Matt Aaronson's 2014 Rock n Roll Las Vegas half marathon
A quick race report on the Las Vegas Rock n Roll half
marathon. This was my second time doing this race, and just like last year I
ran it 6 weeks after a great Chicago Marathon. Unlike last year I didn't do a
good job adhering to a workout schedule between the marathon and this race – it
is really a "post-season race" and this year I had a ton of stuff
going on at work and so forth that I needed to prioritize.
The race is a really fun event and I highly recommend it.
The weather is perfect running weather. The race closes down the entire Las
Vegas Strip and is run after dusk so it's a very unique experience. It is a
huge event with over 25,000 runners, many of whom are in costume and there to
have a REALLY GOOD TIME. Like last year I went out with my wife and left the 3
kids at home. We met up with some friends and family who live out on the West
Coast and did a lot of eating and drinking and Vegas-style "revelry".
Since the race is on Sunday night that meant a lot of the eating and drinking
was pre-race, so not ideal but certainly a lot of fun.
Last year I was targeting sub-1:25 but fell apart in the
last 3 miles and missed it by 1 second (I ran 1:25:00 for a 1:10 PR). The
elevation profile in the Garmin link provides an indicator of why those last 3
miles are so hard. It looks and feels flat but the imperceptible incline has an
impact. Also last year I ate brunch too close to the race and got a side
stitch.
This year my half-split in the full Chicago Marathon was
exactly 1:25:00 and I had just set a marathon PR of over 4 minutes at 2:53:37
so clearly I was shooting for better. I knew my fitness had declined so maybe
my marathon VDOT-implied ~1:23:08 wasn't reasonable, but surely I should be
able to break 1:24, right????
I dutifully committed to running a 6:24 pace and memorized
the "key splits"…51:15 at mile 8 and 1:04:03 at mile 10. It was
pretty cool at the start, very low 50's. Perfect running weather. I got in a
5-minute warmup.
At the gun I started off nice and fast trying to find some
people my speed to run with in a pack and block the 10mph headwind from mile 1
to 7.5 (that headwind wasn't present last year&hellip
. I didn't really find a good
group which was unfortunate and although my first couple of miles were quick, I
quickly locked into almost exactly 6:24. I knew that was a problem since they
were downhill but then again I was running into a headwind. My splits at the 5k
and 10k were only 3 and 9 seconds faster than last year's race which didn't
bode well for my performance although I was clearly running on pace and with a
few seconds in the bank. I knew by about the 10k that (a) the goal was sub-1:24
and not any better than that, and (b) I had no margin for error and the whole
race would depend on holding it together in the last 3 miles where I had such a
spectacular fail last year.
At this point it's worth noting that even though the
training and preparation and entire mental approach to this was as a
"C-race", I am incapable of settling for less than all-out when the
chip is on my shoe. It was 10k into a C-race but at that point I was racing it
like an A-race so that sub-1:24 was THE FRIGGIN GOAL, PERIOD.
After about 7.5 miles the course leaves the strip and spends
a mile and a half winding around a neighborhood before emerging in downtown
"old Las Vegas" / Freemont street. After mile 8 where I was only a
few second ahead of schedule my lap pace went from locked-in on 6:24 to
locked-in on 6:29. Seriously locked-jn. I'm not kidding when I say I thought I
was running faster and it was a mistake. All the guys around me were still
around me. But we were all just running 5 sec/mi slower. WTF??
Now I knew I had some minimal time banked but the question
was HOW MUCH and CAN I SPEED UP BY JUST A FEW SEC/MI????
At mile 10 I knew what was coming and was mentally prepared.
I passed the marker in 1:03:57 so I had banked time, although the clock read
1:04:02 so I thought my margin for error was literally zero. My watch was still
showing 1:29 or 1:30 for lap pace. Like last year there were no mile markers
(or I missed them) for miles 11 and 12. Last year I blamed my not emptying the
tank early enough on the lack of mile markers. Although I had forgotten that fact,
this time I was aware of the absence of mile markers coupled with the real need
to speed up. When I figured there was about a mile and a half to go I tried to speed
up and went to essentially maximum RPE. This is when I "turned it
on". In my HR chart this is clearly evident…my HR goes from a very
consistent low 180's to the mid-high 180's at a very identifiable point. It is
essentially the HR at which I run my z4 intervals (and achieve ~6:10 pace). Looking
at the second-by-second data in TrainingPeaks it is amazing to see that my
average pace from when I made that change in intensity improved…by about 1
sec/mi. WTF??
When the finish line was identifiable I went to all-out
sprint and ended up with the last 0.15 miles at 5:35 pace. Seeing the clocks I
knew I'd missed the sub-1:24, I thought by a pretty solid ~5-7 seconds. I felt
okay about that but was more frustrated when I saw the chip time was 1:24:02…I
only needed 3 more seconds!!!
Although technically the race was a 57-second PR I surely
know I can run a lot faster than that. It makes me want to pick a half-marathon
to really crush in the springtime!!
Interestingly the field was faster this year: although I was
57 seconds faster this year I went from 5th to 12th in my AG and 64th to 74th
OA. The top 4 were all faster than last year's winner and ran under 65 minutes
with the top two running sub-64 minutes.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/634610432
Splits:
Comments
Congrats!
Interesting your Z4 HR is high 180s. What is your Z5 or max HR?
@ Robert, yeah, those road reflectors are certainly something to avoid, in particular if you're running in a pack and not paying attention to the road in front of you. That said, the lanes are pretty wide.
@ Peter, yes, no question that if I made a half-marathon my A-race I should be able to destroy 1:24 and probably 1:23 as well. Of course I'm a proven "better at longer distances" runner so beyond that I'd wonder what finish time I could lay down. I'm toying with the idea of doing the Rock n Roll half in DC in March (which I did in 2013) since the course is pretty fast. But when I look at all the tradeoffs and the need to focus on swimming more it becomes daunting. Now as to the NYC point, when I read that I thought you must be on crack...I had it in my head that qualifying into the NYC marathon was another league. Then I just now checked the qualifying standards...in fact my Chicago Marathon time beat the 2:55 requirement for my AG by almost a minute and a half. Woo hoo!!
@ Coach P, according to the Garmin my first 2 miles were both 6:11/mi pace and the first mile measured at 0.93 hence it ran it in 5:45 (my usual routine is to take splits manually at the mile markers).
@ Jeremy, for running (biking is totally different) my z4 HR is anywhere from low 180's if it's cold up to 187-189 in the summertime. Maybe 190 if I put a little extra oomph into a z4 interval. I do hardly any z5 running due to a history of getting injured with that training so my HR there is hard to say. I will say that hitting 190 in a treadmill workout is not uncommon, and my highest-ever (max??) was on a treadmill in Korea when I hit 196 during a 7' z4 interval.
Ho-hum, another PR for Aaronson. Way to go!
I don't know if this would help, hurt, or be neutral, but for running races, I set my Garmin to (a) auto-lap every mile, (b) display HR, Cadence, and current lap pace. That smooths out the pace a fair amount, and provides metrics which help me utilize my primary pacing tool, RPE, to best advantage.
As for autolap, I find it really annoying when the auto laps are out of synch with the markers so I push the button. It gives me something to look forward to...
Question for this race.... What weight did you race at? And how did that relate to your perceived best race weight?
Btw one issue with my overall physiology is that my legs are really thick. So I think that really is a barrier to getting weight off. But it probably helps be get strong on the bike.