Peter Noyes Surf City Half Marathon Report
Peter's Surf City Half Marathon Race Report
Quick details:Time: 1:29:12
Didn't have the "perfect" race I wanted, but all things considered really happy with how it went
Long version:
This race was the test at the end of the 8 week get faster plan. I had posted a race plan that started quite a conversation. In the end I decided to think simple and just go out and see what I could do. Leading up to this race I was very excited. I did the 8 week program almost completely as written. I think I only missed two swims. I started the program with a 5k test of 19:03 which equals a vdot of almost 53. My run workouts went pretty much flawless, I hit all the paces on the intervals. My 'A' goal for this race was to validate a vdot of 52-53 at the half marathon distance, the 'B' goal was to break 1:30.
On Friday I started to feel a like something was a little off, and then I woke up Saturday morning feeling congested and fatigued. After all that hard work I came down with a cold at the last minute. I regrouped and did everything I could do fight off the illness. I had apple cider vinegar, many thousands of milligrams of vitamin C, elderberry pills, chick broth, oregano pills, garlic, and tons of fluids. Saturday night I didn't sleep well at all. I woke up at 3:00 AM which is only 30 minutes before I was supposed to wake up anyway. Breakfast was my usual pumpkin flaxseed granola with almond milk, coffee, and a banana.
This race is a big event for our local tri club, 30 of us met up and took vans down to the event. I felt like a VIP, we valeted the vans at the hotel and we were able to stay inside until 45 minutes before the start. I took a gel 30 minutes before the start and did an abbreviated warm up, maybe just a 5 minute or so jog with a couple strides.
My head was all over the place, at this point I really didn't know what to expect because I was under the weather. I just lined up and hoped for the best. Once the gun went off I fell into a pace of about 6:50 that felt pretty good, I didn't want to push it early. I was struggling with my heart rate strap for the first few miles, it wasn't tight enough and kept slipping. I gave up and just let it fall around my waist. The heart rate data collected is completely jacked up and useless, at least I was comfortable. At about 2-3 miles in I was passed by some guys in my tri club and I stuck with them. We continued to hold a pace of around 6:45-6:50. 6 miles in we dropped one of the guys but I stuck with the other until about mile 9-10. At that point I was feeling reasonably good and decided to let er rip a bit. I didn't speed up too much, but that last stretch was up a slight incline so it was definitely more work. In the end the other guy did end up closing the gap pretty well and finished only 8 seconds behind me.
For nutrition I had planned to have a gel at mile 5, but I was so out of it at the start I completely forget to grab it. I ended up having water from 3 of the aid stations and I had 3 shot blocks at around mile 5. It is very difficult to consume shot blocks at a 6:50 pace! I really was wishing I had that gel.
Here are my splits:
1 6:50.1 1.00 6:50
2 6:47.2 1.00 6:47
3 6:45.0 1.00 6:45
4 6:58.4 1.00 6:58
5 6:44.5 1.00 6:44
6 6:39.7 1.00 6:40
7 6:46.2 1.00 6:46
8 6:51.4 1.00 6:51
9 6:54.1 1.00 6:54
10 6:43.2 1.00 6:43
11 6:49.0 1.00 6:49
12 6:43.0 1.00 6:43
13 6:38.7 1.00 6:39
14 1:05.1 0.17 6:12
All in all I had a good race, my pacing was very consistent, I think I negative split it, and I met my 'B' goal of breaking 1:30. My vdot from this race is 51. I am not sure quite what I should do going forward, I feel like I might have left a little on the table because I wasn't feeling 100%. Thank you everyone for all the advice from my original race plan post! I think I had a better race than I would have had cause of you guys.
-Peter
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