Saturday was the big prep race before the marathon. I ran the Lancaster Half Marathon in Lancaster, PA. It was a bit of a mixed result. My time was about what I anticipated, but I finished the race so poorly that it put a damper on it. I felt like I could've done better.
On Friday night, we drove the course with our car. It didn't look too challenging. There were two hills near each other, one steep descent and a lot of short rolling hills and curves. It sure didn't look like something I would have trouble handling.
It is an interesting setting as most of the course runs through farm land. There some nice wooded areas in the back too. It was really a beautiful and unique place.
The start was a little annoying as it was delayed a few minutes for whatever reason. I really got tired of standing at the line. Once we finally got going, I got in a good position. I tucked in with a few runners to save some energy. We went out at a 7:30 pace on both of the first two miles. There was a guy breathing hard when going up the long first hill. It must've been a long day for him.
I decided to drop back a little after that though. The pace wasn't super fast, but a little quicker than I was comfortable with that early on. I wanted to keep that group in my sites and within striking distance though. As I experienced in the past, there is nothing worse than running alone during a long race like this.
I battled for a little bit with a guy in a gray shirt. We closed some ground on the group. After the first water station, he took off though. I drank at the station and just regrouped. I ended up passing and battle with another guy or two with gray shirts. I was never sure if it was the same guy or not. You get too focused to the road straight ahead.
I seemed be going back and forth with people. I'd get passed by a group, catch back up to them and then fall back again. I think all the rolling hills made it tough for me to run consistently. I'm so used to basic, flat running.
Just before one of the two major hills, a women was laying on the ground already exhausted. I probably should've stopped. I'm not the only one that didn't though. I took it pretty easy up both hills, since they were early on.
I followed another woman for quite a few miles and was blown away with how fast I was still going at such an easy pace. She then peeled off for the bathroom though and I had to find others to go after. I got kind of tired of following her big behind anyways. It wasn't exactly inspirational.
I was feeling great after the hills. A little while later we got to the steep downhill. That's really where I made my mistake. It was so steep that you had to put on the breaks and slow yourself down. I usually like to just let gravity take me down the hill. I decided to do that even though the surface was wet. I flew by three people on the descent. That ended up destroying my hamstrings though and drastically slowed down my race.
I started to get sore as I entered the halfway point. I hit it still feeling pretty good though. I ran it in 47:41. This was in the turnaround area. That was a stretch of road where it was wooded and shady. There were actually some horses that stood right next to the road to watch at one point. This part was great because I could see that there were so many more people behind me than ahead of me.
My initial plan was to maybe push a little at mile 8 and definitely try to fly from mile 9 on. I really started to wear down though. Before mile 8, I relaxed and took my GU Energy Gel and Gatorade. I drank at most aid stations, only walking briefly. Hydration was definitely something I did right.
I hoped the gel would work its magic, but that never happened. Really, I had plenty of energy. My legs were just overworked and dead. I still managed to trot along. It wasn't until the last few miles that I truly died.
I think it was the rolling hills that really caught up to me. The hills seemed twice as long as they actually were as the day wore on. Towards the end, the gentle ones even seemed three times longer. The other problem was the heat. It wasn't super hot, but warmer than I anticipated. I wasn't dehydrated, but the weather definitely took something out of me.
There were some nice scattered crowds that helped a little. The most interesting one was towards the end. The run is all through Amish country. We passed by one farm and there were about four Amish children watching us run. It was really cute and one of the things I liked about the race. The smell of the farms was unpleasant once we first hit the farms, but I didn't even notice it after a few minutes.
With less than a few miles left, my legs started getting really sore. My IT band started hurting and I thought I might have to walk. It got better though. One thing that motivated me was catching a guy up ahead in a Philadelphia Distance Run shirt. He was in the pack that paced me early on and they had got way ahead. He was clearly falling back though. I caught and passed him with about a mile and a half left. I said to him, that I wasn't sure how he could run this race just a couple weeks after the PDR.
Just before the last aid station, a couple girls passed me. I managed to stay with them, but we all got split up after the aid station. One guy on the route kept stopping to stretch. I passed him about 3 or 4 times while he was doing so and then he'd pass me right back when he got going again. I think I beat him at the end though.
The last mile and a half was so brutal. Time and time again, I kept considering walking. I never did it though, instead I ran slower than I probably ever have. Walking probably would've improved my time. I was so dead that I basically just quit. I could've pushed a little more, but I figured what for?
In that final little bit, I was probably passed by about ten people. At one point, a guy yelled, "only 1.6 miles to go." I wanted to punch him in the face because that seemed like forever. I tried to think of it in terms of time, instead of distance, but that didn't really help.
As dead I was, I still managed to throw in my usual strong kick. I saw a crowd up ahead, where I thought the finish was. I kicked it into high gear and blew by runner after runner. As I approached the crowd, I realized the finish was actually around the corner and I had kicked too soon. Luckily, no one else could move fast at that point. I'm just so good in the last 200 meters or so. Always have been and always will be.
I finished in 1:41:25 and in 118th place. I could've probably gone under 1:40 if I pushed myself a little more during the closing two miles. I was happy that I went hard enough throughout the race to find my limit though. Sometimes, I have ended a race wondering if I left too much in the tank. That was not the case on this day.
I was disappointed that I ran the second half so much slower than the first half, but I'm not sure what else I could do. Even if I started slower, I'm still not sure I could've finished stronger. I just didn't have the training necessary to conquer the rolling hills. I tried adding more hill work within the last few weeks and then I developed some minor injuries.
I walked around the outlets in Lancaster on Saturday afternoon. That was a big help to allow my legs to recover. I used ice throughout the last two days. My quads and hamstrings are actually still sore today, but my groin injury hasn't been bothering me. That's very good news because that was lingering for awhile. The flat and slow recovery run on Thursday, as well as Wednesday's day off were probably a big help.
Even though the marathon will be much flatter, I still want to improve on the hills. I guess instead of doing more hill sprints, I'll just have to run on more hilly courses. Perhaps I'll have to leave the city for that.
Tomorrow, I'm going to stay at my parents and try running the Lehigh cross country course. I'll do it nice and slow though. I really need to work on making my slow days truly slow. I'm hoping to start doing more tempo runs for my Wednesday medium runs.
I'm still pretty far off of Boston Marathon qualifying pace, but some more quality workouts could bring me very close to that by the time the marathon rolls around. I don't want to overdo it, but I want to set that up as a goal now. If I don't acheive it, I won't be disappointed. If I don't in the spring marathon, that'll be a different story.
All in all, it was a good run and I'm happy where I'm going. It's amazing to think that 5 months ago a half mile run would've winded me. I've come a long way already. There are still so many people ahead of me though and so much room for improvement. I just have to keep working at it.
Time 1:41:25 - 7:45 pace (118 of 679 overall), (92 of 324 male), (15 of 42 age group)
Splits 1st half - 47:41 (7:17 pace), 2nd half - 53:44 (8:12 pace)
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