Thursday, February 7, 2013

ING Miami Half-Marathon 2013

A couple of weeks ago I flew down to Miami, FL to race at the ING Miami Marathon & Half-Marathon for the 4th year in a row (half in 2010, 2012, and this year; full in 2011). I was in great shape going into the weekend and it seemed as though very little could stop me from running a great time. The weather forecast never looked too bad, but I knew that could turn around in a hurry, and even if it ended up being just a little warmer or more humid than forecast I'd struggle to run as fast as I hoped to.

To put things in perspective, going into the weekend I had never run under 1:30 for just a half-marathon in Miami. I'd run 1:34:55 in 2010, 1:30:31 last year, along with 1:51 and 1:35 half-marathon splits on the two occasions that I raced Miami 70.3. Oddly enough, though, I ran 1:24:48 & 1:26:15 splits for each half of my marathon PR set in Miami in 2011. I don't recall it being quite that much cooler in 2011, but 10-15 degrees and less humidity can clearly make a big difference.

Annoyingly I also felt a slight ache deep in the back of my left thigh the night before the race. I tried not to worry about it too much but I mentally checked off all of the injuries that I seriously hoped it wasn't in my head. The following morning it didn't feel much better but I knew I could still make it through the race.

In the corral it was fairly crowded and with so many people around me I could feel myself begin to sweat before we even started to run! I knew I'd have to dial back my expectations a little so I judged my opening miles mostly on HR as I had done in my half PR race last February. The chaos of the corral made me forget to retie my shoes before the gun as I had intended, so I wasn't surprised when one came untied a mile into the race. While I've run most of a 5k with an untied shoe before, I wasn't about to do that for the next 12 miles so I laced back up shortly after the 1 mile mark (which I hit in 6:03). The second mile, including the brief stop to tie my shoe, was a solid 6:23 and I tried to remain as relaxed as possible over the next couple of miles. My HR was slightly above where I would have liked it to be, but the pace continued to lag - 6:19, 6:29, and 6:37 for the next few mile splits saw me drifting far off my target pace close to 6 minutes per mile. All I could do was keep pushing and try to avoid blowing up as badly as I did last year. 6:49 and 6:46 miles brought me to mile 7 and I thought to myself, "3 more miles until 10, then just 3 more after that."

With a few runners slowly beginning to pass me as I fell backwards through the field I plodded through the toughest stretch of the race with 6:45, 6:58, and 6:51 miles to bring me through mile 10. Just before the 15k mark a runner came up beside me and we began chatting about how we had both wanted to go way faster than we were running by that point. The camaraderie always tends to ignite my competitive spirit a little and I managed to pick the pace back up as we headed through the ING Cheer Zone at mile 11. I hit 6:41 for mile 11 and followed it up with 6:32 and 6:35 miles before kicking hard to the finish. According to my Garmin I ran the last 0.28 miles at 5:09 mile pace which doesn't necessarily surprise me after some of the kicks I've had in the last couple of months, but it does surprise me that it wasn't quite enough to close the gap in front of me completely.

All-in-all, I left Miami that afternoon having completed a half-marathon under 1:30 (1:27:19) and placed 82nd overall, a full 122 places higher than last year despite only going 3:12 faster. Later, when looking at the results, I noticed that the average times and times by place seemed to be about 3 minutes slower than last year. Having run 3 minutes faster under those conditions, then, makes me that much more content with the result. Finally, if we assume that the 3:12 I ran faster in Miami translates to that much faster next weekend in Myrtle Beach, I should be looking at running 1:14:31... but I'm not so sure it'll be that fast.

I also have to thank The Sport Factory for their help and support in my pursuit of my athletic goals as well as my dad, family, and friends for all of their support and hospitality. Incredibly I will be able to say I raced in Richmond, Kiawah Island, Miami, Myrtle Beach, & NYC between November and March without having to find a hotel, thanks so much everyone!

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