SteveD's Mercer Report

Steve D’s Race Report – Mercer 1/2M 2008

I went into this race with a bit of uncertainty. Most of my running this winter was done at AeT with virtually no speed work. Also, I had done some pretty intense skiing for 4 days up until Wednesday before the race, and my legs were still a bit spent from that. So, now that I’ve laid down a solid layer of excuses, I can get to the meat of the matter J But, seriously, I tell you all this to let you know that this was more of a test race for me to evaluate my current running condition. My main question was how fast could I go and still have a good strong, smart race. I felt like a 7:30 min/mi was very attainable, but wanted to see if I could do a 7:00 min/mi pace.

Goals:

7-7:30 min/mi (1:30-1:38)
Apply a good race strategy
Push myself to a “reasonably” difficult pain threshold

Race Strategy:

Miles 0-3: Start “easy” @ 7:15-7:30 min/mi pace
Miles 3-10: Pick up the pace to 7:00-7:15 pace until mile 10
Miles 10-11: Progressively increase pace to 7:00 min/mi or faster
Miles 11-end: Go all out (just under max HR)

Race:

Breakfast of 2 pancakes and a latte @ 6:30, and a couple of energy cubes about 30 min before race. Drank 8 0z. At breakfast, and again on the way to the race. Got at the race a bit frazzled, because we toured Mercer for a while before we figured out where the community center was. Once, we got there, and I got my race packet, and met up with the rest of the team, I felt much better. It really does help to have the team support. Warmed up a bit before the race with Jill and the girls.

Started near the front of the pack, and it was a bit slow-go and elbowy for the first mile. HR was a bit high (145-150). Don’t laugh or worry my max HR is 160-165, so I’m a real freak of human nature; more akin to turtles when it comes to the old ticker. The pack thinned out fairly well after 2-3 miles, and I was keeping a good pace 7:15-7:30. Legs were feeling pretty good, but not real loose. Kept my planned pacing well, and at mile 5-6 I was a bit disappointed that my HR was a bit high (150), and my legs were not feeling real strong or loose. I got into a good pace and breathing rhythm, and decided not to worry about it. Miles 8-10 seemed difficult, and I struggled with the few hills that we had. My legs really didn’t have much juice, and I just tried to maintain a constant pace with smaller, more rapid strides. As far as nutrition, I wore a race belt with 3 X 8oz of Accelerade (total cal. 280). I was taking drinking a few gulps every 15 min, and that was going well. I was mentally focusing on relaxing and keeping a good even pace, and completely missed seeing the 10-mile marker. So, when I saw the 11-mile marker, I was pretty jazzed, because I was starting to feel the hurt. Really ran down the hills with long fast strides (which I usually don’t), and it felt pretty good. The long hill was painful, and I had to run in quick, short strides to make it to the top. Every hill took a little bit out of me, but I just focused on getting to the top, and then I could resume faster my pace. At mile 11, I decided to increase my pace to close to max HR, and go all out. At this point, it was pretty painful, but I just mentally powered through it. The stretch along I-90 seemed really long, but then I strode down the last stretch, pushed through the last hill, and kicked it in strong for the finish.

Results:

Time: 1:33.45 (7:08 min/mi)

My legs were not as strong and responsive as I would have liked them to be; especially in the last 5 miles, but overall very pleased with my race.