St. Luke’s Half Marathon
Warning that this is a bit long. Folks hit the nail on the head about how tough races make the successful ones sweeter. I ran my first HM on this course in 2015, running a respectable time on relatively limited mileage. I PR’d it again in 2017 and 2019 with some more serious training. I was training for the 2020 version when Covid hit, so I had to content myself with the FBG races. I ran high mileage for me in the pandemic years, but both 2021 and 2022 HM were rough races where I tried to go out at 7:00 pace and had to brutally slog through the second halves.
2022 particularly stuck in my craw because I put in a lot of [apparently ineffective] training. I felt like my leg strength was holding me back and was also discouraged, so I didn’t sign up for anything other than my yearly 5Ks for 2023. I resolved to do more strength training and try to up the power in my stride. I also wasn’t going to squeeze in runs if they were affecting the balance of other things.
Funnily enough, even though my mileage was down in 2023 the pace of my typical runs trended faster, and I went into the end of year 5Ks feeling optimistic. I PR’d a 5K New Year’s Day and decided to try my hand at the local half again. I’ve always done my own sort of plans based loosely on what I see in “real” plans, but I tried the Garmin Greg McMillan plan this time. When I told it I only wanted to run 4 days a week, it wouldn’t let me put anything better than 1:32 as a goal, but since that’d be a PR I figured that should work well enough.
I did all 59 workouts save one easy run that I couldn’t squeeze in due to travel, and in all but a few cases did the “optional” mileage since I figured I was light on that front. Some parts of the plan seemed weird, like how quickly it ramped me to 100 minute and longer runs. Also, there were some brutal faster than 5K tempos where I couldn’t hit the paces. But all in all it seemed reasonable, and it definitely forced me to run more quality than I have in the past. And other than some foot trouble in the first couple of weeks, while feeling a bit beat up I never felt like I was straddling the injury line the way I was in other half cycles where I was running 6 or 7 times a week.
I did a lot of traveling in the month leading up to the race, and between that and suddenly having to run in 70+ weather after an unusually cool spring, I had some confidence-shaking workouts the last couple of weeks, but I tried to remember some really great runs I had in mid-March to keep optimistic. Also the encouragement from folks in here helped on that front.
Race day was low 50s to start and overcast. Almost no wind so only potentially real whammy was how early the sun would peek out, as forecasted high in the afternoon was 79. Course is downhill and then flat on streets for first 10k, followed by about 4.5 miles through the big city park which has some smallish hills and light loose gravel paths, then back slightly uphill through streets and finish with 3/4 of a lap in the high school stadium.
Tried to start off strong but controlled to use the hill. Watched the 1:30 pacer take off like a rocket, but I wasn’t planning on running with him anyway. During mile 2 I decided to engage the woman that had been running alongside of me since the first minutes of the race. She had come up from the Philly area with her mom and some friends to do the race. Very nice lady. We chatted intermittently for the first 7 miles, which was nice as a distraction although maybe caused me to lose track of my pacing a bit. I did consciously back off after I saw the mile 3 split, but other than that pretty much was just on cruise control. First 6 miles were 6:48, 7:01, 6:45, 6:55, 6:57, 7:04. When we got into the parkway for miles 7 and 8 we started coming across people fading, so I passed a string of people, yielding 6:50 and 6:38 splits. Probably got a bit carried away here, and Lindsay did drop off behind me during the mile 8. I was feeling tired by this point, but the realization that a PR was assured barring a collapse kept my spirits up. Miles 9 and 10 were 7:01 and 6:55. Mile 10 ends with a short steep hill which took a lot of the remaining pop out of my legs. Did the math that I would need a sub 21:00 final 5K to break 90, which seemed possible but unlikely. Sun also finally came out here.
Tried to grind, but legs only had so much left and I felt like I was riding the red line and didn't want to send myself over. When I realized in the last mile I would be between 1:30-1:31 I mentally forced myself to try to claim every second for my PR and not just settle for 1:30: xx. Last 5K was 6:48, 6:58, 6:53, maybe 6:15 (although gps looks wonky on track so who knows). Accidentally stopped my watch quite late, but when trying to crop later it wasn’t clear where the right spot was so it’s just staying in Strava as-is. 1:30:36 is the official time, technically 4th in AG but bumped up to 2nd due to Master’s awards. 2:09 PR, finally after a few years of frustration.
Walked up the stadium steps to get refreshments and relax with family. Walked back down 30 minutes later to grab my AG thermos. Ran into Lindsay again who was excitedly collecting her own AG award. She thanked me again and said she would never have run so fast if I hadn’t been there, which was probably not true but still put a smile on my face. It was a good day.