Triple Threat Half Marathon

The next waypoint on the Disney Marathon trail was the Triple Threat Half Marathon on August 3 in Rockport, MA. I looked at my pace times for the 10 miler (8:40) and the 10k (8:06) and figured I could run somewhere in between those speeds, hopefully closer to the 10k pace. I weighed 197 for the 10 miler, 194 for the 10k and was 189 going in to the half-marathon. My training included runs of 13 miles, 14 miles and then 13 miles again on my long Sunday runs after the 4th of July race. I set myself a goal of a 1:50 finish, which would involve an 8:23 pace. Yet again, Ellen was with me running the 5k. (The "Triple Threat" includes a one mile race, a 5k and a half-marathon, some runners competing in all three races.)

Ellen almost matched her PR, coming in just over 26 minutes at 26:03. The half marathon course turned out to be harder than I expected. The website indicated a few rolling hills, but the course was really nothing but rolling hills, including a few steep ones. Furthermore, it was an out and back course, with the first half involving a net decrease in elevation. I noticed this going out and had a feeling of foreboding for the trip back. Coming back I calculated I was on an 8:15 pace at the 8 mile mark (I find doing pace calculation arithmetic a good way to occupy my mind during a race), which seemed good but I knew I was facing some hills on the way in. Also at the 8 mile mark, an attractive young woman running next to me chatted me up for awhile (more on that later).

I started to have visions of glory, given my history of negative splitting my races, but the course had different ideas. The hills over the last 3 miles killed me, especially a quarter mile long steep one in the last mile. Halfway up it, my thighs were completely burned out, my heart was about to burst, and I was moving no faster than the old man on the Carol Burnett show (Mrs. Wiggins!) I never walk in my races, but there is always a first time, and I walked up the last half of the hill. That break rejuvenated me enough to run in the last half mile at a decent pace, but the race thrashed me much more than either the 10 miler or the 10k did. I could barely walk to the water and the fresh fruit at the finish line and was moving with a noticeable gimp in any case. Along the way I ran into the young woman who chatted with me at mile 8 and, male pride being what it is, I wiped the grimace off my face, stood up straight, and pretended I wasn't in scorching pain. Fortunately she only talked to me briefly and I could go back to my scowl and hobble.

In the end, I wasn't far off the 8:23 pace, finishing in 1:50:24 at an 8:25 pace. That improves my 8:40 Disney corral pace from the Lazy Lobster. The torture of those last miles did what they were supposed to do, and re-energized my motivation to lose a good chunk of weight before running my next race, the Wicked Half Marathon in Salem on Sept. 20. Assuming I can get down to around 180 lbs by then (a challenge, but I have lost weight at that rate in periods over the last few months and I still have a spare tire), I would then be 14 lbs lighter than when I ran the 10k on the Fourth of July. Could I hold that 8:06 10k pace for the half-marathon? That would get me to about a 1:46 half-marathon. So there is the goal for the Wicked Half Marathon: 1:46.