Wow! Once again I disappear after the race without putting my thoughts about it. With so many things happening in life there is only so much time for blogging. But I still like to put down my thoughts about the race so that 1) Its kind of cool to look back at these reports when you redo the race 2) Lot of times I look back and see what worked and what did not on the race day
My PB (personal best) for half marathon distance is 1:50:xx. I achieved that last september at norcal half marathon and one of the my goals for this year is to break that time. My first opportunity came in Feb. when I ran the norcal half marathon again. While dealing with injury and only few short weeks of training prior to it I knew it would be difficult to do it. I did come pretty close to it and finished it in 1:51. While planning the season, Norcal half was suppose to be training race for Oakland full marathon but with hardly any long run running a full marathon was a big risk so I decided to downgrade it to another half marathon. In a way it was perfect. I will have full four weeks where i can put in good training miles and try to chase 1:50 again :)
Going into the race, my plan was simple. First 4-5 miles stay in Z2-Z3 and then go into Z4 and stay there for the remainder of the race. Coach also had instructed that once I get into Z4 she didn't wanted to see my HR go below again. So when to get into Z4 was kind of an important decision and she had left that to me.
When the race started we made incredible numbers of turns winding around the city of Oakland in the first few miles. It was lot of fun to see so many people come out on course for cheer and support. At around mile 4 or mile 5 I broke into Z4. Now it was time to work hard and stay there. For most of the remaining race I was able to do it but the engine started going off towards the end around mile 12. Last 2-3 miles were extremely tough for me and I once again faced some cramping issues in the calf. I even had to take couple of quick walking breaks around mile 12. I hate walking in the race. But then there is not much you can do when your body just doesn't want to move forward..I crossed the finish line and saw my garmin it said 1:52..wow!! I was certainly very disappointed. Up until mile 7 I thought i was in control and i knew i was on course to break 1:50. But the humidity, hills and cramping legs towards the end was way too much to handle for me...
I took public transportation to the race location so while coming back I kept thinking about what went wrong and here are few things that stick out for me
1) I definitely need to sort out my sodium intake issue. Being a heavy sweater I definitely need to compensate lot more sodium than most of the people. I take powerbar gel every 30 mins. That's close to 220 calories and 400 mg of sodium plus the sports drinks available on the course. This seem to work for most the race before I start blowing up towards the end. I am planning to try out some salt tablets and see how my body reacts to it
2) My fitness is no where near last year but this is something i am not too worried about. With time and training it will come around
3) Race laces. This is such a bummer. For some odd reason my shoe laces never untie when I am training and then in races (almost always) I will have incident where my shoe lace would untie and I have suddenly stop and take care about it. It happened again in this race. I need to get those laces without the knots for the races
Here is bit of fun fact that I realized when I came home and saw my garmin file. So to run a 1:48 half marathon my average pace per mile needs to be 8:24 and my avg pace per mile was 8:23. So unofficially, I did break 1:50 ;) It would have been official if only I had run 13.1..I ended up running 13.4 miles. Those 0.3 miles cost me dearly in the end. Anyways, next time when I line up for half marathon I am determined to crush 1:50..But for now I need to continue my training for it. Up next its time to tackle 26.2 one more time in 4 weeks time..western pacific marathon
Garmin File:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/288509458
