Higher Ground

later ‘11: ending on a high note at the schaumburg 1/2

Last Saturday, whilst back in the Chicago-land area for Thanksgiving, I capital ‘R’ Raced for the first time since…. July 2010? Yea, I guess so. Damn, that was longer than I had thought.

Sure, I’ve done a few races in the meanwhile, but just local 5Ks. And while enjoyable and a good opportunity to test myself physically and mentally, it’s just not a distance that I can get terribly excited for.

I won’t harp on the details, but in terms of running 2011 was less than ideal based on the hopes I had at around this time a year ago. However, getting back to running in the late summer/early fall was refreshing and I’ve been very happy with the progress since September. I’d really hoped to add a couple mountain races, 50ks and 50 milers to my resume this year, but clearly with work and money constraints, that wasn’t in the cards for this year. But, I figured the next best thing would be chasing down a personal best that I’ve had my sights set on for a while…

Enter the Schaumburg Turkey Trot Half Marathon. While my goal was to hit a PR in the race, and go under my previous best of 1:27:XX, run during the first half of the Veterans Memorial Marathon in Columbia City, Ind., I didn’t want to harp on that too  much, because the days leading into the race made me realize more than anything that I just wanted to get in a really good effort in a race environment. However, there were certainly things on my mind making me think that a PR was and wasn’t in the cards. I felt it was certainly possible because A) for the first time I realized in the three immediate days before the race that running near sea level in Illinois was incredibly easier than in Alamosa, B) my legs were feeling well-rested and fresh, and C) I hadn’t been experiencing any lower leg pain in a while. However, knowing that I hadn’t really done much in the way of hard running other than some 800 repeats left me totally unsure of what pace I could sustain over any real distance. I also wasn’t sure how the stuffing of the face and guzzling of beers during the 48 hours before the race would affect me.

As has been my modus operandi of late I did not wear a watch for the race, a first for me. Knowing that I’d be at least pretty happy with anything under 90 minutes, I lined up for the race just ahead of the 1:30 pace group, settling in between the guys you could tell were going to go out comically faster than they should and the others with obvious collegiate XC/track experience.

The race start was among the easiest I’ve ever hard. Despite needing to pass some dudes that clearly overestimated themselves in the first few hundred meters, the fact that the starting chute only allowed for about five people to take off at once cleared the course of any sort of traffic jam, and I pretty quickly settled in with a group of five others.

Though I didn’t have a watch on, I know that we clicked off the first mile a bit faster than I would have liked, in 6:09. How do I know this? Because just a few steps before the 1-mile marker I heard five Garmins beep in unison and a couple of my current cohorts announce the time. Though faster than I anticipated I should start, I was feeling incredibly comfortable (thank you, altitude) and knew that the strong wind at our backs was certainly beneficial.

Our group stayed around each other and packed fairly tightly for the first three miles, but then drifted apart, and I soon found myself leading a conga line, and then running all alone. I was surprised at this point how quickly racing tactics just seemed to take over. As soon as the footsteps faded out, I immediately found myself gently reeling in the next couple of runners ahead of me, and once even with them just settled into that group  for a mile or so.

Miles 3-10 were spent primarily in this way: catch a group or a runner a bit ahead of me, relax and run with them for a few moments, and then set my sights on the next group. It worked wonderfully, and I believe I was passed just once during the entire race while consistently moving up in the field.

A very encouraging sign was that on the out-and-back sections of the course, I could see runners a couple minutes ahead of me slowing down and looking wrecked, while I was keeping the pace up and feeling great. It was easy then to set my sights on catching that runner by mile X and focusing primarily on that goal.

The longest, windiest straightaway on the course went from mile 9 to 10, and I found myself holding my pace and making leaps and bounds of time up on the runners ahead of me. I caught a pair of runners who started the bike path about 100 yards ahead of me, and hung with them ‘til hitting the 10 mile marker. As good as I was feeling, I decided to turn this final 5k into an all-out effort and see how I’d respond physically and mentally.

The results: it turned out pretty good, and I crushed the final 5k loop, passing about 10 runners, most of whom I couldn’t even see around the first bend. The path was crowded with a great many walker from the 5k run/walk that began 30 minutes after the 1/2 marathon, but they were very polite in staying to the sides of the narrow bike path as we made our way.

I don’t even know if there was any sort of finish line clock for either the 1/2 marathon of 5k bunch, and didn’t even know my time until checking the website Saturday evening. My finish time, 1:25:40, was good for 31st overall and a nice PR of about two minutes. For not having really “trained” specifically for the race, I’m really happy with that!

And it’s got me feeling great about where I’m at right now heading into 2012. I’m not going to commit to anything too soon, but as the New Radicals once said, I’ve “got the dreamers disease”. There’s lots and lots of things on my radar and swirling around in that dome on top of my neck.

Last year at this time, I took a couple weeks completely off running, first with a total rest week and then a week of easy X-training. I won’t be taking time off running this year, but I’ll spend the month of December just doing one run a day and doing some X-training most days as well… already this week I’ve done some rowing, biking, elliptical, stair climbing, and would have added swimming as well but open swim hours were done by the time I was able to sneak out of the office at lunch yesterday (rats!).