Pain and anoxia

I ran the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon this morning in beautiful Springfield, IL. Gun time was at 0730 after a speech by Abraham Lincoln, the National Anthem and a volley of musketry. I was lined up with my good pal IronTim and a newer pal, Ben. After the muskets went off I didn't see either of them until I finished.

My preparations for this very challenging course have been lacking the last five weeks due to IT band pain and an upper respiratory infection of some sort. I think I put in about 12 miles in the two weeks prior to today and I wasn't liking my chances of running 1:35 like I had hoped.

My goal for the first mile was to start slow in the neighborhood of 8:00. I let tons of people pass me the first few blocks and whenever I would feel myself speed up I would rein myself in and slow down. Mile one came in a very relaxed 7:37.28 (gun time, not chip). Usually when I say mile one felt relaxed it comes back and bites me in the ass so I made myself slow a bit more the second mile and started talking to a girl who was running beside me for the next mile, which we passed in 7:40.10 (15:17.38). I was starting to get into a groove but kept making myself slow down as it was still a bit too early for me to start knocking down faster and faster splits as the hills wouldn't start until the sixth mile. Mile three came and went in 7:44.37 (23:01.75). It should be noted that I was walking through the water stops so I could get the fluid in my gut instead of on my shirt, this will explain why my splits seem a bit up-and-down.

Mile four was still pretty flat and I decided to stretch the legs a little to the tune of a 7:32.68 (30:34.43) split. Mile five was more of the same in 7:38.15 (38:12.58). I took a Power Shot at the five mile mark and decided it was time to get rolling. I dropped a 7:24.48 (45:37.06) sixth mile through the first of our hills and followed up mile seven with a 7:34.86 (53:11.92). I passed a friend around the 7.5 mark and Tracy would come back to haunt me in the last mile and a half.

Mile eight gave us a brief respite from the bigger hills but presented us with a few rollers. I passed the eight mile mark in 1:00:35 with a 7:23.88 split. I knew that all I had to do at that point was run the last 5.1 miles in about 39:00 to go under the 1:40 Promised Land. I followed up with a 7:31.99 (1:08:07) ninth mile and was starting to feel the burn.

I knew if I could make it through Oak Ridge Cemetery and up the hill past Lincoln's Tomb to the ten mile mark without being in too much distress I could put myself in a good position to reach my Promised Land.

I had started the race wearing two shirts, sleeves, a headband and a pair of socks that were disposable gloves. I ditched the shirt a mile and a half in, the socks got dropped around three, the sleeves came off somewhere around seven and my awesome Nike headband came off a mile later and was stuffed down the back of my shorts with my sleeves.

As I headed into Oak Ridge I discovered that my good friend Patty (who likes to talk a lot of crap about how she is going to beat me in the longer stuff) was only about 30 seconds behind me with a bit over three miles to go. I smiled and yelled "good job" at her and headed down the long downhill into Oak Ridge. Once the bottom of said hill was reached you have to pull a u-turn and run up the hill past the Tomb and back out of the grounds. This is where I started my long and disastrous breakdown last year.

As I was powering effortlessly up the hill I felt a slight "twang" in my waistband about halfway up. Without breaking stride I looked back to see my beloved Nike headband laying forlornly in the middle of the road.

I left it where it was.

I ran the tenth mile in 7:24.68 and went through with a total time of 1:15:32, 22 seconds faster than last year and much more in control. I refused water at the next stop and ran up the last big hill into Lincoln Park. I ran too hard up the hill and felt my form start breaking up after cresting the hill and heading to the 11 mile marker about a quarter of a mile in. I tried latching onto a guy and having him pull me through and we went through the mile in 7:27.90 (1:23:00). I knew I was still in good shape to go under 1:40 and all I had to do was run 2.1 miles in 16:59.

As a final insult there is one last little incline heading out of Lincoln Park after which was a nice long, gentle downhill to the 12. I staggered up and out of the park, carrying my arms and starting to gasp and was unable to do much but put one foot in front of the other as I lost contact with the guy I'd been running with and was passed by Tracy and two other guys.

I ran my slowest mile in 7:58.80 and passed through 12 in 1:30.59. I had NINE minutes left and I knew that I'd need almost all of them. I spent the last 1.1 trying to get my arms to relax and to get my lungs to take in air and I willed myself to a 7:44.53 (1:38:43) split for my 13th mile.

I started graying out the last 0.1 and barely had enough presence of mind to hit my split time as I crossed the finish line in 1:39:25.

Once I finished I was held upright by Martha (who probably would have been the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen at that point IF I could have focused) and another finish line marshal who together ushered me into a chair and gave me one of those space blankets.

After sitting there for a good five minutes I staggered to my car for my dry clothes and into the post-race party for food and drink. My pals all ran well with Ben running 1:30:50, the Bionic Woman running in the 1:33 range, Tim finishing in the 1:34s, Tracy gunning me down by a minute and dear, sweet, crap talking Patty finishing not quite ten seconds behind me.

My official time: 1:39:21. Official place: 107th. Time improvement from last year: 5:25. Place improvement from last year: -4. That's right, I actually finished four places worse than last year.

I am VERY happy with my race. I think I could have done better if my training had been more consistent but I'm not going to complain about improving my PR by 4:02 on such a difficult course.

Next year I'm going to see if I can't drop another 4:02.