race for the roses half marathon

the first race since august's 5k in the park.  i have tried to find a half marathon to race in this marathon training cycle for two reasons.  first, to feel what my target pace will feel like in an actual race environment.  second, to hit 1:15 or under so that i can register as an elite at the eugene marathon.  it is now three weeks until the marathon and this was the only half that my busy schedule could afford.  so it is cutting it close.

i slept well the night before because i knew that the result was out of my hands.  i knew that i was more than fit enough to hit the time.  the big factor for this race would be my right inner thigh.  this annoying injury that has been plaguing my running for the past two weeks.  it has caused me to shorten my stride, especially downhill.  this forces me to work harder for slower times.

half the week last week, i stuck to the bicycle.  on thursday i ran for three miles at a slow face.  friday four.  saturday three, but this time at my actual easy pace.  if i had a few more days, i would be more confident.  it's a variable, a question.  will it keep together?  will it loosen up?  or will tighten up causing me to slow down, or stop completely, and bring about an even greater injury that will prevent me from running the eugene marathon?

but since, as i said, this was out of my control, i fell promptly asleep.

the alarm woke me up at 4:00am.  first thought that hits my head.  why am i doing this?  who is making me?  every now and again in the midst of my training, these questions and doubts surround me.  attempting to bring me down and cloud my resolve.  i push them along with my covers away and begin the pre race morning routine.

i start the water boiling for my espresso.  bread is placed in the toaster oven.  i viciously stab my red potato and cook it in the microwave.  the toast is done, almond butter, fruit only blueberry jelly.  potato is done, cut into small bite size pieces and sprinkled with garlic salt.  water is boiling, i pull my shot of espresso.

next to the bathroom.  toilet, shower, dressed.

i'm in the living room stretching out my leg.  it feels good, loose, flexible.  i'm packed and ready.  the clock in the hall reads 5:05 when mr. box drives up in his honda hybrid as silent as the morning.

we're on the road, making great time.  trying to calm each others nerves with talks of past races, future glories, and strategies.  we are absentmindedly talking and only half way listening.  our minds our on the upcoming pain, wondering if we have what it takes.

we're in the parking garage looking for the elevators.  one hour until race time.  finding the elevators, walking through the building, towards exhibit hall A, taking escalators whenever possible.

we're picking up our race packets.  one more stop to the bathroom.  a warm up in my pants and long sleeves.  a few sprints, a few stretches, a few high knees, a few butt kicks.  i would look foolish anywhere else but here.  a large box of a room crowded with nearly 5,000 spandex-ed runners twisted in pretzel shapes, shaking away anxieties, pinning numbers, packing gels.

over the speakers a voice blares:  20 minutes until the half marathon begins.  i'm shedding clothing, stripping down to the very bear minimum packing the rest into a plastic bag with my number on it, handing it to a volunteer, exiting the building.  12 minutes left.

i'm outside in the cold trying to stay warm in my skimpy singlet and short shorts and 99 cent wall-mart gloves that i will throw away mid course.  a perfect day for a race.  a little cloud cover, no wind, no rain, just slightly chilly.  i continue to stretch, wondering what this leg will do when the race starts.

i look around at those who have stepped beyond the 7:00 minute mile pace sign.  this is my competition.  these are the ones that will pull me along as things get tough.

and now the countdown from the announcer.  from ten . . . just enough time to take a deep breath, focus, relax, before i push the start on my garmin.  and we are off.

instantly the lead pack is formed.  six to eight of us.  we turn a corner and there is a slight but steep hill that spits us out on the broadway bridge.  i take a quick peek at the garmin to mark my pace.  5:20's.  we went out too fast as is the common mistake in most races.  i start to back off a bit, four people pass me as i settle into a 5:42 pace.  this is where i want to be regardless of the competition especially for the first six miles.

as we cross the bridge those four people slow down considerably, i pass them easily maintaining my pace and speeding up slightly on downhill after the bridge.  and from this early point, right around the first mile marker (which i didn't see) the places are settled for the next 11 miles.  in first place a man from arizona who completely defeats the rest of us.  in second place a man who will later become disqualified for turning around at the 5k and cuts the course short by a mile.  in third place a porltand fellow sporting a red and black racing outfit declaring himself as a member of team red lizard.  i am behind this guy at fourth.  his singlet becomes my focus.  i use him just as much as my garmin for pace imagining a great cable spanning the 30 seconds or so that separate us.

now we are hitting our second hill.  at the base of the hill, i am still comfortably at my 5:42 pace, leg feels great.  we start the climb.  it's a long hill that continually steepens until the end.  one of those hills that is completely laid out before you, the kind that would defeat you if it were at the end of the race.  i attack it conservatively.  not worrying about pace so much as effort.  at the top, my garmin reads a 5:49 average.  i have some time to make up.

