Race Report: Glass City Half Marathon
Well, I had big goals going into this race. Big Goals. Sub 1:28. Insta-PR. Strike while the iron is hot. All of that.
Who would have thought it would be this warm on April 25? Crap. 68 degrees at race start. 75 at race finish. Crap. It could have been worse, with a head wind on a nearly linear course.
. This is the first race in a while where I planned to run with someone. Probably good practice for Bayshore, where I suspect there will be impromptu pace groups formed here and there. The race finishes in downtown Toledo, in a riverside park. I got in fairly early and met up with Phil, the insanely fast guy who would help pace me. Phil is a heck of a runner, doing this after running a 17:15 5K the day before.
We hop on a quick bus down to the start, which is in Perrysburg on the east side of the river. After a quick start at the portajohn, and an even quicker warmup, we head to the start and get ready to go. The race start is very informal, but then again, there are only about 550 half marathoners. Not as many as I would have expected. We sidle up to the second row, and the horn goes off to start.
We start off at a pretty good pace, guessing at what the best pace is. I'm thinking 6:45s and then try to descend from there. We actually do fairly well early, hitting 6:45 for the first mile, but then dropping to 7:05 by mile 3, and then dropping down to 6:20 for mile four. The 7:05 involved the only hill on the course, and the 6:20 was the recovery from that. Not sure that that didn't affect things later on. Early on, into the wind, the temps were fine, but after we crossed the bridge and hit the turnaround point, it was with the wind the rest of the way. I think I preferred the headwind today. Just too hot near the end of the race for a tailwind. After a 6:50, the times slowly slowed to about 6:55, where they would fluctuate for the rest of the race.
Now the good/bad thing is that there really wasn't anyone around us for the middle third of the race. The nearest competitor in front of us was at least a minute ahead, and until mile 8 or 9, the nearest guy behind me was maybe 15-30 secs back. We ran into another online friend at 6, Rick, who was working the aid station. He also took some wicked pics as well:
At 6.5 #1
At 6.5 #2
It was really difficult as the run wore on to keep any sort of decent pace. It was really disappointing. I wanted to hold a 6:45, and even with the flat course, I just couldn't get back down there. As we closed on mile 10, I definiely started to feel pretty rough and had a bit of a hard time keeping even 7:00 pace, and the next two miles were 7:05 ish.
Through this Phil was great, taking the lead and pushing me on as the race wore on. I'm pretty sure that I might have just laid back a little bit more without him there. It was good to have someone to hang on and keep contact with, especially in the middle of the race.
Interestingly, though, I realized that I run/race alone SO MUCH, that I found it odd to race with someone else, too. Early on (and when I ran with Dave in DC), I realized that I sometimes was deferring the pace to him, rather than trying to set it. It's weird to me that running with a partner would be so different, but it was.
As the race rolled from 8 on, we picked up someone from behind us, but he spent a lot of energy just getting to us. By the time we got to 12, we lost him again. By that time, I was reaching for anything left to put the hammer down with, but there wasn't much there. I got passed by one guy at about 12.5, and that was pretty much it. I tried to put something together down the stretch, but it just wasn't there, and I pulled in with a 1:30:28.
Executive summary:
Chip time: 1:30:28.
overall place: 16/568
ag place: 3/56
So, no 1:28, indeed, no sub 1:30. I could be disappointed, but it was also really warm with no acclimation to the weather. I think in the end, I'm pretty happy with this. Mind you, the plaque for 3 ag is part of that, but I think that there was a sub 1:30 in there had the conditions been a little more ideal.
In the end, I have to think that 3:10 is within reach. I feel like I have a cushion. If the weather is sucky, I can go for 3:15, and not feel like it's going to be a stretch. That's a great feeling.
Finally, here's a pic of some good friends I met today. Lunch was awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing them either at Bayshore in a few weeks, or other races in the area!
Who would have thought it would be this warm on April 25? Crap. 68 degrees at race start. 75 at race finish. Crap. It could have been worse, with a head wind on a nearly linear course.
. This is the first race in a while where I planned to run with someone. Probably good practice for Bayshore, where I suspect there will be impromptu pace groups formed here and there. The race finishes in downtown Toledo, in a riverside park. I got in fairly early and met up with Phil, the insanely fast guy who would help pace me. Phil is a heck of a runner, doing this after running a 17:15 5K the day before.
We hop on a quick bus down to the start, which is in Perrysburg on the east side of the river. After a quick start at the portajohn, and an even quicker warmup, we head to the start and get ready to go. The race start is very informal, but then again, there are only about 550 half marathoners. Not as many as I would have expected. We sidle up to the second row, and the horn goes off to start.
We start off at a pretty good pace, guessing at what the best pace is. I'm thinking 6:45s and then try to descend from there. We actually do fairly well early, hitting 6:45 for the first mile, but then dropping to 7:05 by mile 3, and then dropping down to 6:20 for mile four. The 7:05 involved the only hill on the course, and the 6:20 was the recovery from that. Not sure that that didn't affect things later on. Early on, into the wind, the temps were fine, but after we crossed the bridge and hit the turnaround point, it was with the wind the rest of the way. I think I preferred the headwind today. Just too hot near the end of the race for a tailwind. After a 6:50, the times slowly slowed to about 6:55, where they would fluctuate for the rest of the race.
Now the good/bad thing is that there really wasn't anyone around us for the middle third of the race. The nearest competitor in front of us was at least a minute ahead, and until mile 8 or 9, the nearest guy behind me was maybe 15-30 secs back. We ran into another online friend at 6, Rick, who was working the aid station. He also took some wicked pics as well:
At 6.5 #1
At 6.5 #2
It was really difficult as the run wore on to keep any sort of decent pace. It was really disappointing. I wanted to hold a 6:45, and even with the flat course, I just couldn't get back down there. As we closed on mile 10, I definiely started to feel pretty rough and had a bit of a hard time keeping even 7:00 pace, and the next two miles were 7:05 ish.
Through this Phil was great, taking the lead and pushing me on as the race wore on. I'm pretty sure that I might have just laid back a little bit more without him there. It was good to have someone to hang on and keep contact with, especially in the middle of the race.
Interestingly, though, I realized that I run/race alone SO MUCH, that I found it odd to race with someone else, too. Early on (and when I ran with Dave in DC), I realized that I sometimes was deferring the pace to him, rather than trying to set it. It's weird to me that running with a partner would be so different, but it was.
As the race rolled from 8 on, we picked up someone from behind us, but he spent a lot of energy just getting to us. By the time we got to 12, we lost him again. By that time, I was reaching for anything left to put the hammer down with, but there wasn't much there. I got passed by one guy at about 12.5, and that was pretty much it. I tried to put something together down the stretch, but it just wasn't there, and I pulled in with a 1:30:28.
Executive summary:
Chip time: 1:30:28.
overall place: 16/568
ag place: 3/56
So, no 1:28, indeed, no sub 1:30. I could be disappointed, but it was also really warm with no acclimation to the weather. I think in the end, I'm pretty happy with this. Mind you, the plaque for 3 ag is part of that, but I think that there was a sub 1:30 in there had the conditions been a little more ideal.
In the end, I have to think that 3:10 is within reach. I feel like I have a cushion. If the weather is sucky, I can go for 3:15, and not feel like it's going to be a stretch. That's a great feeling.
Finally, here's a pic of some good friends I met today. Lunch was awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing them either at Bayshore in a few weeks, or other races in the area!