Mad City Half Marathon - 13.1 miles, 1:54
14/285 in F25-29 age group, 80/1133 female
It was a hard day to be out attempting to set a PR. The temperature was over 90 degrees, and it was humid and windy. This heat wave came out of nowhere and I didn't plan on racing in the heat so I didn't prepare for it. Sweating while standing at the start line is a bad sign for a long distance race. I was hoping to do a 1:40 but was far from it today. My time at this race last year was 1:46, so I was pretty far from that too. I was on pace for the first half but had a tough second half. That's when it started to get really hot. I was continuously pouring water on myself and running through hose sprays of water put out by spectators, but I still felt like my skin was going to burn right off my body.
Though I am disappointed in my time overall, I still managed to improve in my age group ranking (14th this year, 18th last year). It seems like most people around my speed were about 10 minutes slower than what they would do on a cooler day. I can not blame my results on the heat completely though. I made a few mistakes training and racing that were contributing factors. First of all, my longest run before the race was 13 miles and I think I should have done maybe two more longer runs maybe a 14 and 16 miler. I think I overestimated what I was capable of and therefore starting off at the faster pace was detrimental to my endurance in keeping that pace at the end. My training up to this point has prepared me well to race a fast 10K. Mile 8 is about where my high performance endurance breaks down. Another mistake I made was relying on the pace team leader to run even splits. Our pace was supposed to be 7:38 and our first mile was 7:10. I was trusting the pace leader to keep me on track when I should have been watching my watch and listening to my body. Next time I need to remember to only rely on me like I usually do. Today was a useful experience in learning how race in heat, how to not give up when I feel physically and mentally demoralized by my late-race mile splits, how it is crucial to have realistic expectations and listen to my body, and how going out too hard can be disaster in distances longer than 10K.
[5/27/06 Saturday]
Run - 2 miles easy, 27 min
Swim - 16 minutes, open water
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