Arlington Running Festival Half-Marathon - 5th Overall

Pre-Race

At some point last week I decided that it would be nice to have a "fitness check" before I proceed to destroy my body at TNF 50 Miler next weekend. So, I found this half-marathon and signed up.

Overall, the week was rough. Coming off of my highest mileage week ever (96 miles), I felt rather flat and less motivated than usual. Regardless, I put in about 34 miles of running up to Saturday plus 35 miles of biking (mostly commuting/transportation). I didn't really feel like racing on Saturday night; but I'm not one to give up. So, I got up at 4:30AM Sunday morning and began "the ritual": I got dressed, ate breakfast, drank coffee, prepared my Nuun, and drove to the race.

The Race

I had hoped to get in 2-3 miles easy before the start, but a shortage of porta potties prevented more than a mile and some striders. At the start line, I decided to go out at a 5:50/mile pace. This was a bad decision. I was immediately anxious about the pace and found it difficult to run my own race. In reality, I should have gone out at 6:05/mile and stuck there; my splits indicate that this was about the right pace. I really dragged for the last 3 miles; my legs just wouldn't go any faster. This feeling was reminiscent of the last 10k of the National Marathon.

I finished 5th overall in a time of 1:21:53.

The Course


Was horrible. I'm fairly confident that I would have broken 1:20 if it weren't for the course. The first 3 miles were great - flat, open road. Then, the first (of about 10) 180-degree turn arounds hit and we ran into the park onto an 8-foot wide path. The path was OK for the first loop, but we still had a huge number of 90-degree or greater turns. The second lap is where everything kind of fell apart with regards to the course. The front-runners were forced to run past all of the runners who were on their first lap. This was nearly impossible on the narrow path and I found myself constantly yelling "On your left!" while trying to keep a 6:00/mile pace. This continued for the third lap as well. It was total chaos.

With that said, the volunteers were fantastic and everyone was super friendly; but that doesn't really make up for the course. I probably would not run this race again.

Training Summary 5/9 - 5/15

I bulked up on the mileage this week - probably too much. Yesterday I went out for a long-ish run with Martha and Ryon in Rock Creek Park, and I felt horrible almost the entire time. My legs felt heavy and the relative perceived exertion (RPE) was WAY higher than usual for our pace.

Monday 5/9: AM - 6 mile RCP loop
PM - 30 minutes on the treadmill (3.5 miles)

Tuesday 5/10: AM - 6 x 1000m on the track (3:30 per 1000 for the first 4, then dropped off by about 10 sec per 1000 for the last 2). Total of about 8 miles. (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84756893)

PM - 11 miles w/ WUS (Ryon and Martha). The morning's workout took a lot out of me, and I needed to go slower during my PM run...but that didn't happen.

Wednesday 5/11: 7 miles on the road. Just one run because of Tuesday's beating.

Thursday 5/12: AM - 28 minute fartlek: 4 minutes ON, 1 minute OFF at about 5:45 pace (ON). Total of about 8 miles.

PM - 5.4 mile RCP loop w/o a watch. About 45 minutes.

Friday 5/13: AM - 9 mile loop. Feeling pretty good.

PM - 5.4 mile RCP loop. Still feeling alright, a little bit of Heavy Legs.

Saturday 5/14: 17 miles w/ Ryon and Martha. The mileage really caught up with me. It was a pretty degrading experience; I mean 17 miles isn't that far! HR was elevated, etc... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85580828

Sunday 5/15: Unfortunately, no running. I need to start listening to my body. My brain wants to run but my body most certainly does not, as evidenced by yesterday's run.

Weekly Summary:

Total Miles - 81 miles

Total Time - 10 hours, 42 minutes

Elevation Gain - 4,700 feet

Yearly Summary: Since 1/1/2011

Total Miles (some runs not included) - 1,071 miles

Total Time - 147 hours, 48 minutes

Elevation Gain - 63,042 feet

Nuun Ambassador Team

I've been selected to join the Nuun Ambassador Team for 2011! I am very excited about this opportunity because Nuun is a great product that I use before, during and after each race, and during training. Nuun "active hydration" are dissolvable tablets that come in 10+ flavors and provide electrolytes that promote proper hydration during any activity. Find out more at: What is Nuun?

Week of 5/2-5/8 Summary

Monday: 7

Tuesday: 7 - 2400m + 6 x 400m (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83233821)

Wednesday: 8

Thursday: AM: 7ish - 15 min. tempo @ 5:50/mile, 6 x Long Hills
PM: 5.5 Easy Rock Creek Loop

Friday: 10 Easy

Saturday: 8

Sunday: 16.25 (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84376674)

Total: 68 miles

Promise Land 50k++ GPS Data

This is a link to my Garmin data from the race.

Promise Land 50k++ by sburn88 at Garmin Connect - Details

Promise Land 50k++ Race Report

Pre-Pre-Race Expectations and Plans

I knew little about this race other than it has a beautiful course and almost 8000' of elevation gain. The latter piece information stood out in my mind; I live in Washington, DC and my average 10 mile run in Rock Creek Park (the most "mountainous" terrain available) gains less than 1000'. Needless to say, I had no idea how my body would respond to this much climbing. 

