The first thing I noticed on starting my run was how good I felt. My feet felt fine, in fact, my Hoka’s felt like I was running on soft carpet. This is the feeling I have when my legs feel good. About a half mile into the run, I hit the first aid station, I stopped briefly to grab something to drink, put ice in my pants, as that was going to be very important over the next hour or so, to maintain hydration for the entirety of the half marathon run. I am very familiar with the run course having done the IRONMAN here twice. It’s generally flat with some ups and downs when crossing over to the other side. My plan had been to go out over the first 2 miles as “easily“ as possible. The temperature was already rising, my legs were a little dead but I’ve done this many times before. I’ve done long runs on dead legs I recently ran home after doing a 5K and I knew coming in that the run was going to hurt. At the same time I was looking forward to it it was just a half marathon and I could hurt for upwards of two hours. With that said, I took the first couple of miles as comfortably as I could trying to keep my legs moving with good cadence while maintaining a breathing pattern of breathing every fourth step. I did fine with this and decided to hold this till until mile six, which was near the turnaround point of the run course. I actually found someone to run with around mile 1, and we ran together until mile 8. I was talking to him about my race report and that I wasn’t sure that I had it in me to increase my effort at mile six, but when mile 6 came, I naturally increased my effort. It was hot, and I did walk through each aid station and make sure I was getting in plenty of fluids. I also put ice down my shorts and back at every opportunity. My legs were doing OK, it wasn’t easy but I maintained my effort and actually could feel my effort increasing while holding onto my every fourth step breathing pattern. At mile five, I started drinking Coke, not dissimilar to the point during an IronMan run when I do so. When I get to the turnaround point I start increasing my effort and breathing pattern to every third step, it’s tough, but I manage to get myself locked in to this and really tried to stay focused. I knew there was a little out & back on the run back to town, it always makes me a little crazy when I get there, because it feels like it makes the run back longer. It’s getting harder, but I put my head down and really focus on maintaining my effort and pace throughout this section. When I got back onto main path I knew I just had to keep pushing till the finish. I started grunting which keeps me focused and probably frightens a few people along the way but I knew it was time to do so there are many things going on in my body at this point. It’s getting hard and getting even hotter, but this was what this race had always been all about. Could I push? Could I persevere? Could I go hard and could I have a solid run? A part of me wanted to slow down, and part of me wanted to walk. I was not going to allow that to happen. At mile 10 I felt a little chest discomfort, which I think may have been related to my rib injury, but to be on the safe side, I backed my effort off a little for about a mile, and also massaged the area that was uncomfortable. I was all in to finish strong, and I was gonna run to the finish and have the best result I could have, leaving it all out on the course. The finishing stretch in Santa Rosa is always difficult because it’s longer than it seems so I just let myself keep pushing until I could see the finish line. Once I saw the finish line, I went as hard as I could, crossing the line knowing I’d given it everything thing I had. My pace for the first 6 miles, was right around 9:15-9:30 pace, then for the next four miles was about 8:50 pace; I slowed down at the end to about a 10 minute pace.
Run time 2:03:32 (10th in AG, winner of age group ran 1:38:04, but my run time was within 7 minutes all but four of the guys in my AG)
Overall: 5:49:14 (10th in AG, winner of age group was 5:03, third place was 5:18:45) I do feel like I might have improved a few minutes on the swim with a wet suit and up to 10 minutes on the bike without my aero hydration system fiasco. That might have gotten me to 7th or 8th. With that said, I don’t think that I’ve ever gotten top 10 in a half ironman in my age group before (except for the race that qualified me for long course worlds in 2009).
What was really cool about my run report was how closely it tracked with my pre-race race report.
As an addendum, when I woke up this morning, I definitely am feeling the effects of the race. I'm sore and tired, pretty much all over. Which is good.
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