Norcal Half Marathon Race Report

As I posted on my last entry this race was really important for me. Not for chasing some time goal but more to try out few things in race environment that I plan to do at MCM. In the end I was happy to try those things out and was satisfied how they turned out. I still have some work to do (in terms of fixing my gel interval) but good news is I have 6 weeks to figure that out.

Start
I had the awesome company of Ramesh for this race. Since race location was 40 mins drive from my place the plan was to car pool from my place. For pre-race breakfast I did make some change for this race. I was really not hungry in the morning (that's what happens when you have way too many samosa the day before the race :)) so instead of stuffing myself I just drank one bottle of concentrated accelerade (with 2-2.5 scoops). After some navigation we did manage to get to the race location with sufficient time to do a good warm up.

First few miles

The race website said it was flat fast course (It really wasn't..see below). That basically translates to run your heart out and you will get an PR. One of my (secondary) goal was to run sub 1:55. I knew this was very doable on a (assumed) flat course. So as usual I lined up behind 1:55 pacer. My target was follow her for first half of the race and then do my own race. But for some insane reason my mind told me that its flat course I could go for 1:50 and without any reasoning I lined up behind 1:50 pacer. I introduced myself to the pacer and we chatted for some time as we waited for the horn to go off.

As the horn went I started the run confidently. I was really enjoying the freedom of running without any accessories hanging by my waist or in my hand. Only thing I took with me were 3 packets of powerbar gels. As the first mile went the gap between me and 1:50 pacer started growing really quickly. I was very quickly reminded of the saying: "You should run the race you are physically capable of and not what your mind wants to" so I decided to dial back a bit. By mile 2 the 1:50 pacer was really out of sight and I was left alone with running my own race.

One of the goals of this race was to always stay in the race irrespective of the conditions. I am amazed how my minds wanders off if I don't control it. The craziest thought that usually crosses my mind in the race is what food I am going to eat in the evening to celebrate the finish and this usually happens even before I cross 2 miles :P I do get lot of such crazy thoughts if I don't stay in the moment. But I was determined to make sure it doesn't happen in this race. I had a simple plan in place. Chase the guy/gal in front of you and think you are going to win the race if you chase them down. Thats it !! All along I would target one person and try to pass him/her. I would keep an eye on their strides and would push myself if I see them slowing down etc. I stopped looking at my watch and just targeted the person in front of me.

Middle miles
By mile 5-6 I was amazed to see that I had made up some good time and I could see the 1:50 pacer again. Though he was really far I knew if I kept my head down I can get close to him and so that became the sole mission from that point on. Not to let the 1:50 pacer off my sight and bridge the gap as much as possible with every mile. Lot of the middle miles were loops in a park so it was really easy for me to keep an eye on that pacer and I kept trucking along.

Last miles

Though the website said it was flat fast course I really doubt it they actually meant it. The last few miles were a spaghetti sort of running in some park. People were running in all directions. At one point I had no idea in what direction I was suppose to run. It was like one giant maze. We kept on passing the same point multiple times and each time went into different direction. There were tones of rolling hills every where in the park. When I saw the final garmin file the elevation profile was almost same as SF half marathon and that is by no means is a fast flat course.  Anyways back to race, at mile 10 it finally happened. I had bridged the gap and was 2-3 seconds behind the 1:50 pacer.

Last 3 miles are always the hardest miles in half marathon. Mentally, you want to push hard and finish strong but physically you are getting tired. Usually, I do try to push my tempo in those miles. But this race was bit different in the sense I was already racing hard from the beginning. I still decided to up my pace and try to over take 1:50 pacer. But the moment I tried that I got a stinging pain in my calf muscle ( the one you get when you get cramped). I instantly knew this was not the wisest thing to do. I had put in lot of work till that point to get blown away in the last 3 miles. I decided to dial back my effort and just focused on finishing the race strong. Those 3 miles were tough. I had a dizzy effect at mile ~11.5 where I just felt like I would fall off. But luckily, I hold it together. At that point, time was not important. Finishing the race was the only goal. At 12 mile marker I tried my luck again and tried going hard but again the pain shoot up. No luck. I finished the last mile at steady effort and finished the race in 1:50:21. That was another ~9 min PR from my SF half marathon.