I went into this race exactly four weeks after the National Marathon, so I felt fully healed and fit. My ultimate goal was to pace myself well and to finish in a respectable time. Basically, I didn't want to blow up 15 miles into the race.

Pre-Race

I'll admit it - I get the pre-race jitters pretty badly. The anxiety set in on Friday morning, when I felt that it was necessary to pack more running clothing than I usually wear in a week. I also packed a ton of food.

Fortunately, I did not have to make the four-hour plus trip to Promise Land on my own as I was joined by well-established ultrarunners Keith Knipling, Ragan Petrie, and Amy Lane. Keith has run Promise Land a million times and he bestowed his wisdom on the rest of us. 

We arrived at Promise Land at about 7PM on Friday night to find Dr. David Horton giving the pre-race speech. I quickly assembled my tent and hurried over to grab some pizza and listen to Dr. Horton. I got there just in time to have some schwag thrown my way including a book and a Montrail T-shirt.  

The rest of the night was somewhat awkward because I didn't know anyone. I resigned to my tent around 9:30PM and settled in for a restless night.

 My home the night before the race...

Start to AS2


My iPhone read 4:00AM. Good enough for me - I wasn't going to sleep anymore. I felt bloated and somewhat flat. What a great way to start a race! But I drank some coffee, ate a bagel, and drank some more coffee. Finally, I filled up my handheld and added 1.5 Nuun tablets. I carried a small plastic bag with a few Nuun tabs to make ward off cramping and other potential mishaps (e.g. hyponatremia).

I hate standing around, but 5:30AM came around and we were off; it happened before I even had time to think about it. I simply ran up and into the darkness. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew one thing for certain: I wasn't going to stop. I quickly "relaxed" into a pace up the hill and found myself passing those who decided to hike a bit. I felt too good to stop running, though, so I kept going.

I hit AS1 at about 30 minutes and hit the singletrack (still uphill!). I paced off of Frank Gonzalez who ended up finishing 5th, about 10 min. ahead of me. He is strong on the uphills, but man does he kill it going downhill! He made me realize that I need to work on my turnover.

Anyways, AS2 came and I grabbed some more water and a small PBJ and booked it.

AS2 to Right before Apple Orchard Falls


We really cruised for a few miles on the fire road. I love fire road now! It's so forgiving - nothing like pounding on pavement. Frank and I cruised through Sunset Fields...and then he dropped me. Apparently I need to work on my technical descents. I swear he was gone in 5 seconds. I just thought, "Hey, I don't want to die going down here. I'd rather finish the race in one piece." So, I kept a comfortable pace and just cruised the downhill, past the next AS and onto the pavement. This section was odd because my legs were feeling alright but they didn't want to go very fast - I was only able to keep about a 7:00/mile pace for the 2 road miles. Some dude was on my tail here but I dropped him as soon as we hit the trail again.

This section was nice, I just took it easy on the uphills and cruised on the downhills. Again, I need to work on my downhill skills, because I know that if I were a better downhiller, I would have taken off at least 15 minutes overall.

I felt a bit crappy going into the AS before Apple Orchard Falls, so I grabbed a bunch of food: PBJ, pretzels and something else.

Apple Orchard Falls to the Finish


The Falls were pure torture. I was trading places with this one dude (who was a really nice guy, but it's still a race) and I just tried to run as much as possible. Which wasn't much. It hurt, I'm not gonna lie.

I think I dropped that dude right before the Sunset Fields AS where I proceeded to shove as much food in my mouth as possible. At this point, I felt home free. I was stoked and just cruised the fire road and singletrack past AS1 and onto the gravel road.

There is only one thing that I have to say about the gravel road: longest 3 miles EVER.

So, I finished 6th overall in 5:18:44. I was very happy with this performance and I learned a lot about what I am capable of. (1) I'm pretty good on the uphills.
(2) I'm not quite as good on the downhills. I need to work on this.

 The start line.

 We climbed that...

The elevation profile.

Weekly Summary - 4/4 - 4/10

Mon. 4/4: 7.5 mi. Rock Creek Park Loop (1:07:12)

Tues. 4/5: 60 min. easy on treadmill - about 7.5 mi. (1:00:00)

Wed. 4/6: 6 mi. Rock Creek Park Loop. (53:04)

Thurs. 4/7: 7 miles at the track. 23 min. fartlek @ low-end threshold pace. (48:31)

Fri. 4/8: 9 mi. loop through Dumbarton Oaks, Glover Archibold Trail (1:13:44)

Sat. 4/9: 6.2 mi. easy on treadmill. (51:37)

Sun. 4/10: 2 mi. warmup + 4.97 mi. race. (see below for race report)

Summary:

Time: 6:23:02 (as recorded by Garmin Forerunner 305)
Distance: about 50 miles (+/- 3)