I raced the New Balance Chilly Half Marathon last weekend in Burlington. It was my first half and it went well.
In 2017 when I started running again I was 230 lbs and very out of shape. By Spring 2018 I managed a couple of performances I’m proud of at the Around The Bay 30k (2:26) and the Sulphur Springs 50km trail ultra (5:40). But I lost motivation afterwards.
Aside from stresses associated with having had another kid (this little cutey), I’d say the main culprit for my lack of motivation was intermittent fasting, which I did for 9 months (no calories for 16 hours a day, 5 days a week). Ironically, I was doing this as a way to drop weight in order to get faster. But the experiment instead left me lacking energy and motivation. I learned a lot but definitely wouldn’t recommend endurance athletes do any fasting.
Eventually I started jogging (and eating like a normal human) again and by the end of 2019 I’d built my mileage up to 60km per week (90-95% easy running at 5:40-6:10/km pace). By that point I was considering goals for 2020. (I wrote about that here.)
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| Warming up before the Chilly Half |
But on top of my main goal of staying very consistent, why not race each of the main road race distances in 2020: 5k & 10k, half & full marathon? I’d be guaranteed a personal best time just by finishing because I’ve never raced them seriously before. Maximum self-knowledge under minimum pressure.
So I recently started working with coach Kevin Moore (Kinplus) on a training program for the road marathon (my long term focus) and told him I wanted to race the upcoming Chilly Half. For several weeks now I’ve been following “the program”.
Originally my plan for the half-marathon in 2020 was just to get out there and show some fitness, hopefully getting under 1:45. I guess the base training I’d put in plus the few weeks with Kevin (who is a 1:11 half marathoner) led to the much better result of 1:38.00.0 (1:37 if I’d just leaned! Gah!)
The race plan was: since 4:45/km pace seems plausible, try to stick close to the 1:40 pace group (4:45/km pace), hopefully increasing the pace with 5k to go. I didn’t execute quite right. I never saw the 1:40 pacer in the corral and ended up ahead. I instead ran the whole race in and around 1:38 / 4:38/km pace.
In the second half of the race a sort of mantra came to me, which I repeated to myself over and over: Don’t fold. PRESS!
Finally with 5km to go I tried to make my big move and my body responded very badly forcing me to shut down. As I slipped back I glanced at my watch: 5:00/km pace. Dear Lord. Here we go. I was worried it was lights out. Thankfully I was able to work my pace back up gradually while avoiding any further clashes with my physical limit.
My kick with 500m to go was decent in the end so I know I left a dram in the tank (1:37! Dammit!). That doesn’t bother me though because I know my potential is better than 1:37. How much better? That I don’t know but I’m looking forward to figuring it out.