After the planewreck of a marathon, I decided I’d do something easier. For some idiotic reason “sign up for a half marathon with a ginormous fucking hill” was the first thing that came to mind.
Training for the race was Hal Higdon’s Advanced Half Marathon Plan with modifications to move the long run to Friday and keep Sunday as a rest day. I missed one day – a Friday that was supposed to be a long run was moved to Saturday because I was fixing my car, and the Saturday 3 mile recovery was skipped. I did not use any pace goals for any runs, which is different from last time.
On race weekend, it was rainy and chilly. I started out the day before the race with my son’s soccer tournament final. It was a great game – the team they were playing has had their number all season (they’ve played three times, lost 3-0, lost 3-1, and tied 2-2) and after going down by a point the team rose up to score two, one of them on a penalty kick and the other from a corner kick that was kicked in.
Race morning started early – I woke up with plenty of time to eat a bagel and leisurely get ready prior to driving downtown. However, it was quickly thrown into disarray due to a watch failure.
I tried a few things to hopefully get the watch to work – a reboot and a reset via the app, but neither worked. I did wear the watch to (and through) the race and hoped that in the 40 minute commute to a parking spot someone would post a fix to the Coros User Group, but alas, the most helpful was “contact support” (which I did later that day).
I made it to downtown a little more than an hour prior to race start time, and made my way to the starting area to drop off my bag, use a port-o-let, and hang out (giving me a chance to talk with a Twitter friend and talk to someone in the starting corral).
The race went off… however my talking with another runner in the corral prior to the race meant that I forgot to take a Gatorade gel before the race. I was tempted to take it in the first mile (and maybe I should have), but I didn’t. I kept a good-but-fast pace through the first five miles, ending that set of miles with a salute to a WLWT Camera and anchorwoman. Somewhere through here, there was a clock and I was mostly on-pace.
Then came three miles of climbing. I tried to keep my effort in range without overdoing the hill. During the hill, the 1:40 HM pacers caught up with me. I asked them if they were on pace, and they indicated about a minute behind. After the split, I started pushing a little more knowing that the hills are smaller and kept with them. During the downhill, I pushed a little and passed them. I did see a clock somewhere through this, and my mid-race math made me think I was close to pace (and somehow I was right). They kept with me – catching and then me pushing harder and putting some (not a lot) of distance on them. Down Eggleston (MM ~12.2 – ~12.9), they called to me that if they kept ahead of them, I should be around 30 seconds early. So I did. I pushed HARD through the remainder of Eggleston, up Pete Rose Way and up Mehring Way (seriously, fuck you Cincinnati for having these uphills where we want downhills!). Throughout this time, they were calling out time to finish (e.g. “four minutes left!”). When the finish line and gun time came in sight, I pushed as hard as I could and passed under a second before it clicked 1:40:00. Final time: 1:39:48.
Needless to say, I hung by the finish line for a few seconds for the pacers to cross and thanked them since they were the only semblance of time I had AND because they were pushing me.
Post Race and What’s Next
I spent the post-race talking to some of the Brew Runners of Cincinnati, which happened kinda accidentally – I saw the picture of a Streetside canopy on Instagram and made a joke about getting a real beer from them, and they did! The unfortunate thing about hanging and drinking was getting stung by a yellow jacket.
Next race is the Cincinnati Hungry Turkey Half Marathon, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That course will be significantly easier than the Pig!