Getting older... getting faster - Seymour Half Marathon Race Report

Seymour Half Marathon (5/3) - P1 overall - race time 1:16:42 (13.1 mile time 1:17:26)
Strava data from this race

On May 1st I turned 44 - not a momentous age milestone, not even a change in age group, and I didn't really pay it much attention.  The age group fact isn't strictly true because of a strange quirk in season start / end definition I actually have a Cyclocross racing age of 45 now!  I only started running seriously in 2010 and I've enjoyed a continuous improvement in both my 5k and half marathon times.  With my recent PR at Louisville, I was wondering if this would be a turning point.  It's hard to imagine running faster, the training intensity and race effort were quite daunting - I was starting to think that things would be downhill from here, certainly for the half marathon - I still have aspirations to break 17 mins for a 5k race this year!

The Seymour half marathon is a small race promoted by the Crossroads of Indiana race series, it's the same weekend as the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon but has only 200-300 people vs 30,000 in Indy - far more relaxed and easy to access.  I'd signed up ages ago with no real agenda, two weeks after Louisville and two weeks before the Dances With Dirt team relay race, it was always going to be "just another run".  I had a plan to make it a training race - run 4 miles hard, take a mile easy, run 3 miles hard, take a mile easy, run hard to the finish.  My race preparation was very different to Louisville - instead of careful diet, focusing on good things to help my body perform, I had my birthday meal out, drank more than I would normally in a week and ate a lot of birthday cake.  The night before the race, Clare and I went to Bloomington on a date night and consumed hot dogs, pulled pork nachos and dips at Quaff ON! Bloomington as well as couple of beers and a late night!

I set out fast at the start of the race per the "training plan" however, when I got to 4 miles (on schedule @ 5:50 min/mile) I still felt good, the next couple of miles were both sub 6:00 and then I started to think that I could perhaps break my PR, a year older than I just set it!  After a pleasant run out into the country north of Seymour we made a turn-around and I face a block head wind for about 1.5 miles back into town, despite this, my pace stayed good, all below 6:00 min/mile which meant with a push in the last 5k I should be able to go under my Louisville time.  I was conscious that the race course mile markers were coming early relative to my GPS watch markers, coming into the finish I knew that the official distance would be short of 13.1 miles but with a PR in mind, I resolved to run on after the finish to get to 13.1 miles by my GPS - which in fact is probably still short of an official USATF course distance despite my efforts to run the shortest course.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous continuing through the finish shoot at race pace and running off down the road, but I wanted to know what a real half time would have been.  My GPS watch measured the race at 12.98 miles with a race time of 1:16:42.  I ran on to a GPS distance of 13.11 miles in a time of 1:17:26 which I feel is a legitimate PR, some 19 secs faster than my Louisville effort.

All this goes to show that preparation isn't everything - sometimes it all just comes together when you're not really expecting it.  I certainly put less pressure on myself for this race compared to Louisville, maybe that is a factor.  I also went out harder than I would normally, I am a conservative pacer and paranoid about "blowing up", going out hard and holding on to a pace at the finish is something I'm rarely brave enough to do and I think that was a bigger factor in this race than anything else.

My team mate Joe Bell came home 3rd overall and Sara Martin took first place female with a PR, cheered home by her parents.  Joe and I were also able to cheer on Chasity Smith (although not wearing a Quaff ON! jersey, she's the brains behind our race kit design and logos).

Joe Bell; Tim Proctor; Sara Martin
Quaff ON!

Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon Race Report

This was it, my "A" race for the first part of the year.  The hard training, the losing weight, the taper tensions all added up to this race, my goal to go under 1:18:00 for the 13.1 miles.

I rode my bike Friday and had a great time, didn't try too hard and felt great.  On Friday evening I headed down to Louisville, there's no race morning packet pick-up, so the day before race trip was necessary.  Instead of facing the drive home again and the 4am wake-up to drive back down to Louisville, I stayed at a hotel out of town near the Cyclocross track at Eva Bandman park.

Louisville looked pretty good in the spring evening sunset

I ate pasta with my family before leaving Columbus, later in the evening I had a baked egg

Protein & Carbs

from the Skratch Labs Feedzone Portables book as well as a U-Go bar, this "last supper" was washed down with some Hare Trigger beer and a large glass of Beetroot juice - not exactly an inspiring culinary experience but quality fuel for the task ahead of me.

Waking up at 6am was far better than the 4am alternative even if the price paid was not sleeping in my own bed and a hotel air conditioning unit which sounded like a small aircraft trying to take off in my room!

A short drive had me parked about a mile from the start location, it was a cool morning, but not cold.  I started a short warm up run, after about half a mile I picked up the pace to what felt like a comfortable race effort.  Looking at my GPS, I was at 5:45 min/mile - faster than my target pace, and my legs felt good.  Sometimes in these brief warm up efforts, you just get the feeling that it's going to be a good day - today was one of those days.

After 2.5 miles of warm up I arrived at the start.  I hadn't appreciated how big this race was going to be.  With the mini-marathon and full marathon combined, there were over 16,000 participants - that's a lot of people trying to use a porta-potty within 30 mins of the start!

I was seeded in coral A based on my projected finish time - this was great - only the second time in my life I've been brave enough to stand right at the front of a big race & watch as the elite athletes (who don't get a coral) finished their warm ups and lined up just ahead of us.  My Quaff ON! Racing team mate, Danny Fisher was running the full marathon and as a previous champion was seeded #6.  It was great to see a friendly face and shake hands before the start, even though I knew I wouldn't see him again until he finished his race!

