Training Log Archive: mintore

Event: West Point A-Meet
 

Event: OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon
 

Indy 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

A great day for it, clear and 50 degrees at the start. Wow, there were soooo many people; this year it was probably about 33,000 runners. Everything pretty much went as planned, pre-chosen clothing, food, OJoy making sure that we wouldn't be late, and enough port-o-let breaks to make sure that there would be no distractions. I got a 2 min run to loosen up, some stretching and then packed myself into corral F at the front of wave 2 and 1600 of my closest friends. We got started a few seconds after 8 am, heading out Washington St towards some comforting bagpipes. There was a really good selection of very raucous music and performers all along the course, except the Speedway, which really livened things up. Given the starting corral (people not willing to get a qualifying time who probably thought they were finishing in less than 8 min/mile, there were fewer people to get around but it was still a stagger. Things got better at about mile 3 because I had gotten towards the front of F and was into the gap between wave 2 and wave 1. From here, it got slower and slower until about mile 8 (near the end of the racetrack) and then got slightly better for congestion through to the finish. I actually thought about orienteering as I ran; it was like picking your way through a 13.1-mile forest of moving trees the entire way, if you payed attention and found the good gaps, your pace was good. Run into the "green" of a slow running group taking selfies while 5 abreast, you would definitely be annoyed!

The yard of bricks was cool to see and the observation tower for the Speedway; the music and performers put some otherwise less nice neighbourhoods in Indy in their best light. Fun t-shirts on runners and people were universally nice.

I managed to stay very constant through the race. I had 7:45 as my initial goal; decided 7:40 would be doable before the start and that I could probably get a bit under it. I was very conscious not to latch onto somewhat quicker runners at mile 3 when there was more space because of the hurt it would cause later, carefully selected runners through about mile 10 that I though would pull me just hard enough, and then sucked it up from 10.5-12 which was my wall. Part of the wall was caused by the Razz Cliff gel that I got at a food station. I have used these during rogaines but it was so thick today it took literally 2.5 miles to eat with multiple water stops; something not to repeat. I think I took water four times starting at mile 3. Only the first and last mile were outside ±10s from 7:40. Held off some very light gut cramping at a few points and L calf and R hamstring cramping as I sped up substantially about 0.9 of a mile from the finish. Hit the line as hard and happy as I could. So, I didn't meet my "A" goal which would have been 7:30; I finished at 7:37/mi (7:34 if you count the extra 0.09 miles that garmin noticed jumping around runners); but I this was a PR for me and it was pretty much exactly what I though was really likely a week ago. So, yeah!

Cooled down and waited for OJoy, seeing her run happily towards the finish of her first half-marathon was the highlight of my day. Woot^n! (n is large)

Detailed Splits:
7:53
7:26
7:34
7:38
7:38
7:38
7:36
7:34
7:39
7:38
7:37
7:34
7:07
final 0.19 mi, 6:38

Walk to the convention center and back to get bibs, etc.

Ramped up each mile to HM pace. Nice evening and very nice to put in a less strenuous run.

set 10

0.5 mi walk-jog warmup

0.5 mi intervals again (813 m - 2 min walking recovery) x 6

3:28
3:23
3:21
3:23
3:22
3:24

This rest seemed to allow for a consistent pace, mostly 6:43-6:48 min/mi.
While these were not at race pace, I put some effort into them and they definitely wore on me; the last two were begrudging, so maybe 2:30 would be a better recovery (Thanks Bill).

Walked back to Y off-clock.

Now, I need to chill....

Very relaxed Rosemead loop on an off-day.