment was in not breaking 5 hrs. well, not that i didn't break 5 hrs, but that i could have and didn't. the first half of the race went great. pace was steady and manageable and even better than i wanted -- but not too much so.

a couple of twinges here and there in the middle section, but sucked it up to keep going. i probably needn't have been but did fear that beat the bridge/bus deadline.

but i kept looking at my garmin which was telling me that i was ahead of pace for the 5hr, and since i was in the midst of a bunch of folks who were taking longer and longer walk breaks (in the first half, i only walked at the drink stops. heck, that was plenty) so was i. it was unnecessary and undisciplined and bad, because in the end it cost me the 5hr.

could i have done the same second half pace as the first? unlikely. truth be told i'm probably not in good enough shape. but could i have done the second half a steady 45sec slower than the first, say? probably.

either i need to learn how to use the garmin better, or go get something else.

back to work. more later

almost there

so we're actually getting close, just a couple of weeks to go. part of me is feeling really good about the progress i've made. part worried that i'm not close to ready. this week i didn't feel very well, and so had one very comfortable 5 miler, but only the one. today i did 14, and felt really good doing it. probably went out too fast for my present level of conditioning. certainly the last few miles were slower than the first 10. splits were right around an hour for the first 10k, 90 minutes for the first 9 miles, less than 2:20 for the half. on the other hand, my knees were feeling kind of dicey near the end, and i just don't know how any of this translates to doing the full. guess i'll find out. at least this was a lot hillier than the race will be, so i'll probably be able to coast more, mentally at least, for the big middle section, which will help.

i did bring gels and eat a couple of bags about halfway through, which probably was a good thing, and my fanny pack so i had water when i needed. good things. no music again, thinking more and more i'm preferring that, tho i'll probably bring an ipod on the big day. if nothing else, i want to try and take some pictures.

feeling that after-run cold again, don't know what's the deal with that, but it's manageable.

anyway, nobody's seeing this but me, but one day i may want to look back on this, so i'm keeping it up.