Ramesh also had an awesome day and he was also able to achieve his goal of running a sub 2:10 race.

I was really impressed with the race organization. It was so encouraging to see so many young school kids at the water stations and on the course shouting their heart out to cheer us on. It always helps you to keep moving strong with such cheers.  Kudos to race organizers for putting up such nice event.

Garmin File
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223494456

Goals

From my last post I think I was able to achieve most of my goals. Good warm up, staying in the race and going hands free. Though one thing I still need to work on is gel frequency. In general my body very happily accepted the gel but in the end I felt I was one gel short. As far as drinking enough fluid on the course is concerned I was happy with that. I took one glass of water and one glass of gatorade on each aid station (every 2.25 miles) and my body was happy with that.

What next
Seeing the progress I have made at this distance I am so tempted to register for one more half marathon before the year ends. But I think this is not the best time for it. Right now, I need to focus on getting ready for MCM. Half marathon distance will have to wait till next year.  Just to make sure I am ready for next week training I went out for 60 min high cadence recovery ride in the evening to flush out the lactic acid and all the junk  built up in the legs.  Its time to get back to long steady slow marathon training runs from tomorrow. We are 6 weeks out from MCM.

Sorry no pics for this post. I haven't received any pictures from the race and I could not wait for their availability.

Here we go (again)!!

On Sunday I would be doing my third half marathon, norcal half, of the season. So far the only goals I always had for any race had been the time goals. But this one is different. I am not gunning for time. Being in the middle of my first full marathon training and no proper tapper this week I have very modest expectations about my times. So instead I figure I can use this race for trying out few things that I plan to do differently for MCM. In reality, when I was planning the races my thought was always to use this race as a training race for MCM. For some reasons, I always feel confident if I try out things in race environment rather than in training runs. So here are my goals that I plan to achieve in this race.

1) Get a proper warm in: I did not do that at SF half and paid the price after the race. So for this one I definitely plan to get to start point early and get a good warm up in.

2) Stay in the race. I always thought I was doing it right but SF half was a good reminder. Once I had bad experience on the bridge I was completely out of the race. I just wanted to get done with it and in that moment my nutrition plan went for a toss and I had a very uncomfortable second half and finish. So for this race I plan to stay in the race for whole 13.1 miles irrespective of the conditions or state I am in and not let my mind wander..

3)Go hands free. This one is really important and something I have been working on in training runs. I started running with fuel belt around my waist last year. For some reason I was never comfortable with fuel belts or as a matter of fact anything around my waist. I bought (and tried) pretty much everything out there in market. One bottle, 4 bottle, 3 bottle, no bottle and only pouch to carry nutrition. All of them either end up chaffing me or are really uncomfortable. This year I made the change to one bottle setup in hand. For shorter runs this works well. But for anything over a hour it starts hurting my hand. I have to keep alternating the bottle between two hands. I also feel it locks up the hand holding the bottle thereby screwing up my natural running gait. So for training runs I have been experimenting with not carrying anything with me (except nutrition). Because all of my longs runs with team asha have a water stop (~2-3 miles) I have started training my body to go without fluid for that much distance. This is what I also plan to do at MCM so its really important to try this out at norcal half and take mental notes on how I feel towards the end. At norcal half, water stops are ~2.25 miles apart so this would be perfect mileage to try it out. Other important thing is to take a "real" break at water stop and drink sufficient fluid instead of flying through it without taking sufficient amount of fluid

On the same lines, try taking gel every 30 mins (~220 cal/hr). So far for half marathon distance I have been able to run without any gel but that would not work for MCM and I plan to take gel every 30 mins (atleast in the beginning part of race) so this would be good time to try it out in race environment and see how my body reacts to it.

I do have few other small goals but above 3 are the most important one that I want to achieve.

Good luck every one racing this weekend !!