I made my appearance today in the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon in Allentown with a decent showing. I unfortunately did not PR (didn’t beat last years time) … I actually ran it two minutes slower than last year, however I have to keep remembering that I wasn’t trying to PR in this race. My goal was really to have a good solid run, keep my pace and feel good to the start, which I did for the most part.
The reason the race wasn’t the great was I made a major training mistake, and that was running a FAST run the day before a race. On Saturday, I decided to run 6 miles above my pace (i did the 6 miles in like 50 minutes, thats face). Although the run itself felt great, it tired me out, and made my lower back sore among other things afterward. I struggled through the day, the night and even the race with my lower back sore because of it. My advise to anyone is to TAKE IT EASY RACE WEEKEND! I should’ve stuck to the 4 miles I had planned, at well below pace, just to keep the legs fresh. You can guarantee I won’t make this mistake next week at the marathon!
Anyway, I wasn’t upset with the time, however I did make the decision with 4 miles to go that it wasn’t worth pushing myself because I wouldn’t break the PR anyway. I was 1:26 or so with 3 miles to go, and at that rate, the best I could do was 1:50 (even at an 8 minute mile, which I wasn’t maintaining at that point). I think overall I made the right choice, it wouldn’t have been worth possibly injuring myself for something I couldn’t achieve anyway.
Regardless, I will post my split times as best I could. The problem with this race, and the reason I may not do it again next year is that its getting too large. I wasn’t able to find most of the mile markers so I can get splits, so they are real choppy, but I can get an average. The water stops were difficult, and most of the time I was running elbow to elbow with people, stepping on people and swinging in and out of traffic. Probably the best part of the course there was occurred when I decided not to race for a PR. I dropped back a little and got my own private place to run, for a little bit at least.
Anyway, here are my times ….
8:45 – Mile 1 (actual)
16:11 – Mile 2 & 3 (8:05 average estimate)
24:54 – Mile 4,5 & 6 (8:20 average estimate)
25:25 – Mile 7,8 & 9 (8:30 average estimate)
8:44 – Mile 10 (actual)
27:38 – Mile 11, 12 to 13.1 (9:05 average estimate)
My total time ended up being (on my watch), 1:51:40 …. My chip time should be around that, and the clock time was about 2 minutes more than that.
Anyway, its time to take it easy this week to rest up for the Pocono Marathon next week. NO MISTAKES THIS WEEK, BE SMART! I have to rest my back and body so i’m ready to go.
