This year I've been able to get a pretty good base of mileage built up in comparison to previous years (though I haven't done much speed training yet), so I was hoping for a good showing (a PR and a sub 48 minute Second Seed qualifying time). Then a new race was created near my home town - a half marathon with a flat elevation profile - that would be happening the day before Bloomsday. There's something about first year events, especially ones in/near my town, that are very compelling. Also my half marathon PR is 5 years old and very soft, so I would be almost guaranteed a PR. Of course I knew it would likely have a negative impact on my goals at Bloomsday, so I initially fought back the desire to sign up for it.
Eventually the draw of running the new, local Saturday race overcame my concerns of the negative impact on Sunday's race and I decided to run it. Even up to the morning of the race I hadn't decided how I'd run the race. Should I make it a max effort? Since I had no marathon pace runs in yet this year should I make it a marathon pace run? In the end I decided to run it at a steady marathon heart rate level as I don't know what my pace really is right now. I drove down with Shawn, a running buddy from my neighborhood. Since we'd picked up our packets the day before we had plenty of time for a nice, slow 1.5 mile warm up. Once the race started I paced Shawn for the first three miles at a slightly lower HR, then tried to maintain a HR of 175 for the rest of the race. I averaged 178 bpm at my last marathon in December, so I felt a 175 rate effort should leave me a little something for Bloomsday the next day.
As it turned out I was able to run 6:30 pace at that heart rate, which was a pleasant surprise. The last mile I ran in 6:00 minutes as I was working on passing the person in front of me. I passed him with about 400 meters to go, then really opened it up on the Mount Si High School track for the last 300 meters to the finish. My final time was 1:25:09 - good for a 3+ minute PR and 3rd place in the Masters division. I actually won $50 for that! Whoohooo! And Shawn kept me in sight and secured a 30+ minute PR for himself with an outstanding effort made even more remarkable coming just six days after he ran a 36 mile trail race!
After the awards ceremony Cherie and I headed home for a quick meal and a shower before making the long 4 hour drive to Spokane. We got to the expo just in time to pick up our race packets, then it was off to get more food! Race morning brought clear blue skies and temperatures in the lower 40*s - perfect race weather! Cherie and I headed toward the start and split up where she had to go in the Yellow start corral while I went down to the Second Seed corral. Since I'd just raced the day before I only did a short, easy 1.5 mile warm up instead of my usual 3 miles at increasing intensity warm up for short races. I worked my way up near the front of the corral and got a look at the elites about 20 yards ahead. The start gun went off and so did the runners! My intention was to try and go out at 6:15 mpm pace for the flats and downhills the first couple miles and see what I had for the hills. I was able to stay fairly strong on the hills including Doomsday Hill (see accompanying elevation profile) - I even high-fived the vulture at the top. The last 2.5 miles went well, and I was able to pick off a few more runners at the end. I finished in 47:22 and feeling good - like maybe I could have pushed a bit harder. Cherie finished in 1:01:59 which was a 7+ minute PR for her. She only has 4 more minutes to shave off before she too can start in the second seed corral!
In summary I'm quite pleased with how my body responded to the weekend double. My troublesome left achilles/soleus injury thing is a little more obvious today, but it's not too bad. I'll take some easy days this week before hitting a long trail run this coming weekend.
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