Hampton Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Hampton Half marathon and I am pleased with my time of 1:31:40. I ran this race last year and had an awful time. This year I took 13 minutes off my time. Last years race was my slowest half and this year was my fastest. Here is a quick race report. I planned on running this as a training run, so my lead in wasn't ideal... It is actually a little embarassing.


Friday Night
Pizza and Beer and a little wine. Yup, that was the carbo loading. I had three beers and two glasses of wine. Not a lot for the Paul of two years ago, but a real lot for me now.


Saturday
Morning - Breakfast - Left over pizza
Lunch - Chicken Tenders and mashed potatos
Dinner - Valentine's Day - Chicken and 2 glasses of wine. This is ridiculous

Saturday workout - Bike for 1:15. I biked pretty hard. Kept the rpms high, around 90 the whole time.

Sunday - Race Day
Breakfast - Bagel with Peanut Butter - Finally starting to get serious

I got to the race an hour early and did a nice warm up. I have needed to improve on this, so I am pleased with that. I usually start races to tight.

First mile marker and I am 6:50. I am feeling good and then I see Kate and Reggie!! Reggie (my Bullmastif) looks like he is having a ball, but Kate is trying to take pics and handle the 140lb pup, so she doesn't have the same enthusiasm as Reggie. Brings a smile to my face.

This was the last time I looked at my watch. I felt good, but did not feel like stressing over my time. Over the next mile or two I get passed by what seemed like 30 people.

At around mile 3, I am trailing 2 women who are obviously in a race within the race. Their running style is completely different and so is the body types. One women might be five feet and 100lbs. The other is around 5'8 and closer to 135lbs. Short and wired vs tall and power. The pace they are running at is just above comfortable for me, so they are great to pace off of. I believe it was around mile 5 and I hear the shorter of the two kind of mumble "oh shit" after looking at her watch. She then picks up the pace. She was obviously off her time. The other women follows the call and picks it up as well. This was my cue to pick it up too.

After two minutes of the new speed, we hit one of the only hills in the race. This was a wrench in the gear for the smaller racer. Her breathing got really heavy and she fell off. We had a right turn down the road and I then passed the other women and was on my way.

This whole time I was also running with two other men. One of the two was what I call a "leaner". I was on the inside and he kept leaning in towards me. I could feel myself getting annoyed, but kept my cool. It really does drive me nuts though. I pushed my elbows out a little and just kept my ground. The "leaner" and I continue to run side by side for another couple miles.

At mile 8 a younger guy caught up with us and we all picked up the pace. The "leaner" looks over to me and asks if I have an extra gel. Extra gel? I forgot to bring any gel at all. I politely respond "no, sorry" and we continue to run. He smiles and says "no problem". It is then that I realize his leaning in isn't him being a jerk, he probably just didn't realize he was doing it.

Right around the 8.5 mile, the "leaner" looks over and says, that was just a 6:18 mile! That is too fast for me and I think he felt the same way. I don't think we wanted to, but we backed off the pace a little. Now I am dieing to see where we are for time, but refuse to look at my watch. I knew if I checked the time and a sub 1:30 was possible, I would have pushed way too hard. It was killing me to not look though.

At mile 9 there is a water station and gels. For some reason I skip the gels and grab the water. I am trying to force myself to take water at every aid station to practice for my triathlon races. I tend to skip too many or get water galosh in the gut. Everything I do that isn't a tri race, is in preperation for a race. So skipping the gel was a bad training move, but I learned something for my future races. Point taken.

The last 4 miles were a nice run along the ocean. The leaner and I are still neck and neck the whole way. I let him get in front of me and pace off him the whole way back to the last mile. I could really of used a gel. I am slightly light headed and a little off. My legs felt pretty good considering the point in the race. My achilles was acting up some, so I was a little nervous about that. My thighs had a slight burn, but I was glad to see they were firing. In the past I had been running with my hamstrings way too much.

At mile 12.5 I see Kate again, this time no Reggie. Apparently somebody got brought home... Great to see Kate for motivation. I can see the finish line and I am still pacing off the leaner. I know I can pass him and take it home, but I don't do it. He was a runner and he was running this race. For myself this was a training run that I ran hard. Not much glory difference between 47th and 48th.

After the finish line the leaner and I shake hands and congratulate each other. Good race.

I hit a couple tough points in the run and couldn't help but think about the Ironman. If a half feels tough, then how is that going to feel. It just makes every training session that much more important to me. The last mile of the race sucked, but I was thinking about how it is going to feel when I run down the shoot at Lake Placid and hear the words, "Paul Cavanaugh, you are an Ironman"