but here is the problem.  i can't fully extend my right leg.  i can't make up that time as quickly as i would like, as quickly as i could do in perfect health.  i try to relax, to glide down the hill, to make it smooth, to speed up without effort but the seconds come off so slowly.

and now we are in the body of the race, twisting and turning through downtown portland.  team red lizard nearly misses a rogue bicyclist through a tricky maneuver.  every time we turn left, we go uphill, every time we turn right we go downhill.  it's too hilly, my leg is still too stiff, i can't make up my time.  this is a point of great despair as doubt enters my mind.  at mile 6, i shed my gloves.  at 6.5 i take my first and only gel.  i'm just trying to relax through this section, to focus, to stay with team red lizard, to keep hope.

and now we are on the last section.  two turn arounds, all on flat road.  this is where i have to return to my 5:42 pace.  surprisingly, i get there quicker than when going downhill.  after the first turn around, i draw encouragement from how spaced out i am from 5th place and 6th place.  this is when i start to focus my mind, to prepare for the final 3.1 miles, when the real race begins.

it's mile 9 and i began the first of my four images.  i push lap on my garmin for the first time.  i speed up slightly.  i am slowly gaining on team red lizard.  this continues through mile 9 and 10 as we are weaving through a crowd of 5k walkers.

then we come to the final turn around with just a little over a mile to go.  red lizard takes it wide, i go on the inside.  for a second we are side by side.  then the last mile comes.  the final image and i am pushing hard.  10k and 5k walkers converge taking over the lanes, laughing, walking, enjoying the beautiful day.  i continue to push, forgetting about red lizard, forgetting about the pain, just the push.

and then the steel bridge.  the final, shortest, and steepest ascent on the course.  the hill and the walkers crowding the inside turn slow me down.  the course narrows.  i am pushing through them, bobbing, weaving, breaking stride, but still pushing.

down the last little hill we go and turn the corner for the final straight away, the announcer, the crowds, the final mat, and the digital display clock over the finish.  i look up at it.  it reads . . .

1:14:50

this is madness.  i have to make it.  i have to get under 1:15.  i break into a mighty sprint of desperate death through a sea of walkers.  i run into one hard, i push into another one.  it's almost as though they are holding me back, keeping me from my goal.

and then i cross the mat, it's over, i'm smiling, laughing.

official time . . .

1:14:57
second overall
first in my age group

according to the eugene marathon, i am an elite runner.

rest and patience really works: week 14

sunday, 1 hour bike . . .

monday, 1.2 mile run, 90 min. bike . . .

tuesday, 10 miles . . .

wednesday, 13 miles . . .

thursday, 12 miles . . .

friday, 8 miles . . .

saturday, 20 miles . . .
       . . . 2 mile warm up
       . . . 20 min. @ 5:31 pace
       . . . 10 miles easy
       . . . 10 min. @ 5:31 pace
       . . . half mile easy
       . . . 5 min. @ 5:21 pace
       . . . 1 mile cool down

. . . on the trainer, episodes of lost on hulu, in my garage.  felt like a good workout from a heart rate, effort, sweat perspective.  i just haven't biked enough to know how it translates in the running world.  there just isn't anything else like running.  you can't get that type of fluidity on a bike, too mechanical, too unnatural.  but i am thankful for this option to stay in shape while allowing time for my inner thigh to heal.  i have been using my tp tools to massage it out.  it hurts a ton, so i know that i am hitting it right.  a little sore even to walk this morning.  i may try a shorter, slower run tomorrow on a soft surface as a sort of trial with zero expectations.  if i can only run a mile, i'll come back home and hit up the bike again.  if i can run ten miles that would be great.  this is the hard part.

. . . this morning was a terribly windy, downpour of a morning.  in that respect i should be thankful that i only ran for a little over eight minutes in it.  i've further pinpointed the origin of this right leg pain.  it is higher than i first anticipated.  i finally found it this morning after the workout(s).  its just a very tight muscle that is hard to stretch and hard to massage out.  i finally found something that worked but involved my oldest daughter balancing on my hand.  i need to find a better solution.

during the run, and the reason it was cut so short, i noticed that my gait was drastically askew.  i know that running like this for an extended period of time will only cause other injury and muscle strain elsewhere.  i thought it best to go back home and hit the garage.

cycling.  i'm thankful for it as a cross-training activity.  it gets my heart rate up.  i sweat a ton.  i even had a deep runner's (or rather cyclist's) high afterward.  but it just makes me miss running all the more.

tonight i'll work out that leg as best as i can and give it another test run tomorrow.

