Markemmanuel

The March Madness Half Marathon is one of those local races that you hear nothing but good things about.  It’s known to close it’s registration in less than a day.  It’s a well organized race with the perfect amount of runners (capped at 1000?) and at an amazing price ($40).  I had to run this race. The moment registration opened, I registered.  Good thing I did.  A little bit after 6a, registration closed.  Eat your heart out Boston.

Goals

I wanted to evaluate where I am, not to establish a new PR, and work on my pace. Running at an even pace helps conserve energy for the last leg of the race.  It’s a good tool to reach greater heights.  An even pace develops patience and restraint so I don’t do something stupid or do something brilliant. I needed to evaluate my fitness on this challenging Northern Illinois course after being sidelined for a month and having a poor debut at the Korteloppet.  I wanted to know what I needed to get done this year to avoid the mishaps of last year’s marathon and makes strides. Finally, I don’t want to fall in the PR trap.  When a new runner starts racing, personal bests come regularly because great fitness improvements from just getting off the couch. Sooner or later, the personal bests become more difficult to obtain. New goals need to be made that focuses on a bigger picture.  The bigger picture is tuning my body so I can control and manage my mind and body during a race.

The Race

The race started at 8:35a.  It began to rain at 8:36a. Showers persisted until mile four.  It took a break and started pouring around mile seven. It’s a beautiful hilly course where the suburbs meet the countryside.  Yes, there are hills an hour from the Chicago area.  They are rolling hills capable of frustrating someone who runs nearly exclusively on the Chicago Lakefront Path.  Most of the hills were gentle.  Others were not so gentle.  Surprisingly, the hills didn’t frustrated me.  It was the weather that beat on my brain.

So I can to this race to work on my pacing.  Here are the results from my watch.

1. 9:06.6 – I completed my first mile exactly on goal.
2. 8:17.4 – I think the excitement of completing my goal during the first mile got me too excited.
3. 8:40.4 – I’m still adjusting my speed.
4. 9:14.8 – Back on track! The light showers lift.
5. 8:58.5 – A little too fast but doing well!
6. 9:06.8 – Perfection
7. 9:19.9 – The rain came back with vengence.
8. 8:57.1
9. 8:53.0
10. 9:32.5  – At this point, it started to pour. Oh and hunger pains started kicking my mental resolve.
11. 9:36.0 – Thunder started rumbling and a flash of lightening in the distance.
12. 10:02.0 – I was miserable at this point.  I’m soaked to the bone.  Water sloshed in my shoes.
13. 9:31.6
14. 0:54.5

The Results

My goal was to finish the race in 2:00:00 with even splits. My watch recorded 2:00:11.  Officially, I finished in 2:00:38.13.  I think this has been the most even race I’ve ever ran despite the hills.  I’m happy that I managed the race well.  I plan to attempt to run even splits again on a flatter course, the Illinois Half Marathon, at a faster pace, an 8:25 min split.

The Knowledge

I came to the race with sore calves after working on my form on Friday.  I also haven’t been consistent with my workouts.  During the Korteloppet, my entire leg cramped up and sudden cramps since then. Fortunately, I didn’t cramp up but my bum and my hamstrings felt sore. I found a few weaknesses.  My mood goes from great to bad quickly.  I identified my trigger.  It’s the hunger pain I get around mile 9 and mile 10. The weather during the race simply exasperated the situation. (I enjoy rainy training runs by the way.) I need to be proactive and prevent myself from getting hungry during a race.  I either have to keep my stomach full or run the half marathon in under an hour and a half. Another weakness I found are my tense shoulders.  It’s wasted energy.  When I caught myself doing it, I tried to shake it out. Overall, I’m surprised with the fitness I maintained.

I’m happy with the race I ran. I accomplished what I set out to do. I executed what a planned.

The race was everything I expected.  The volunteers at the race were great and were great cheerleaders.  Because I dropped only $40 of my hard earned cash, I thought they will not provide finishers medals.  I was so surprised when they presented each runner with one. I enjoyed the food inside Cary Grove High School.  I look forward to the soft pretzels next year.  This is one of my favorite races I’ve ever ran.

***

An Interestingly Awkward End

Something amusing that happened to me after the race. After being soaked from the pouring rain, I grabbed my gear in my car and headed into the school to change.  The men’s bathrooms had lines so I sought an alternative location to change out of my wet clothes.  I found the wrestling room without its mats.  Nothing was in the room but me and the concrete floor.  As I opened my backpack to swap out my clothes, a woman comes peeked in.  Another woman peeked in and tell her friends a guy is in the room.  Then four women come in and ask me if it’s alright if they change in here because the women’s bathroom has a line.  I told them that I didn’t care but will be quite an interesting story to tell.  They tell me they have nothing good to look at.  We all look at the wall (well I did at least) while we changed. They chatted to each other.  “What a day to run!” one says. The other replied, “It snowed last year.” I threw my two cents in. “I’d rather run in snow than cold rain.”

More women came into the wrestling room.  The first set of women were really cool and respectful about asking me to change in here. The second group of women acted like immature school girls. They freaked out about me being there, encircled their friend who needs to change, and kept on chatting.  The first group did what they needed to do and left.  When the second group started talking about towels and stuff, I hurried my sore self up and got out of there before I’m accused of something.  I’m near sighted anyway and left my glasses in my car.  I couldn’t see anything.