Race Recap: Banco Half Marathon, Chicago, 9/14/2008

Well, the Banco Half came and went. The conditions were less than ideal - a strong wind, rain, and cold temperatures made my half marathon debut an interesting race. Mile splits are below:

Mile 1: 9:06
Mile 2: 17:18 (8:11)
Mile 3: 25:44 (8:26)
Mile 4: 34:20 (8:36)
Mile 5: 42:46 (8:25)
Mile 6: 51:16 (8:29)
Mile 7: 1:00:24 (9:08)
Mile 8: 1:08:16 (7:51) <- ?!?!
Mile 9: 1:17:10 (8:54)
Mile 10: 1:26:27 (9:17)
Mile 11: 1:37:01 (10:34) <- bathroom break
Mile 12: 1:46:24 (9:22)
Mile 13.1: 1:56:26 (10:02 for 1.1 mile)

My plan for pacing was anywhere between 8:20 a mile and 9:10 a mile for the first 10 miles, and then I would see what I had left in the tank for the last 5K. I wanted to start slowly for the first 4 or 5, as well.

You can see that I took it easy for the first mile, mainly out of necessity due to the massive number of runners. Miles 2-6 were just about where I wanted them to be, but then Mile 7 was a little bizarre, for whatever reason. I recall cramping up a bit in my quads around the seventh mile marker, so I tried to pick it up over the 8th mile to compensate. Obviously, I overshot by running a 7:51 mile, much faster than I would have preferred at that point.

I really started to feel it after the 7:51 mile, as evidenced by miles 9 and 10, and also started to feel the pasta, cookies, and oranges I ate the night before the race (I wasn't able to fully digest the food by the onset of the race). I limped through the last three miles.

My new insoles never arrived - they'll probably get here tomorrow. The knees definitely hurt this afternoon, but not as badly as I feared they would, and I should be running again tomorrow or Tuesday morning. I did notice, though, that my legs felt more banged up in the later miles than they did during my two 13.1 mile training runs. So I suspect that the new insoles would have helped improve the last 5K of today's race. Some new Asics would have been even better.

Overall, I was satisfied with the race. I thought I had a serious shot to go sub-1:50 today, but the beat up shoes, old insoles, difficult conditions, and strain of carrying my meal from last night were a bit much to overcome. It's OK, though - this was my first race in more than 4 years, and, as my races always are, it was a terrific learning experience and the sheer magnitude of the event was something completely novel. Of the factors that hampered my performance, all but one (the extreme weather) were preventable, and should be nonfactors in my next race.

So, in the end, I've learned the following:

1) I need to eat less food earlier in the evening the night before a half marathon. I also need to attempt to use the same eating patterns for my long training runs that I do for the eventual race so that I can tweak my eating habits as needed.
2) I need to arrive at the race earlier than I did today, and I shouldn't walk to the race. I walked from my place to the starting line, a good 12-15 block walk, after meeting with two of my classmates who also ran the race. On a day like today, with the flooding and winds, spending time walking around with water-logged shoes before a race even begins is tremendously energy-consuming.
3) I need to improve my pure foot speed. I basically jumped from my winter training plan, which was used simply to get back into shape, to the half plan without doing any basic 5K workouts. I don't have any idea what my 5K time is right now, but I'm guessing it's at least 22:00 or 23:00. If I could shave some minutes off that before my next training cycle, especially by utilizing a training plan that maintained at least 60 min long runs on Sundays, than my next distance race should be a significant improvement over the Banco Half.
4) I need to make sure my shoes/insoles are sufficient.
5) I need to make sure my gear is ready to go. My Suunto heart rate monitor died about 1/4 in the race, and I suspect it was the battery of the watch (I changed the heart rate strap battery two weeks ago). If the last 5K of this race was problematic due to endurance issues, they likely could have been remedied by simply having a functional heart rate monitor.

Overall, my self-grade for the race was a B+ (or an A-, even, given the conditions). There are two shorter races coming up this fall that will finish up my fall training cycle: the Chicago Men's Health Urbanathlon, which I'm running as a tri with two of my class mates, and (potentially) an 8K, the Hyde Park Gargoyle Gallop. Then it's on to winter, and then hopefully a 5K or two, a spring half, and (maybe) a full marathon.