March Madness half marathon race (training) report finally...

Sunday morning:

K and I drove up bright & early to Cary, IL as I prepared to run the March Madness half marathon for the 4th year in a row now. The weather was finally nice at about 40 degrees with lots of sunshine and very little wind. We met up with a lot of V-teamers, Tapers and my track team "Fast Track Racing" people before the race either in the High School gym or just prior to the start of the race. I did a very bare minimal warm-up before the race as I was not racing the race but using it as a long slow distance training run towards the Indy Mini half marathon goal race on May 2nd 2009. I did not have a chance but twice since the Tecumseh Marathon in early December 2008 to run any hill work what-so-ever plus my running mileage is not that high weekly since this early 2009 season is a semi-sort-of running recovering cycle from my 2008 racing season. But even running it as a training run being the competitive person that I am I set a goal of finishing the half at 1:45 which is a 8 minute mile.

Just before the race started I wished Dave-O and GregC best of luck as they had their toes on the starting line. I went to the mid-portion of the starting pack as the starting gun went off. I decided to take the 1st mile or so easy as warm-up as everyone else was already passing me in high-gear. At about mile one Tom M, Frank and Bobby scream by me telling me I’m running too slow :-) but I kept on running at my current pace. By mile two by legs were warmed up and at the 1st water station K, our friend Bridget and her son Christopher so my cheering crew was in place. Just after that point is the drop away downhill that we have to run back up after mile nine so I opened my stride during the downhill to gain alittle time back before the hills would come into play later on.

Up until about mile 8.5 the race for me was pretty un-eventful but I finally reeled in Tom M at this point as we shared a few words of encouragement for each other as "the uphill" was coming up near mile 9.4. As I chugged up the hill it didn’t seem as daunting as the previous 3 years I have raced this event…maybe the Tecumseh trail marathon had something to due with this :-) after the uphill I saw Kristen, Bridget and Christopher near the water station once again as they shouted me onwards to the finish. The rest of the race is rolling uphill’s and downhill’s as I cruised on through the finishline in 1:48:47…no where even close to my previous 3 years racing times here but the result tells me what current condition I’m in heading into the homestretch of training towards the Indy Mini half marathon on May 2nd.

Afterwards K & I headed over to Tracks with the gang for feasting, beverages and social time together…this was the part of the race day I was looking forward to most this day ;-)

Below is a link to my Polar HR data showing how I kept my HR in my LSD training mode:
http://www.twodogzdesign.com/run09/mmphr031509.JPG

B