Harrisburg Half Marathon Race Report

So five days after deciding to race the Harrisburg Half Marathon, I did so.

Reasons:
1) With the same start/finish/parking situation and much of the same course as this November's full Marathon, it seemed to make sense.
2) Though I have another half scheduled at the end of the month, it's a rather hilly half, so I'm not sure how well my time from that will translate into my marathon program.

That being said, I was one week removed from a challenging 20 miles and my taper consisted of running 4 miles easy on Friday (rather than 6 miles tempo), so I wasn't particularly tapered.

I also struggled in my decision as to how to do the race. Though I wanted to pull a 1:36 half prior to my full marathon, I'm also hesitant to get injured or screw myself up from having a good week of training. At the same time, I didn't want to go as slow as my plan for this weekend called for (7:43 pace), so I decided to aim for breaking 1:40, which would be a 7:38 pace.

I also decided to go out real slow, which was also part of the plan.

In the end, here were my splits:
7:42
7:54
7:41
7:42
7:35
7:31
7:34
7:33
7:31
7:27
7:32
7:38
7:32

For a grand total of: 1:40:00:6

Overall, I came in 111/697. 19/69 in my age group.

Looking at the splits, I'm pleased that I was able to hang out for so many miles at 7:32, though I was definitely done at the end... not much left in my tank at all. But that's 2 weeks in a row of beating my long run workout, so for now, I'll keep the marathon goal at 3:15... For now, though I'm beginning to prepare myself for resetting it to 3:20 - the difference being 7:28 per mile and 7:39 per mile.

I had a blast going out slow, though --- and the first 7 miles were awesome easy. Thrilled about the fact that I averaged 7:32 for the last 9 miles. I got in a couple grooves with other runners that lasted a few miles and had a lot of fun up through about the 11 mile mark, when I decided I'd be happy when the damn thing ended. Finally, it did.

Next up, the Hands on House 1/2 Marathon... I'm contemplating doing a 20 next weekend, throw a taper into the the following weekend (when I'm traveling anyway) and hitting the race relatively fresh. That will still give 2 more 20's prior to my marathon, none of them faster than what I've already accomplished.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:57 AM

    Hello.

    You sound like a great runner! Want to go for a jog sometime?

    ReplyDelete

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