Race Report: Kirkland Half Marathon 2007

The plan

This race was a dress rehearsal for my marathon two weeks from today. The plan was to go through a full pre-race routine and then run the race as a training run. My goal was to run the first 10 miles at around 10:30 min/mile pace with some possible variation due to hills. Then depending on how I was feeling at mile 10 I would either continue at 10:30 pace or throw down the hammer and pick up the pace to finish strong. I figured I might finish somewhere around 2:15 which would be a personal worst. The goal of this race was to prepare for the marathon not to race the half.

Pre-race

My alarm went off at 5am and after a quick oatmeal breakfast I was out the door at 5:35am with a lug-a-mug of green tea in my hand. It took two bus rides to get out to Kirkland but the trip went quite smoothly. I arrived at the start at around 6:45 am. I had picked up my chip and bib on Saturday at Road Runner Sports in Green Lake so, thankfully, I didn’t have to join the long packet pick-up line. I checked my bag and did a short warm-up jog and stretch. The weather was cool and cloudy so I wore shorts and a long-sleeved technical shirt. The race was originally scheduled to start at 7:30am but it was delayed because the 7:00 am half marathon walk start had been delayed. I lined myself up between half way between the 10:00 and 11:00 pace signs. While waiting for the start I kept overhearing conversations about the “monster hill” at mile 3. I knew the course was hilly but I’d never actually looked at the elevation profile so I figured I’d just deal with the hills as they came.

Before I start the actual race report check out the graph below. The green line is elevation. Yea, it was hilly. The red line is heart rate and the blue line is pace. You can see how my heart rate and pace responded to inclines. The spikes in the blue pace line are walk breaks taken each mile. According to my Garmin the race was 13.3 miles. I used the automatic split function so I’m just going to report 13 splits and assume the mileage was lost fairly evenly over the course.

Miles 1-5 in 10:34 / 9:54 / 10:19 / 10:24 / 10:20 (avg 10:18 min/mile)

Well I hit my goal pace on mile 1 but that was the only mile I managed to do over 10:30 min/mile. I ran way too fast in mile 2 but after that the hills did the pacing for me and I slowed down. The big hill came during mile 4. I ran up the whole thing and felt pretty good doing so. I took a gel and mile 4 and tried my best to take walk breaks each mile. I didn’t really want to walk but I figured it would be better for me in the long run. I averaged 10:18 min/mile over the first five miles. That’s a bit faster than I planned but overall it was a solid effort.

Miles 5-10 in 10:21 / 10:12 / 9:45 / 9:40 / 10:18 (avg: 10:03 min/mile)

Miles 5 and 6 were mostly uphill but to be honest I hardly noticed. Then miles 7 and 8 were serious downhills and there was nothing I could do but go with it. I tried hard to relax on the downhills and not completely trash my quad muscles. I took my second gel at mile 9 and then tried to relax through the last mile. I averaged a pace of 10:03 min/mile over the second five miles. This was much faster than I’d planned. I blame the downhills.

Miles 11-13.1 in 10:01 / 9:40 / 9:18

Once I hit mile 10 I decided that it was time to pick up the pace and see what my legs were made of. They felt a bit tight but they responded when I asked them to. The final uphill of the race came during mile 12. I rocked up that hill while most of the runners around me were slowed down to a walk. At the top of the hill there was a policewoman directing traffic and cheering on the runners. She said something along the lines of “it’s all downhill from here.” Now, occasionally when running a race, spectators will lie about things like that so I was sceptical.

I had just caught up to a runner who I’d been leap frogging with all race so I asked her if she knew if this downhill statement was true. I will refer to this runner as Luna-girl because she was wearing a Luna bar tri top. Anyway she confirmed that the rest of the course was downhill or flat and then we got to talking. We actually chatted the whole way through the final mile while running a 9:18 pace! She was coming back from a hamstring injury and I explained that I was running a marathon in two weeks so we were both taking this race easy. When we got to the finishing chute Luna-girl suggested we sprint to the finish. We both poured it on for the last 75 metres and it was pretty clear that we both had a lot left in our legs because we were flying. Most of the other runners were cruising into the finish so the crowd and announcer got pretty excited to see a spring finish. We crossed the line neck and neck and then exchanged a high five and a hug and wished each other good luck. I’ll probably never see Luna-girl again but I really enjoyed running that last mile with her.

My chip time was 2:10:51 which is a personal worst by 5 seconds. I ran faster than I’d anticipated but I felt good doing it so I’m happy with my result.

Post-race

After the race I got my race medal and goody bag and then picked up my checked bag and immediately changed into warm clothes. I walked around the booths at the finish line (and got free running hat!) and then sat on the grass stretching and pounded back a litre of water and a banana. I had a half hour to kill before the next bus was coming. I was a little chilly and really wanted to put something hot in my stomach so I decided to do the natural thing after running a half marathon in Kirkland. I followed the stream of runners heading towards the local Starbucks. I don’t know if they knew there was a race going on and put on extra staff but I have to hand it to them, it was a model of Starbuck efficiency. I had a pumpkin scone and grande extra-hot non-fat vanilla latte and it tasted so good!

The numbers

Chip time: 2:10:51
Pace: 10:00
Overall place: 405/643
Division (F25-29) place: 40/67
Sex place: 193/386