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Battery Kinzie

Saturday 19th November Half marathon race - 1:33:50 (PB)

I won't bore you all with the details, but I loved this race. As I mentioned in earlier posts, all the calculators were pointing towards a time of around 1:32 - 1:34 depending on which calculator and which race distance I used to predict. I also did a 'predictor' workout which I ran at a 1:35 pace and felt good throughout, but still I didn't really believe I had it in me, so I went out a bit conservatively.

Kilometers 1-8

Planned to run these all at about 4:35 to 4:40 min/km pace as I was afraid of going out too early and blowing up, especially with a headwind and a couple of kilometers on the beach on the way back. I was feeling great and felt like stepping up after a few K, but I told myself to wait til 8k before reassessing my pace (an idea I stole from the Novices thread with their 10-10-10 strategy, only I adjusted it to 5mile-5mile-5k).

Kilometers 8-16

Had a bit of a chat with another runner for a few minutes and kinda noticed how easy it was to talk to him (he sounded well too), so I decided to pick it up a bit. Put in a string of kilometers from 9k-15k which were all 4:20-4:29, and still felt good. Kilometer 16 came on the beach, and my pace suffered here as I drifted towards 4:40, but I still felt like I had a good bit to give, but I was still a bit wary of giving too much, so I held on for a kilometer split of 4:33.

Kilometers 16 to Finish

A bit of adding in my head told me that 1:35 was well within reach, but there was still a danger of losing it if I lost too much time on this fecking beach. Try as I might, I just couldn't get back to the low 4:20s on the sand, so I had to settle for a 4:31 17th kilometer. But once I got off that beach, I noticed the difference immediately. I got a kick straightaway, probably a mixture of knowing that I was done with that beach, and that I was on the final straight. Just over 3k to go, and I still felt I had energy left in the tank. I noticed here that I hadn't been passed by anyway since the halfway point, and I got another buzz off this as I passed another couple on the bridge off the beach. Finally I felt like I could give it the whole hog without being fearful of blowing up. Finished the last 3k in 4:15, 4:08 and 3:55, with a finishing time of 1:33:50.

I was obviously very tired by the end, but to be honest I probably could've tacked another low 4 minutes kilometer to the end of it, though not much more. I felt really good in that final straight. But overall I wouldn't have ran the race any differently, which is pretty much a first for me. I possibly could've picked up the pace a bit earlier and shaved 30 seconds off, but probably not much more. It felt almost too easy in the early miles, but I was for once sensible enough to hold off and keep the pace steady.


Another victory for the race time predictors!

tailgunner

Brilliant stuff. Sounds like a very well-executed race.

Wubble Wubble

Well done, that course always looks easy with the lack of hills, but it's deceptively tough, as I've found to my cost on more than one occasion!

Battery Kinzie

Cheers both. It's not an easy course no, that beach on the way back is tough with the headwind that is generally always a factor. Nothing even resembling shelter either.