. . . much thanks to my wife who helped me push on my trouble spot into near tears last night.  when i woke up this morning, i could feel a difference in my leg even in my walking.  i threw on my tights, jacket, gloves and headed out.  it was freezing.  i went back inside to grab my hat and i'm glad that i did.  oregon threw out all three of it's worst patterns:  rain, wind, and cold, the triumvirate of death, and we're supposed to be in spring!!  more on this later . . .

first i must talk about my leg.  the first half mile was a little clunky, but i consciously kept it slow.  somewhere around a 7:40 pace or so.  somewhere near the end of this half mile, i got a burning sensation in the sorest part of the leg.  it seemed like a healing sort of burning that brought an incredible loosening of the leg.  from here on out i just got faster and faster.  downhills became easier.  my stride continued to lengthen out farther and farther.  by the end of the ten miles (actually with less than a tenth of a mile to go) i had averaged a 7:00 pace without any pain.

so now on to this crazy weather . . . five miles into it, i got really cold.  my hands were numb despite the two pairs of gloves i was wearing (and the outer layer a really thick polar fleece north face pair).  the numbness was spreading down my arms and it seemed to be getting colder and colder.  something caught my eye on my left glove as i was looking at my watch.  it was white and fluffy, sticking up on the black fleece.  i had a thought, dismissed it, and then looked around me and revisited that thought.  snow.  sure it was more of a slush mixed with rain that had no hope of sticking, but it was snow.  crazy.  i was tempted to end at 9 miles because i started to experience shoots of pain running from my thumb up to my bicep.  i was so cold it was starting to hurt.  but my leg felt so great and my pace was speeding up, i had to keep going.  push through the pain to the victory.

. . . another break through with my leg.  again things were a little sore at first but not as slow as yesterday.  things loosened up fairly quickly but i consciously stayed at a slow pace for the first half of the run, just to test things out.  in the middle/end, i noticed some tightness in the leg and some on the lower back on my left side (same sort of thing that started all of this, though not as bad).  another cold morning, another windy morning, but at least no more rain came my way.  i kept speeding up throughout this run and ended up with an average of 6:42.  so i'd say that i'm back but at around 85%.

signed up today for the race for the roses half marathon next sunday morning.  the plan:  11 miles at marathon pace, 2.1 miles at tempo pace.  i don't want to fully race this thing because of how close it is to the marathon in may that i have been training for.  but it will give me a good feel for the pace and if i get a 1:15 (which i'm pretty sure i can do as long as this leg continues to heal), i can register as an elite in eugene.  i don't know what that means but it would be cool.

. . . another huge step in the healing process.  i wasn't expecting much of an improvement from yesterday.  in fact the first half mile felt terrible.  but then suddenly, i started speeding up, almost without my control.  somewhere around the 5 mile mark, i had hit my 6:35 easy pace that i was doing before all of these thigh problems.  i would say that i'm 100% back, but i still notice the leg at times and it still is affecting my stride.

. . . the first half of this run brought fear into my heart and pain into my leg.  i thought that maybe i had pushed too hard too soon, that i didn't ease into this, that i didn't give enough time to heal.  all three of the evil elements were at work, another crazy storm rumbling in bringing cold and a harsh wind pelting unending rain upon my body.  but then there came a point as i was running downhill.  i focused everything i had on lengthening my stride and allowing the flow of the run to take over.  i sped up, the pain went away, and everything was beautiful again (except for the weather).

. . . after talking to a friend of mine, who has run forever and is currently a track coach, i decided to stay off the track for this work out.  he seems to believe that all of these problems i've been having during the season is from all the time of put running in those loops.  i found a nice stretch of road, fairly flat, in an industrial part of town that sees little traffic.

the warm up i was a little bit tight.  i quickly noticed that the wind was here with full force coming from the south.  i knew this was going to be a problem with my little work out because i would have a head wind during the uphill sections.  how fun.

the first attempt at my tempo pace was a difficult one.  i didn't hit my goal of 5:20.  i'm not sure if it was my hip, or that wind, or the bit of incline, or what.  i did notice that in the downhill section my leg wasn't fully extending.  but i finished with the full 20 minutes and actually felt ready to complete my workout afterward despite not hitting my time and the awful weather.

back at my car, i put on my pants which though keeping me warm for these 10 miles also gave me some nice chaffing in the inner thighs.  also some thicker gloves, hat, and jacket.  i quickly got into my easy pace and just settled right into it.  hills, wind, nothing could stop the ease of this pace.  however at the end of those 10, as i sat in my car, cold, tired, soaked to the bone, i had to pull deep within to get the motivation to finish my run.  i think what finally caused me to open the door was thinking about all the training of done so far and how little there is left.  do i really want to give up now?  do i really want to cut short a quality work out when physically i am feeling fine?

my plan called for another 20 minutes at tempo before my cool down.  but with that harsh wind, i just couldn't do it anymore.  i called it good at 10, with another 5 after a short easy pace.  i feel good about that.  i feel ready for this race next week and the marathon in four weeks.  four weeks sounds so close.  but i'm better prepared than i ever have been for a race.