2023 Half Marathon Time Trial - "Race Report"

-


 

I think its becoming a yearly tradition for me to do a time trial the morning of Thanksgiving. Last year I felt like I needed to redeem myself for a poor Portland Marathon performance and I didn't want to spend 40 dollars to do a 5k Turkey Trot fun run. So instead I went out to the Willamette River to run along the bike trail. Its pretty cool this time of year and the trail is generally flat so I find it an ideal time to test my fitness for a significant distance. Last year I did a 13.1 mile loop around the waterfront in a little over 1:46, which was about a 5 minute improvement over a previous PR of 1:52.

 

 

This year I did much better at the Portland Marathon, but still wanted to test out my half marathon time. The goal this year then was simply to beat last year, with a modest time of 1:45. This signifies running a sub 8 minute mile the entire way, and for some reason represents a psychological barrier for me. When I'm running in the 8 minute range, I already feel like I'm "pushing" myself. Anything faster than 8 minute miles and my brain is telling me I'm going really fast and how can I sustain this pace? 

Well time to smash through that barrier. If I could get even a 7:59 minute mile average, I was going to be happy. 

 

 

For my first 5k, I started a little slow in order to warm up and ease into my pace. What I love about half marathons is that you have the time to do just that. For a 5k/10k distances, they are so short that by the time your body is warmed up, you're well over half way done with the race! 

From 5k to 10k, I was really hitting and groove and enjoying the views of the river at sunrise. I also really enjoyed the flat path, since I rarely ever get to run for long stretches without encountering rolling hills. Maintaining a "comfortable" pace, I look down and to my surprise, I was logging 7:45 minute miles without too much discomfort.

I set up my route so that the Hawthorne Bridge would be my halfway point, so once I crossed the river, I knew I was in good shape to hit 1:45 since every single one of my mile splits was a sub 8 minute mile. 

To keep my mind occupied, I try to do pace calculations on the run. At around mile 9, I looked down and saw the elapsed time to be 1:12ish. So I did a quick calculation and concluded that in order to finish 4 more miles in under 1:45, I'd need to maintain a 7:30 pace the rest of the way. 

A little intimidated, I decided to to just go for it at around mile 10 and kick the last 5km of the route. I started panicking a little bit because the slope crossing the Sellwood Bridge was significant and I was struggling to even stay under 8 minute miles. I figured I didn't have that much to go so once I sensed I was going downhill again, I switched to another gear even and kicked even harder to the end. The last mile or so, I had clearly crossed my lactate threshold and was hanging on for dear life as I felt the burning sensation in my lungs get stronger and stronger. 

Once my watch clocked in 13.12 miles I "let off the gas" and slowed to a walking recovery.

Ends of time trials are always a little anti-climactic since there's no finish line and no one is cheering or anything. The watch just beeps and the "race" ends without fanfare. 

 


My total time, was 1:40:18 for 13.12 miles. 

But if I wanted to be super technical about it, my official Half Marathon is 13.11 miles 1:39:58. I technically ran 20 extra seconds, accounting for that 0.01 miles.

But here's the thing. If I were to run an actual Half Marathon, there is zero chance that I'd be able to run the course perfectly so that I'd log exactly 13.109375 miles as I crossed the finish line. Navigating through crowds or taking the corners too wide can easy add an extra 0.25 miles to a race as long as a half marathon.

The main takeaway here is that I have sub 1:40 potential, but I won't know for sure if I can do sub 1:40 until I run an actual Half Marathon race. 

But wait, I overshot my goal pace by about 5 minutes. What happened? It turns out that when I saw the 1:12 elapsed time, I assumed that i was at the 9 mile mark. In reality I was much closer to the 10 mile mark. I got anxious due to a simple math error. Whups. The silver lining is that I got a 5 minute PR. Not a bad problem to have if it results in a PR, right?

Its been a few days since I ran this loop so lets now get into the takeaways.

