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Chicago Half Marathon

September 7, 2014 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Low-60s, sunny, no wind

Comments:
Today the plan was to make this a progression run starting out at a pace slightly north of goal marathon pace and then progressing downward through MP and then finishing up with a fast 5K. I should preface this all by saying I was using someone else's Garmin and I thought I had set it up the same as the one I normally use. First mile was about 7:00 pace but then the next two miles, when I would go through the marker, my lap pace indicator was reading something differently than what I thought was the lap average box on my Garmin and I was thinking to myself, "what's wrong with this thing?!" Then I looked closer, and saw that that box was average overall pace... As it turns out the 2nd and 3rd miles had been a little quicker than I was planning, but it was still feeling good. I backed it down a bit to the planned pace and forged onward. It was at about mile 8 when I knew this was a special kind of day. I was feeling great and knew I had a lot left in the tank. Despite that, I didn't want to turn this into something it wasn't - I hadn't gone into the day with thoughts of racing and so I stuck to the plan and kept it steady through 10. At mile 10, I started slowly pushing the pedal down to the end and surprised myself with what I had left. The last three miles were 6:24, 6:18, 6:11 and the final 5K was ~19:45.

This was a big boost mentally for me heading into the marathon next month. Knowing I can hold a pace well south of marathon pace over a half marathon and feeling the way I did today while running, I feel much more confident about my marathon goal. Part of me wishes I had realized early on just how good I was feeling and I might have gone for a PR - I think if I'd had a racing mentality out of the gate today, I could have run under 1:25:00.

On the legs front - no knee or achilles pain out of the gate - as I ascended a hill at about mile 11 my left achilles grabbed a little bit but never gave out. Doing yogo tomorrow night and I think I'm going to start incorporating some light strength-training into my routine this coming week just to combat the breakdown. Personally, I'm most proud of the fact that I didn't slow down or taper at all for this run and STILL managed to throw down a time like this. With a taper and a race mentality - anything is possible next month.