Two years ago, I ran the Hurricane Half Marathon as my first half-marathon and longest race ever. It was truly the hardest thing I’d ever done, including my first, second, third, and fourth marathons. Why?
There is literally a mountain smack dab in the middle of the race.
Don’t believe me? View the coursemap. Still don’t believe me? Read the comments about the race on the Active.com Hurricane Half Marathon 2011 page. The first time I ran this race it was freezing and for-real tough. I finished in 161st place, with a time of 2:24.*
Ouch. I’m surprised I kept running after the most demoralizing finish I’d had in any race so far.
Fast forward two years. I’ve got four marathons under my belt and I decided that it would be “fun” to see how much my running had improved over the past two years. A half-marathon was part of my Windermere training plan (May 19) as a tune-up race, so I decided to give it a shot. But this time, I had a plan.
After a 10 minute warm-up, I’d stretch until the start. For the first five miles, I run an easy 9 minute mile. At mile five, when the epic mountain started, I’d simply walk.
Yes, walk.
The hill lasts for approximately half of a mile, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt me much to take it easy, and run down the other side of the hill with fresh legs. I’d take my first Stinger chews, and eat another every 15-20 minutes. Then I’d push it for the second half of the race, averaging 8 minute (or so) miles.
Pre-race, I felt awesome. Despite two tough workouts on Thursday and Friday, I was in a great mental place for this race. The weather was perfect at 55 degrees and almost no wind. The race began, and I ran it exactly as I’d planned. Easy for the first five miles. Walked up the mountain (at a brisk pace). Fueled on schedule. Ran the heck out of the remaining 7.6 miles.
And PR’ed with a time of 1:56. 30th overall.
Felt amazing. Still feels amazing.
I’m a big advocate of walk breaks in marathon running and training, but I usually mean a system of running 9 minutes, walking one, or other permutations of running a lot, walking a little. This race, I didn’t take regular walk breaks, just one long one in the middle. I learned a valuable lesson during this race. The time to create a race plan isn’t on the fly or during the race. It’s definitely possible to overthink a race/course, but a little preparation and sticking to it goes a long way.
ultrarungal 