Last night I stayed up until about 11:30 reading, then never really got to sleep. I’m usually a very sound sleeper but for some reason I just dozed in and out until the 4:50 alarm went off and it was time for me to go. Luckily this didn’t seem to adversely affect my performance.

I got to the line at about 6:00 for a 7:00 start. I had everything I needed - jacket, moderately thick short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and my two Gu packets (one for mile six, one for mile ten). Well, almost everything - I had forgotten to bring my watch. While I was a little concerned about this, it may not have been such a bad thing to do.

So. The standard warmup followed - running about half a mile, doing some stretching, running back, doing more stretching, and trying to keep warm; it was only about 42 degrees with a decent wind out of the North. I hadn’t been able to hook up with anyone, there were so many runners waiting around; I saw someone as I was starting my warmup but I was doing time calculations in my head and they’d run by before I could really acknoledge them. Jennifer, was that you?

I dropped my jacket with 15 minutes or so to go, decided against a final bathroom stop, and found my place in the chute. Somehow my friend Ted saw me when I was waiting there, bouncing up and down to stay warm, and he wove his way through the crowd to say hi. That was nice, since the conversation really helped the time pass faster.

The first thing I noticed after we headed out was that there was no clock on the starting line. Already I didn’t know what my chip time difference was going to be. I guessed about a minute, which was pretty close (56 seconds). We spent a decent amount of time weaving in and out of traffic, and got to the first mile marker at around 9:30 - an 8:35 pace, which was pretty close to ideal.

My plan had been to go out at my marathon goal pace of 8:25 - 8:30 for the first half, then gradually pick it up as I got closer to the finish line. This would have been easier if all of the mile markers had had clocks on them - for some reason the even miles didn’t have any timing, just waterstops (and vice versa for the odd miles).

I think that I calculated about an 8:15 pace for miles 3 and 4, but I can’t keep my memories straight - I would spend some amount of time every two miles figuring out what my next clock should read, and second-guessing previous paces, and I’m more than a little fuzzy on them now. Those first four miles had some decent hills in them, after which point it smoothed on out and became a very friendly gentle downhill course.

Race management is still something I’m learning and especially without a watch I was having a hard time figuring out my pace. I ended up doing the first half at a comfortable 3/4 breathing pattern, slowing slightly for the uphills and speeding back up on the downs. As to how fast I was actually going? There was a timing mat set up along the way. While I was running, I thought it was at the halfway point. The results show it at 6.8 miles. If my memory is correct, then I’d have averaged an 8:29, which seems slow considering my previous calculations of 8:15s through the hardest part of the course (which may be incorrect). If the report is right, that means I did an 8:04 pace. This seems pretty fast to me, since I really don’t think I did better than 8:30 for mile 1 and 8:15 for the next two. I may never know.

Anyway, the first half was out of the way and I allowed myself to speed up to a faster pace, alternating 3/3 with 3/2 breathing. This is a pattern I can keep up for quite a while, and I felt really comfortable doing it. Somewhere around here I saw Jason with a couple of great “Freescale” signs and about 10 old bathroom scales he was holding out to people. I found out later that two of them were actually accepted, and at least one runner carried it all the way to the finish line!

I had taken my first Gu at mile six, and did my second four miles later at mile ten to keep simulating marathon conditions. I think this pattern will work well during the big race. After that point I sped up again and moved to a 2/2 breathing pattern for the remainder. I wasn’t sure how I was doing on time, and decided that I’d be pretty happy to see 1:4X on the finish line clock as I came in, knowing that my chip time was at least a minute faster than that.

Coming down the final mile was fun. I had considered really going all out, but for some reason I decided to keep my breathing under control and just do a solid, hard, but controlled finish. I passed Gilbert cheering me on with about half a mile to go, turned the final corner, heard Evil calling out my name, and just ran it in over the mats. I realized a few minutes later that I had never looked at the clock as I went past it, and didn’t actually know what my finishing time was! There was some problem posting the results, too, so it wasn’t until I’d come home (and taken a nap) that I was able to look them up and get my time.

I’m really happy about the way this race went. The weather was the perfect temperature, but the continual drizzle made things (especially my hands) a little cold - still, a great setup for a good time. The course was ultra-friendly compared to some of the monsters we’ve been racing on lately. I ran well, but finished feeling like I could have kept on going for a few miles even at my faster finishing pace.

Oh, you’re wondering what my final time was? Let me start out by saying that I beat my time goal by over two minutes, and my two month old PR by 8 minutes and 24 seconds. Yup. My split time for the second leg was 50:50, which gives me an 8:04 pace - if it was halfway instead as I was wondering above, it would be a 7:46 which makes a bit more sense to me considering the higher effort and nicer topography.

However that works out, my final chip time was 1:45:25 which gives me an 8:03 overall pace for the half. To put that into perspective, the 5K PR that I set back in May of last year was done at an 8:02 pace. Yeah, baby! I’m feeling strong, comfortable, ready for the taper, and I can’t wait for Freescale to see how I can translate that into the full distance.

In retrospect, if I had known how close I was to a sub 8:00 pace, I might have pushed that last mile a bit more and tried to shave off those pesky 26 seconds. That would almost certainly have not been a good thing as far as my Freescale training went. Even so, I’m a little regretful that I didn’t quite make it, not withstanding the fact that I never thought I would have done. In the end though, maybe running without my watch was just what I needed today.

Popularity: 4%