First the good things:

  • My nutrition plan worked almost perfectly. I had the equivalent of 4 Gus and I took them every 30 minutes or so. Even though I was feeling fine, I told myself that my swig of Gu was for me 30 minutes from now. I also carried just one water flask that held about 16 ounces (475 ml). I finished that off at around mile 10 or 11. At never felt thirsty at any point and I never felt like I was carrying too much water. Water is heavy and when it sloshes around, it becomes an unnecessary burden during longer runs.
    • To be sure, its a delicate balance to strike since its always better to have a little bit of extra water than to be without. It takes a bit of practice to know exactly how much to carry.
  • Holy smokes, I did not know how much I had left in the tank when I was in the home stretch. I logged in a 6:40 minute mile for mile 13 and SPED UP to 5:49 minute miles for that last tenth of a mile to close out the half marathon distance. It was ... uncomfortable but at the same time, PR attempts are always going to be uncomfortable. By definition it is an attempt at something you've never done before and you're going to be pushing yourself beyond your current limits. It pays to invest a little bit of time running  uncomfortably fast from time to time. Fortune favors the bold.

Now the bad things:

  • The only thing glaring at me that was outright bad was my pacing. Geez it was all over the place. My neighborhood is something like 90% rolling hills so trying to keep a consistent pace (or at least a consistent effort) is incredibly difficult. Hill work is speed work in disguise, yes, but in order for me to really get my pacing down, I need to invest more time doing track work. I see more 400/800 meter repeats in my future. I've never been a fan of the track (it feels like a human hamster wheel), but I do see the benefits of doing repeat intervals. 

This is the last big run of my year, which also marks the beginning of my "offseason." This, however, does not mean doing nothing until the spring. I'm definitely going to reduce my running volume, but I will also be doing other things to keep up my fitness. I might post more on this subject in more deatil in the future.

 Well, that's about it. Until next time my friends!

Location: Sellwood Bridge, SW Sellwood Bridge, Portland, OR 97202, USA

Popular posts from this blog

My Summer Training Block Part 1: Starting off with a fresh PR

-
    Hi everyone! Its been a minute. Work has been slow so I've been spending much of the summer running. The summer is going to come and go anyways, so might as well spend it building up a massive aerobic base 😎 In the interest of not being too long winded, I'll break this into parts. I've been meaning to post something about my Half Marathon anyways, so I'll start with a race report about the Foot Traffic Flat on July 4th.   My Training :    I didn't have any particular training for this race. I wanted to start incorporating track work , specifically 400m repeats when I can . Its summer but I guess the kids at the high school still do practice for sports on the field . If the track is being used , then I end up going the "Kofuzi " workout , which is 6x1 mile repeats with about 90 seconds of rest . (Kofuzi is this guy ) I wanted to train some speed in before I started slogging through marathon pace work .     Outside of the 400 m repeats or the 1 mi...
Read more

Stumptown 50K Race Report

-
Image
  Coming off the back of the Vernonia Marathon and a solid performance in the Lake Oswego 10k, I approached this race as a “B” level event, meaning that I took it seriously, but I didn't put in a full 18 training block in the same way I treated Vernonia. Here’s a detailed account of my preparation, race day strategy, and the lessons I learned along the way. Training and Preparation In the six weeks leading up to the race, I maintained a steady training regimen, peaking at around 40 miles before tapering down. My taper wasn’t as restful as it could have been; I prioritized keeping my legs active rather than taking extended rest periods. One crucial aspect of my preparation was stretching. After attending a stretch lab demo, I learned my hamstrings and hips were particularly tight, which is common for runners. With a week to go, I integrated nightly hamstring and calf stretches to address potential knee pain, a recurring issue for me. Race Kit My race kit was assembled with comfort a...
Read more

The Brugada Challenge

-
Image
How the Concert Started How My Evening Ended I wanted to write something clever for this blog post, but I think the pictures do a good enough job getting your attention. Here’s how i ended up in the hospital. I had collapsed in the middle of June at a Death Cab for Cutie concert. When the medics checked me out, they noticed an irregular heart rhythm suggesting that a heart attack was imminent.  An ambulance came and a second set of EMTs performed another EKG. Since it was at a concert venue, they thought maybe interference from the music or the instruments was skewing the measurements. I t wasn’t. The second EKG confirmed the irregular heart rhythm so they treated me as if I was at risk for a cardiac event. It was puzzling for them because I was an otherwise healthy middle aged man. How could I be at risk for a cardiac event? My evening went from “ Death Cab for Cutie ” to “ Really Expensive Cab to Hospital ”  Upon arrival at the ER they perform a third EKG, which was no diffe...
Read more