Peter's 2015 Surf City Half Marathon Report
2015 Surf City Race Report
Mini Version:
Reached my super secret ‘A’ goal of 1:23:00 with a time of 1:22:52 and came in 4th in Age Group! Very Happy!
Full Version:
This is my 2nd time doing Surf City and last year was actually my last half marathon. Because of the year gap my half marathon PR was very stale so I was really looking forward to this race to see what I could do. Last year was 1:29:12 which was a 6:48 pace. This year my super secret ‘A’ goal was 1:23:00 (6:20 pace). After a year of hard training and a marathon build I thought I might just have it in me. This race did not come at an ideal time, I am in week 6 of the get faster plan and I did a very abrupt taper, just enough to get my TSB back to 0. I am racing again in two weeks, but a 5k this time.
The Surf City half marathon is a big event for our local triathlon club: PTC. They rented two vans to bring us all down. We valeted the vans at the host hotel right at the finish. Normally we wait inside the hotel in the conference area for the race to start, but this year it was mysteriously closed. We snuck in anyway and we barely had time to use the restroom before security found us and we were escorted out of the building
We had to wait in the normal lobby with the riff-raff.
30 minutes before the race I dropped off my bag and headed off to warm up with fellow ENer Jon. After the quick warm up I realized that 1) I really had to pee and 2) My heart rate monitor wasn’t being picked up. After peeing and messing with the garmin for far too long I gave up on heart rate and barely made it to the starting line in time for the race. I ended up starting farther back than I would have liked.
It was a game of pinball for 2-3 minutes before I could get into a comfortable rhythm. Perhaps this was for the best because it kept me in check and I had a 6:20 first mile. Through mile 8 I cruised at around a 6:10 pace, which was slightly faster than my goal pace but it felt good so I went with it. It worked out well because I was able to bank some time before the course got tough. I had written splits on my hand so I knew exactly where I was in terms of my goal. At mile 8 I had banked a bit more than 30 seconds.
The course is mostly an out and back with a small section up through some hills. The final turn-around is where the race gets hard. It is 4 miles to the finish at this point, into a head-wind and you can see the pier where the finish is and it doesn’t seem to ever get closer. I did my best to hang on to my pace but with each subsequent mile it slipped. At about mile 10.5 there is a hill and that is where I really started slipping. My final mile had slipped all the way to 6:39. Thankfully I held on just enough to hit my super secret ‘A’ goal with a time of 1:22:52!
The fade is most likely because I wasn’t quite trained for this race, my longest run in the last 6 weeks was 11.6 miles and my weekly mileage has been 25-28 miles in the same time period. I think the only reason I did so well is from cashing in on the dividends from my marathon build.
For nutrition I did my usual breakfast of oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, banana, coffee and beet juice. I stopped at about half the aid stations for water and had a double latte gel at mile 7.
After the race I learned that I was 4th in my Age Group (30-34M)! Thankfully 3rd place beat me by 2 minutes and I beat the 5th place guy by 5 seconds. 3rd place was just enough out of reach that I can walk away happy with my performance!
Here are the splits:
1 6:21
2 6:08
3 6:08
4 6:23
5 6:10
6 6:10
7 6:12
8 6:12
9 6:19
10 6:18
11 6:29
12 6:30
13 6:39
0.1 6:09
Thanks for reading!
Mini Version:
Reached my super secret ‘A’ goal of 1:23:00 with a time of 1:22:52 and came in 4th in Age Group! Very Happy!
Full Version:
This is my 2nd time doing Surf City and last year was actually my last half marathon. Because of the year gap my half marathon PR was very stale so I was really looking forward to this race to see what I could do. Last year was 1:29:12 which was a 6:48 pace. This year my super secret ‘A’ goal was 1:23:00 (6:20 pace). After a year of hard training and a marathon build I thought I might just have it in me. This race did not come at an ideal time, I am in week 6 of the get faster plan and I did a very abrupt taper, just enough to get my TSB back to 0. I am racing again in two weeks, but a 5k this time.
The Surf City half marathon is a big event for our local triathlon club: PTC. They rented two vans to bring us all down. We valeted the vans at the host hotel right at the finish. Normally we wait inside the hotel in the conference area for the race to start, but this year it was mysteriously closed. We snuck in anyway and we barely had time to use the restroom before security found us and we were escorted out of the building
We had to wait in the normal lobby with the riff-raff. 30 minutes before the race I dropped off my bag and headed off to warm up with fellow ENer Jon. After the quick warm up I realized that 1) I really had to pee and 2) My heart rate monitor wasn’t being picked up. After peeing and messing with the garmin for far too long I gave up on heart rate and barely made it to the starting line in time for the race. I ended up starting farther back than I would have liked.
It was a game of pinball for 2-3 minutes before I could get into a comfortable rhythm. Perhaps this was for the best because it kept me in check and I had a 6:20 first mile. Through mile 8 I cruised at around a 6:10 pace, which was slightly faster than my goal pace but it felt good so I went with it. It worked out well because I was able to bank some time before the course got tough. I had written splits on my hand so I knew exactly where I was in terms of my goal. At mile 8 I had banked a bit more than 30 seconds.
The course is mostly an out and back with a small section up through some hills. The final turn-around is where the race gets hard. It is 4 miles to the finish at this point, into a head-wind and you can see the pier where the finish is and it doesn’t seem to ever get closer. I did my best to hang on to my pace but with each subsequent mile it slipped. At about mile 10.5 there is a hill and that is where I really started slipping. My final mile had slipped all the way to 6:39. Thankfully I held on just enough to hit my super secret ‘A’ goal with a time of 1:22:52!
The fade is most likely because I wasn’t quite trained for this race, my longest run in the last 6 weeks was 11.6 miles and my weekly mileage has been 25-28 miles in the same time period. I think the only reason I did so well is from cashing in on the dividends from my marathon build.
For nutrition I did my usual breakfast of oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, banana, coffee and beet juice. I stopped at about half the aid stations for water and had a double latte gel at mile 7.
After the race I learned that I was 4th in my Age Group (30-34M)! Thankfully 3rd place beat me by 2 minutes and I beat the 5th place guy by 5 seconds. 3rd place was just enough out of reach that I can walk away happy with my performance!
Here are the splits:
1 6:21
2 6:08
3 6:08
4 6:23
5 6:10
6 6:10
7 6:12
8 6:12
9 6:19
10 6:18
11 6:29
12 6:30
13 6:39
0.1 6:09
Thanks for reading!
0
Comments
Great race while in the midst of the GFP. You crushed your old PR.
By how much did you beat your Arch Nemesis?
Cool. So maybe call it 6' for a very hilly course like SG. I'm likely going out there weekend of Mar 21. And, like I said, be very encouraging of his Crossfit hobby