Coeur d’Alene Half Marathon Report

Just a quick report to say, “IT WAS AWESUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
What a great race!  Cool start, Sunny warm finish, perrrrrrrfect!
Time?: 1:38:44…oh YEAH!!!!  That’s a 7:32 pace!! Boston…here we come!! (I hope, I hope!)
More Stats:
Came in 4th place in my age group out of 32
Came in 79th place out of 1003 half marathoners
Came in 59th place out of 380 males
I have to be honest, I was surprised to see I came in 4th in my age group.  I didn’t expect that!  I was 2:19 out of 1st place….next year…I’ll be back!

Okay, here’s a more detailed report.
It was a cool day, but not cold and it was over cast for much of the race.
The race fro the half marathoners started at 7:30 and since CDA is about 30 to 35 minutes away I got up at 5:45.  Probably should have gotten up earlier as I was speeding to get there on time.  (Not excessively but about 5 miles over the limit, not enough to blow the angels off the bumpers.)
Had my usually oatmeal with rasins but with out the nuts, dry toast (Thanks Steve!), mild and coffee.  Unfortunitly since I was in such a rush I didn’t have time to ah…well, you know….do the things you’re supposed to before you run 13 miles.
So I arrived at the race site at 7:15 and had to find a place to park and….well, you know….but I just didn’t have time!  By the time I jogged over to the start line we only had about 5 minutes before the start the lines to the porta potty’s was WAAAAAYYYYYY long, so I just hoped all would go well.

Met Tina, Leslie, and ….? don’t remember the other gals name from our running group at Life Center.  (What a great group!)  Tina was all pumped about this run.  She has been working hard gettting ready for this, as well as Leslie, but Leslie wasn’t feeling 100%.  Actually neither was I.  I’ve been struggling with a cold/sinus thing and have had headaches and just blah feeling for the past 3 weeks or so.  But for some reason, when I get on the starting line of a race, it’s like I just forget that I’m not feeling well.

So the count down started and the gun went off and away we flew!  BUT…I have learned a lesson that you have to force yourself not to start too fast.  Know what your pace is supposed to be and run your pace no matter how fast everyone else starts out.  I’d have to say that most people were very conservitive starting out.  I really didn’t see the usual rush to get to the front.  Everyone settled into their pace about 1/2 mile into the race.  I wound up next to a gal and it was obvious that we were going to running together for a while as our pace was exactly the same.  I struck up a conversation with her, (who me?) and it turns out she’s a triathlete and was doing this race in prep for the Ironman in CDA next month.  I asked if she was planning on doing 7:30 miles and she said she was.  So we chatted the first 6 miles away about training and some of our favorite races and just before the turn around at 6.5 she started to fade back a bit.  There was a small hill and I think she was just getting a little winded.  On the turn around I saw her about a 50 yards back and she waved at me and gave me the thumbs up.  (At least I think it was her thumb).  The whole time we were running together I was keeping a close eye on my Garmin and making sure I didn’t stray too far off the 7:30 pace.  (What’s interesting is I looked at my results on the Garmin after the race and I was always within 3 to 7 seconds of 7:30 except for mile 8 where I slowed down to 7:59).

So things were going along pretty well until about mile 8 where my right leg thigh muscle felt really tight and fatigued, so just as I had been doing all along I really foced on my form and breathing, shortened up my stride and increased my pace. (Gotta run..heading to a movie…OUT!)

Okay, I’m back.  Well, it’s the next day.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, thigh, mile 7 or 8:  About 7 miles into it, my right thigh muscle really felt tight and almost like it was numb, but not quite, so I shortened my stride and increased my cadence and really really focused on my breathing and being efficient and it seemed to help.  I got through that and again at 9 mile same thing, not the thigh, but just feeling a little tired.

Also, I think spacing out the gel seemed to help.  I took a big hit of gel (Carb Boom) minutes before the gun and then kept the packet with me and just sort of took small hits of it every couple of miles or so all through the race making sure I timed it with getting water soon afterwards. (I had two and probably could have used a third one as I ran out around….mmm, can’t really remember but I think it was the 10 or 11 mile mark.)  I think that really helped because at the end I didn’t feel wiped out.  I mean even before the end I thought to myself, “Gee, it almost seems not long enough!”.  (And I’m not boasting here, I just felt that way, like, I “wanted” to run a little longer).  And my recovery afterwards was WAY quicker.  I mean I felt like I could have (and wanted to) go back out on the course and see if I could run with the other folks from my Saturday group and just sort of encourage them to the end. 

  It was certainly a much different feeling than either the duathlon or the 25K River Run.  After both of those races I really had nothing left and felt like I needed to lay down and rest later on in the day, which I did.  What did I do after this race?  Well, I went downtown to CDA and sat outside (It was a BEAUUUUUTFUL day) and ordered a hamburger WITH bacon! AND a Blue Moon beer.  (This was about 11:30 in the morning…oh my!) But I felt SOOO GOOD!  And then when I got back to Spokane Mrs TriMoot hinted that she wanted to go for a bike ride and I was like, Yeah!  Let’s go!  That doesn’t NORMALLY happen.  Normally it’s like, ugh…I need to lay down for 30 minutes (or more), but this time I felt totally recovered and not like I had just run 13 miles. 

  So, I guess I said all that to say, nutrition before and during a race is pretty dang important.  Eat a good breakfast (OAT MEAL!  With raisins and nuts!) AND eat while you’re on the bike and don’t wait until you are hungry, just plan on every 30 minutes(?) or so taking a full or half gel, or just keep taking nips off gel packs as  you think about it.  I never felt like I over ate, or felt bloated or anything except at the 1st water stop.  I had taken a lot of coffee, water, milk and gator aid during breakfast so I took a sip of the water and threw the rest of it down as I knew I didn’t need it.  I wasn’t sloshing around or anything but I felt if I had taken any more liquids, I might start.

Okay okay..no more advise.  (Dang..don’t mean to do that, but I’m learning so much more about this.)  Just think if back in 1983 when I did my 1st Boston (unofficially) if ANYBODY had known about nutrition how much better we would have done and felt afterwards.  I mean we didn’t even use Gator aid for pete sake!  There wasn’t even water stops!  You just hoped someone would give you a drink of water from a hose or from the crowd.  Wow… The good old days?  I DON’T THINK SO!

Okay..so one last thing.  Let’s pretend for a minute that I actually continue my training through out the summer and slowly continue to build up my base CAREFULLY so that I avoid injury.  So yesterday I did 13.1 miles in 1:39:00 (round up) IF, and that’s a big IF, I could continue to run the same pace for the next 13.1 miles, I would do it in 3:20:00!!!  (7:37 pace) (Qualifing time for me is 3:45:00)

Now I know that’s not probably going to happen, but it gives me hope that I can actually qualify for Boston since it’s the magical year for me.  I’ll be 54 this year, and since they determine your age group by how old you’ll be in that calendar year, I will be 55 in 2009’s 114th running of the Boston Marathon so I gain 10 more minutes, putting me at an 8:34 per mile pace.  So I’m hoping and praying that I can stay healthy and reach this goal of doing Boston officially in 2009.

My next goal? (Assuming I make this one)  Well, there is a marathon included in a full Ironman…….

What a dreamer!  TriMoot…OUT!

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