Week of April 18-April 24
Monday: 7 miles through Yankton; 6:59 pace; felt great
Tuesday: 6 miles with Jordan around Yankton; 7:04 pace; felt decent
Wednesday: Didn't Run... Wanted to take a day off before the 1/2 marathon this week
Thursday: 6 miles in Sioux Falls; 7:07 pace; windy and ran a hilly route so it was a pretty good workout but felt good
Friday: 2 miles easy in Sioux Falls; felt great but wanted to keep mileage low for 1/2 tomorrow
Saturday: River Rat Half-Marathon in Yankton. This race started and finished on the river about 2 blocks from my house in Yankton so I decided it would be a great race and serve as a barometer for my Marathon in early June. The race started near the baseball field on the river just east of Broadway Ave and ran on the sidewalk towards the hospital and Mount Marty and then out towards the Dam before turning around and coming back. Sure enough, there was a pretty gusty headwind coming out of the west so the first half of the race was tough. Here is how it went by mile...
1- 6:47 - just trying to find a pace and settle in with some runners
2- 7:03 - ran in the back of a pack of 5 runners; very content to let somebody else lead into the strong headwinds
3- 6:35 - this included the large downhill just west of Yankton; our group of 5 split into 2 groups and I joined a group of 2 others up ahead
4- 6:43 - I was only planning to run 7-flats for the first half of the race but I was not going to run by myself in the wind so I just ran whatever pace the guy in front in the wind was running
5- 6:52 - wind was annoying but not terrible; just waiting to get done with this half of the race
6- 6:50
7- 6:44 - halfway through this mile we finally turned around and running with that wind at our back instead of into it felt AMAZING
8- 6:27- the 3 of us that were running together got some separation - probably about 10-20 seconds in-between each; the guy who ran out front was behind and I was in the middle
9- 6:27 - I only planned on running the 2nd half in 6:40-6:50 pace but I felt really good at this stage
10- 6:29
11- 6:55 - this included running back up the hill west of town
12- 6:16 - not sure what happened here; I honestly do not think that I could have run any faster or slower, my legs just felt like they were going on their own
13- 6:24 - started to feel a little pain by this time and I knew I wouldn't catch the guy in front of me and I could no longer see the guy behind me so just felt like I coasted in
Final Time: 1 hr 26 mins 39 seconds
I finished 4th overall of about 130 runners. Thomas Madut won the race and Michael Hoffman was 2nd. Thomas was a year behind me @ Lincoln High School in SF so I ran against him a bunch in HS and Hoffman runs for DSU in Madison and I know him quite well so it was fun to see those guys run well. The guy who finished 3rd goes to SDSU and has a pretty sweet blog... www.runningonthewhiteline.com
Complete results here
This was only my 2nd ever half-marathon and my first was not as competitive as I was just helping to pace some female teammates. I felt WAY better than I thought I would and in hindsight could have run a little faster, especially with better weather. Definitely a confidence booster for Deadwood
Sunday: Ran 3 miles easy in Marshall after going to church with my grandparents. Legs were a little sore but the run was toughest because the whole time I was starving and all I could think of was the meal that Grandma would have ready for Easter dinner when I got back!
Total Miles: 37
All in all a really good week. I realize that I will not get the mileage I originally wanted before my race but I should be ok as long as I get a couple more decent long runs in. My main goal is still to break 3 hours and I think it should be pretty close. I think the biggest thing will be to run smart and keep my pace under control the first half of the marathon.
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