Harrisburg Half Marathon Race Report

So yesterday was the Harrisburg Half Marathon - basically a mini-version of my key race, the November Harrisburg Marathon. It starts in the same place and goes the same directions, just not as far. So it serves as a nice dress rehearsal.

Last year, I ran this one in 1:40 flat as a marathon pace run and promptly freaked out since it didn't feel "easy" to me. So three week's later I ran a different half marathon pretty close to all out in 1:34:32, which fixed my head in time for the marathon.

This year, the plan was to have a nice PR here -- in the 1:31-1:32 range -- so that my head was in good shape heading into the final weeks of marathon training.

And then, during last week's speed workout I hurt my shin, pretty much in the same place where I always hurt it. I went into holycrapIneedtofixthisormyseasonsgoingtohell mode, spending the entire week icing it, wrapping it and putting smelly creams on it. And mostly, I trained through it, though last week was a scheduled cut-back week any way.

Reading that compression is a good thing, I even picked up some compression socks and wore them for most of the week.

Sunday morning, I felt pretty good, but still didn't feel like I was 100%. Ten minutes before the race I asked myself if it was more important to get a 1/2M PR and possibly hurt myself or get to the full marathon healthy in eight weeks. I chose B, and went to the starting line w/ a plan of running a 1:37-1:38 -- two to three minutes faster than last year, but nothing that would jeopardize my health. Dave - far more disciplined than I - had already set himself up with the same goal.

We went out nice and easy with a first mile of 7:40. From there, the idea was to do a steady progression of 7:30's and turn on the gas around mile 10.

For the first four miles, I was really glad I did that, as my legs (underneath the compression socks) felt mighty tight. But then, in the fifth mile, I took a gel and found myself feeling much better. Much looser. And - quite frankly - ready to go.

Though I never planned it, the race became a good progression workout, with all but 2 of the miles being faster than the last. In the end, these were my splits:

7:40
7:27
7:24
7:29
7:24
7:20
7:13
7:09
7:08
7:06
7:06
7:00
7:08

I haven't seen the online results, but my Garmin had me at 1:35:15 -- 42 seconds off last year's PR. While I can't say I had a lot left in the tank by the end, I definitely phoned it in at the beginning, so I'm confident I could've PR'd, had I been willing to risk my shin, which I wasn't.

The best news, of course, is that operation Save-the-Shin was a big success. I have some gentle soreness in my legs today, but my shin is about 98% fine, which I think is amazing, given that effort. I'm going to really focus on tempos and marathon pace stuff over the next eight weeks, since it seems to be the real 5k-10k stuff that causes the pain.

The worst news? Probably that running in compression socks makes me look like a field hockey player. However, I must admit that I'm a fan and plan to add them to my Garmin as an official dorky runner accessory. Thanks, oh so much, to Bill Hathaway for capturing the Kodak moment.

UPDATE: Thanks for the heads-up, Bill... here's the final results. I came in 80th out of 857 overall... 12th out of 76 in my AG. One of the things I pay attention to (a little) is trying to crack the top 10% of my AG, since the theory is that Boston wants to let in the top 10% of each AG. However, the 8th place guy in my AG yesterday ran just over 1:30, which would've likely required splitting my shin apart while snorting EPO. Sooooo... all in all, I'm glad with what I got.