Race Report Brain Dump: My First Half-Marathon at the Chilly (1:38)

I raced the New Balance Chilly Half Marathon last weekend in Burlington. It was my first half and it went well.

In 2017 when I started running again I was 230 lbs and very out of shape. By Spring 2018 I managed a couple of performances I'm proud of at the Around The Bay 30k (2:26) and the Sulphur Springs 50km trail ultra (5:40). But I lost motivation afterwards.

Aside from stresses associated with having had another kid (this little cutey), I'd say the main culprit for my lack of motivation was intermittent fasting, which I did for 9 months (no calories for 16 hours a day, 5 days a week). Ironically, I was doing this as a way to drop weight in order to get faster. But the experiment instead left me lacking energy and motivation. I learned a lot but definitely wouldn't recommend endurance athletes do any fasting.

Eventually I started jogging (and eating like a normal human) again and by the end of 2019 I'd built my mileage up to 60km per week (90-95% easy running at 5:40-6:10/km pace). By that point I was considering goals for 2020. (I wrote about that here.)

Warming up before the Chilly Half

But on top of my main goal of staying very consistent, why not race each of the main road race distances in 2020: 5k & 10k, half & full marathon? I'd be guaranteed a personal best time just by finishing because I've never raced them seriously before. Maximum self-knowledge under minimum pressure.

So I recently started working with coach Kevin Moore (Kinplus) on a training program for the road marathon (my long term focus) and told him I wanted to race the upcoming Chilly Half. For several weeks now I've been following "the program".

Originally my plan for the half-marathon in 2020 was just to get out there and show some fitness, hopefully getting under 1:45. I guess the base training I'd put in plus the few weeks with Kevin (who is a 1:11 half marathoner) led to the much better result of 1:38.00.0 (1:37 if I'd just leaned! Gah!)

The race plan was: since 4:45/km pace seems plausible, try to stick close to the 1:40 pace group (4:45/km pace), hopefully increasing the pace with 5k to go. I didn't execute quite right. I never saw the 1:40 pacer in the corral and ended up ahead. I instead ran the whole race in and around 1:38 / 4:38/km pace.

In the second half of the race a sort of mantra came to me, which I repeated to myself over and over: Don't fold. PRESS!

Finally with 5km to go I tried to make my big move and my body responded very badly forcing me to shut down. As I slipped back I glanced at my watch: 5:00/km pace. Dear Lord. Here we go. I was worried it was lights out. Thankfully I was able to work my pace back up gradually while avoiding any further clashes with my physical limit.

My kick with 500m to go was decent in the end so I know I left a dram in the tank (1:37! Dammit!). That doesn't bother me though because I know my potential is better than 1:37. How much better? That I don't know but I'm looking forward to figuring it out.