Marin County Half Marathon Race Recap

Yesterday, for the third consecutiveyxar, I ran the Marin County Half Marathon. It’s a great race put on by a very good friend of ours. if you live in the area and haven’t yet done this race, it comes highly recommended. They have a 10k and a 5k, too (my son won the 5K a few years back!).

I signed up for this a few days before the race. I have been working with a coach these past few weeks and have upped my training a bit. As a result, I was feeling *really* lethargic and tired last week. So much so that I had very modest expectations going into this race, especially considering that I had a what I felt like was a very good race here last year.

I should add that this race is a combination of road and trail race. I have never done anything quite like it. Literally the first 6.6 miles are all rolling road miles and the last 6.5 are mostly on the hills of China Camp.

Knowing the course and realizing that the back end is very hilly, I dialed it back on the road portion. They had pacers and I decided to lock into the 1:45 group, figuring that a 1:45 on this course could be a good goal, as my previous course best was 1:48.

I stayed with them for the first 5 miles or so and then accelerated a bit, knowing I would probably need to bank some time if I wanted a 1:45 finish.

I kept the pace around 7:40’s for the road portion and felt mostly under control. I did experience some fatigue as we approached the trail, which isn’t unexpected given that I’ve done a lot of mileage the past three weeks.

The trails where exactly what I expected. I was ok on the flats and downhills but really suffered on the climbs. I thought I was doing ok until around mile 9 when the 1:45 pacer cruised past me like I was standing still. That was disheartening as I thought for sure I would be far off my time from last year. I plowed through though and when I finally got back to the road for the last .75 mile downhill finish, I really pushed hard. The finish came sooner than expected and I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 1:46:58; a two minute improvement over last year’s time and a course PR. I also finished fifth in my age group.

At the finish I met up with he 1:45 pacer. I asked him what was up and he said since he didn’t have any runners with him he accelerated the pace and finished in 1:42. So it turns out I really wasn’t all that far behind my goal time/his pace group. There’s a lesson in there, somewhere.

So, I guess that’s a stoke. Along with the Warriors and Yankees win (I went to the Yankees game right after the race) and the Battle for Winterfell, it made for a very nice day.

 

Fall marathon?!

I need one. I am committed to giving this quixotic mission of mine to qualify for Boston a third go.

Here is what is NOT in contention: Chicago (sold out) and California International Marathon (conflict with a family obligation). Here is what IS presently in consideration: St George’s in Utah and Grandma’s in Minneapolis.

St. George on paper sounds pretty good as it features a pretty significant net downhill. However, a good portion of the race is at elevation – 5600 feet – and I such at elevation.

So, this is my first-world liimma of the day. However, I am open to suggestions? Anyone?

(Ps. I suspect some of you might say NYC. I’ve done that two times, it’s sold out and I don’t think I could run a terribly fast time on that course, so probably out)

Review: Petzl Bindi

These days I’m trying to go as super light as possible in terms of my running gear. Which is king of ironic, given that I am a bit of a pack rat. But that’s a post for another day.

As one who runs 90 percent of the time during the early morning, having a solid, reliable headlamp is critical. My old, one, which I had for almost three years, had a good run (pun intended I guess), but was starting to show its age. So, I started to do some research and landed on the 35 ounce Petal Bindi. I liked everything about it except for its run time, but the truth be told, with rare exception (like, Ragnars) I’m really not running for 2+ hours in the dark. For the vast majority of my runs I really only need light for 30-40 minutes, tops.

And for those purposes, this bad boy really rocks. It has three lighting modes, with a maximum of 200 lumens, which for me is more than sufficient. It’s as light as a feather. In fact, it’s light enough that I take it with me pretty much everywhere I go when traveling. I can’t see the downside to throwing it in my suitcase and oftentimes, I do find myself running at night while on business travel.

So, if you are looking for a nice, light headlamp to get through relatively short periods of time, this is the one for you.