Swanzey Covered Bridges Half Marathon
Not the race I wanted, but the race I needed.
Swanzey Half Marathon Race Report
Pre-Race:
Things went as planned; woke up at 525, came downstairs and prepped for breakfast, made coffee, went to bathroom per normal. No differences in morning routine, although timing of coffee was a little late, and had to take half of the mug on the road.
Had a redbull around 815, and drank that until about 835. Didn’t finish it, but drank most of it. It was a small red bull, ~80mg caffeine.
Did a decent warm up, ran around a bit for about 8 minutes, got the HR up. Did lost of stretching before I warmed up. Used the Theragun to blast the legs for a bit, used the stick roller very briefly. Did more stretching post warm up run while waiting in line for race to start.
Race:
When the gun went, I was at the front with about 4 other people who were moving. The lead pack of 3 ran off without me, they ended up running sub 1:15 for the whole race. I paced with them briefly at the beginning, but pulled back on the reigns quickly when I realized they were running close to 6min/mi pace. My first mile was the fastest, and then it was pretty much downhill from there.
I didn’t have any muscular discomfort like in races past, this race was really a mental game. My aerobic system was clearly the worst, muscularly I was doing fine, but I had a hard time just being efficient.
I missed the first turn around mile 2, right after the aid station. I should have been paying closer attention. They gave me my water and I continued to keep running, but ran right past the turn. It was a bad place for an aid station, but I understand why the placed it there, since they were diverting the race course and wanted to ensure people would turn (which clearly I am more stubborn than most people). I rerouted myself after I heard them shouting (thank goodness I wasn’t wearing headphones). I think I only lost about 1 minute max due to this error.
Upon further review, I definitely added no more than 15 seconds with my mistake. Great recovery! Its wild just how close all the other runners were behind me, and how that few second turn around put me back multiple places. I was sitting squarely in 4th overall prior to my error, and then had to recover catch at least 4-5 people to get back to close to where I was. I was not passed for the remainder of the race from this point on.
Around mile 4-5 my headspace was drifting towards… Holy shit, I’ve got 8 more miles left. My HR was averaging around 175, which was my goal, but it was hard. My body was dealing OK, but it was getting much harder per mile than I anticipated.
At some point after things settled back down after the missed turn, I set my eyes on trying to catch another athlete. Some lady wearing a yellow top. I spent a long time chasing this lady, and ultimately was unable to pass here before the finish line. I overlapped with her a few times at aid stations, but she would always pull away and I was unable to close. The tactic I used to finish out the race was to just hold onto her pace. I was really struggling to keep the motivation to push myself, and having someone who was running a very similar pace was key in my finish for the day.
As the end of the race grew closer, I had no kick. I was really struggling to hold on, and resorted to counting 0.1 mile increments beginning at 12.25 miles remaining.
At the end of the day I didn’t have any real abdominal issues (no cramping or GI distress), although I was close to cramping a few times in the gut. I had not muscular cramps until the last half-to-quarter mile where I looked behind me, and both calves almost seized up.
My feet did not go numb, although, my left 2nd toe did get very sore from rubbing on the front of my left shoe. It would appear that these shoes are either not long enough, or were too loose for what I needed and as a result my toes were getting a little jammed. My right foot had some minor numbness on the outside/pinky toe area due to the narrowness of the shoes, but there was nothing serious.
Nutrition
I had a caffeinated gel around 12 minutes before race start, which was late for what I wanted/planned. Didn’t seem to have any negative affects.
I had 1 cup of water at each aid station, beginning at mile 2, and continued for every 2 miles through mile 12. I would take a mouth full and then dump the rest on my head. I did not walk any of the aid stations, but I did slow down a bit to ensure I got the water on board.
I had my gels every 25 minutes, and this didn’t seem to have any negative affects on the stomach, although I was not at all in the mood for gels when I took them. As the day progressed I was getting hot and my effort was so high that I was really not hungry for any gels. But I pushed through and ate them at the correct intervals.
I had 1 salt lick at 4 miles, 2 salt licks at 8 miles, and 1 salt lick at 12 miles. Given that my calves did cramp but a bit near the end, I would increase the salt licks to at least 2 licks every 4 miles for next time, or perhaps spread it out more and have 1 lick every 2 miles. This alternative may increase the total salt licked though.
Post Race Thoughts:
Something that Sammy brought up in the car ride after the race was that I am 10 pounds heavier than I was last time I raced. Interesting! Yes, this is true, and yes, that would have a complicated effect on my race performance. According to some discussion on Runner’s World, it seems reasonable to expect that we add 1.4 seconds per mile, for each pound of weight extra. This obviously neglects the type of weight (muscle/fat), but we’ll go with it. This would reason that under the same fitness, but 10 less pounds, I would have run 183 seconds faster, or about 3 minutes faster (about 11sec faster per mile).
Lessons learned:
Spend more time cross training in other sports to increase aerobic capacity
It was clear that I need to work my aerobic system, and utilize a high percentage of my threshold. If my 5K PR is under current fitness levels, then clearly I have the top end, but my functional use of that threshold is not efficient.
Keep running with this new body weight (train the added muscle to move fluidly).