It seemed like a good idea at the time....Steamboat Half Marathon Race Report

When this Schwaggle deal popped up in my inbox - I briefly mulled it over.   $33  $26 (I'm an active.com member and get 20% off the deal price!) entry fee to the Steamboat Half Marathon - that's a smoking deal!!

Yeah - it would be 2 weeks after the Brooklyn Half, but after Brooklyn I wasn't going to be "training" anymore.   My life would be: run when I feel like it, mtn bike when I want, eat, sleep.  No more running "speed" workouts and no more progressively faster "steady state runs".    Just playing hard...or not....

So, I jumped on the deal thinking since it's "mostly" downhill that it would be my  "fun" half marathon to kick off my summer of playing...

I checked out the elevation profile on www.halfmarathons.net and noticed the 1070 feet of elevation loss.  woohoo!  For some reason I failed to note the 764ft of elevation gain and totally ignored the fact it would be at the altitude of 7000+.    Yeah - perfect recipe for being easy and fun, eh??

Here's the actual course info recorded by my garmin - the climbing actually started late in mile 7 not mile 8 as depicted on the half marathon.net site.   Oh and its 820 feet elevation gain - not 764.  ;)

Race plan and goals

I didn't really have any specific time goals.  Since I have knocked out my sub-2 hour half,  I didn't feel the need to prove anything to myself.  I really haven't rested and with my big mtn bike ride last weekend - I had no idea how my legs would feel without a proper taper.   I figured my time would be anywhere between 1:57 -  2:15.

The one race plan goal I did have in place was to NOT negative split.  I have negative split my  previous 4 races and as result think I might have been too conservative.   At this race I would go out at a pace that would make me wonder if I could sustain and if I died at the end...so be it.   I wanted to know what going out "too hard" would cost me.  Would my legs die?   Would my fueling (200+ calories per hour) hold up?   Would my mental toughness wither away into nothing? 

The start & miles 1 -3

I had set the alarm to 5am and when it went off.  I had absolutely no anxiety or nervousness about this race as I got myself up and ready.

The weather was predicted to be 48 degrees at the start and warming up to high 50s by the finish.  There was a 6:15 bus that drove us up the course for the 7:30am start.   As we drove along, I paid attention to the terrain and noticed it was very rolling - by no means a straight downhill.   It was really beautiful.   I made a note to myself to enjoy the scenery during my run.

The crowd was super mellow and the race started exactly on time.

Mile 1 clicked by at 8:35 - I felt ok - I was hoping when I hit a downhill that I would be able to really up the pace.   After mile 2 clicked by I started feeling grumpy.  Nothing really hurt and my pace still felt ok, but I think seeing the people up ahead on the rollers that went uphill - that's when I realized it wasn't going to be an easy downhill run.  Mile 2 clicked by at 8:48.

I was still feeling grumpy during mile 3 and when it clicked by at 8:58,  I got mad at myself for being such a wuss.   It didn't matter what the terrain was like (hilly, downhill, straight up) I had 10 more miles to go and I better clear out that junk in my mind and start moving!

Miles 4-10

Mile 4 had a nice little downhill (and helped reset my attitude) and I cranked that one out at 8:41.  Much better.  Mile 5 had 100ft of uphill and 138ft of downhill and was 8:51.

These are the miles when I'm usually feeling my best and so I focused on form breathing and not letting up on the pace.  Mile 6 had 128 of uphill and 141 of downhill and it clicked by at 8:50.   Mile 7 was mostly downhill and I knocked that one out at 8:47.

Miles 8 - 10  were some hard miles.   Mile 8 and 9 seemed steeper than the previous rollers.   They had actual hills not just rollers as the previous miles did and that showed up in my pace.  Mile 8 was 9:27 and mile 9 was my slowest of 9:53.  I finally crested the hill before the last downhill at mile 10 and that was 9:25.

Miles 11 - 13.18

My legs were not feeling perky at this point and were getting downright tired.  My fueling seemed to serve me well and I could tell they were just fatigued, but not glycogen depleted.  So that was good.   Mile 11 had a really nice downhill and I cranked that one out at 8:35!   woot!

We were rounding the corner heading back into town at this point the course leveled off - my tired legs managed a 9:17 during mile 12.   I survived mile 13 by just trying to slowly pass the person in front of me - it seemed like everyone was suffering at this point.  I also saw if I held a 9:30 pace for this last bit, I could eek out a sub-2 hour half marathon!     Mile 13 was 9:23 and the last .18 was at a 8:57 pace - that was all I had.

Garmin stats: 13.18 miles -  1:59:11 - 9:03 minute per mile pace.  Official time was 1:59:14.

Aftermath

Holy Moly!!  That was a hard and tough course!!!  Of the 3 half marathons I have raced - this hands down is the hardest.   Those rollers at the beginning were challenging and then the actual hills during miles 8 -10 really put the hurt on me.    It was a much harder course than the Platte (153 elevation gain) or even the Brooklyn (414 elevation gain, but at sea level).   Mentally I wasn't quite ready for it but after my attitude adjustment I was able to accept it and deal with it.

I am extremely happy to have sneaked in another sub-2 hour half.  Do it at the average altitude at 7000ft above sea level - hells yeah!

I have to think more on the going out hard and fading at the end.  This probably wasn't the best course to test it out on. I'm thinking that if I can do a sub-2 hour on this course, I can do MUCH better on a more PR friendly course with the proper taper.

The 1st half of the race:  58:03.  The 2nd half: 61:21.   I was over 3:18 slower on the last half of the race.  Interesting to me.

Obviously, I wasn't tapered - my decoupled rate is over 5%.  Also, interesting to me.

Today (Monday - the day after) I am hurting.  My quads are ok, but my hamstrings and groin muscles are sore.  Thankfully, they only feel sore and not injured, so maybe by tomorrow I won't be hobbling around so much...

8th out of 44 in AG - (18%).
145th out of 581 in gender - (25%)

Garmin Splits

Oh and the race ended up costing me $161 (hotel, gas, $26 entry fee).  Hmm...wonder if that schwaggle was such a good deal after all....  ;p

Thoughts on the 50-59 age group

There were 44 women in my Age group!!!  That makes me so happy.  In mtn biking, we might get 2 or 3 girls that are over 50  and if there are 5 girls in this AG it's like a huge field.   I would much rather finish mid-pack in a race than to automatically get on the podium because I'm the only one that showed up.   And seeing women running so strong is very motivating.

Plus, this was a tough course and for 44 of us 50+ers to come out and throw down is amazing to me.

The field was STRONG.  The AG winner finished in 1:35:06!   She was an astounding 6th overall in the women's field.   Definitely inspiring and humbling.

oh yeah!

Upcoming...

Next up is the Slacker Half Marathon on June 23.   The course profile is as follows:  a whopping 2170 of descending and only 561 of climbing.   And oh yeah - the course starts at 10,630ft above sea level and ends at 8400ft above sea level.   fun times!