There were two things I noticed about my peers in the race - this is a group of people who've all trained and are strong enough to run a half marathon at around 6 min/mile pace, so they're all experienced runners
First - within the first 5 miles, 2 people stopped to tie shoe laces, one of them ran past me again, then stopped again to tie the other shoe lace!
Second - the number of people not running the shortest course.  USATF certifies the course over the shortest distance, the roads are closed which means you run corner to corner.  I passed people running the left hand gutter like it was a training run expecting oncoming traffic.
So my takeaways from this, even for experienced runners is (1) always double tie your shoes, really, it takes no additional effort, just do it! (2) run the shortest course - turn off the training mentality and look for the line corner to corner.
Sounds basic, it is basic, but there are plenty of people running semi-elite times that aren't paying attention to these basics.

My race quickly settled into a rhythm with my pace at or just below my target of 5:58 min/mile.  It quickly got thinned out and by 10k there were really only 3 or 4 people around me. The course goes through the Churchhill Downs race course, as we dipped back under the tunnel to start the dead straight 4 miles to the finish, Paul Althoff, caught up with me and we exchanged a few panted words about our objectives - both wanting to break 78 mins - we came through 10 miles in 59:33, I knew it would be a close call to hit my goal time - we remained in sight of each other to the finish briefly exchanging positions as one started to fade, or the other felt strong it was good motivation to stay on pace and definitely helped me when the going got tough.  We were running into a head wind which at first was hardly noticeable but the closer we got to the down town, the taller the buildings got and channeled the wind directly at us.  The final mile of this was truly miserable, culminating in running under the long bridge of the conference center which was like a full-on wind tunnel.  I kept telling myself that once we turned out of the wind onto Main Street for the final 0.6 miles, I'd find some speed but when we finally made the turn, there was nothing left to accelerate, just maintaining pace was taking my full effort.  Finally I made the last turn to the down hill finish and found something to pick up the pace.  I could see the clock already past 1:17:00, with a weak surge I crossed the line with an official race time of 1:17:45.

Finishers medal 1:17:45 - new PR!

I had beaten my goal time, I came 23rd overall (out of 11,800 starters!) and won my age group.  A result I'm really proud of - the preparation in training paid off.

After a short cool down run back to the car, I was able to cheer on Danny Fisher who finished 4th overall in the marathon with a PR time of 2:30:18 - he'd just run two half marathons back to back faster than my personal best - a humbling thought!  Also running the full marathon (his second in 7 days) was team mate Joe Bell, who come in at 2:58 - sub 3 hour marathons are becoming the norm for Joe who's endurance and persistence are inspiring.

Tim Proctor, Danny Fisher, Joe Bell
Quaff ON!

Link to my Strava activity for this race

Taper Tension

Like many people at this time of year, I'm in a taper week ahead of a big race.  For me it's the Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon.
Some people (like Danny Fisher) hardly taper, but normally these are seasoned runners with high mileage weeks being the norm in their life.  My experience leads me to taper quite a lot, this week I'll run about 50% of a normal week.  That sounds great "just run a lot less than you usually do" but actually it's hard.
In training, I feel in control - I set objectives which I either meet or fail to meet, this guides me and gives me feedback on how my body is adapting.  This close to the race, there's no more adapting going to happen - the "money is in the bank" and this loss of control, no more chance to influence the outcome, is what plays on my mind.

Beet, Carrot & Apple... Quaff ON!

Doing less work, means watching the diet more closely to avoid last minute weight gain, but it also means eating the right foods to ensure muscles and metabolism are recovered & fully charged for the hard race effort ahead.  I'm a big believer in raw vegetables and this week I'm drinking a lot of beetroot, carrot & apple juice made fresh with a juicer.  Beetroot has a scientifically proven benefit for endurance sport performance, helping the body transport oxygen to the muscles more efficiently.  The rest of the diet needs to ensure enough protein and vitamins to help recover strength as my body rests as well as the carbohydrates needed to charge up the muscles ready for work.

Taper doesn't mean no work, it's important to keep some intensity so I went to Track Tuesday and completed a short, but fast pre-race workout just as we did before the Hoosier Half a couple of weeks ago.  I've got a short run planned today where I'll hit target race pace for 1/2 - 3/4 mile just to remember what it feels like.
Normally Friday would be a complete rest day, but it's the Good Friday holiday here and the one day in the year when I don't have to go to work but the kids have to go to school!  I'm making the most of this and riding with a friend to Bloomington where we'll meet our wives for brunch at Farm, before driving home again.  An easy 50 mile spin on the bike will loosen up my legs without adding significant fatigue and I'll recover with some good food and an early night.

Hoosier Half Marathon - Race Report

I planned to run the Hoosier Half as a training event building up to my PR goal race in Louisville 2 weeks later.  It was also one of the focus races for the Quaff ON! Race team as we celebrate the soon to open tap house, Quaff ON! Bloomington, QOB (on Grant St just north of Kirkwood) so we wanted as much representation as possible.  The promise of a party afterwards at the new QOB location was the icing on the cake!

This was my first time running the Hoosier Half Marathon in Bloomington.  I'd heard tell of the hilly course and most of my team mates at Quaff ON! ran the course in training whilst I was enjoying the warmer weather in Alabama over Spring Break.  This left me unprepared for the variations in pace over the course but since this was a training event for me, I decided to roll with team mate, Danny Webb, who had a master plan which went something like this:

• 6:15 average for the first 3 miles (18:45)...19:30 5k
• 6:05 average for the next 3 miles (18:15)...19:00 5k 38:30 10k
• 6:10 average for next 3 miles (18:30)...19:15 5k 1:01:40 @ the 10 mile split
• 6:05 average for the next 3 miles (18:15)....19:00 5k
• Finish with whatever is left in the tank

There was a great atmosphere at the start, the event was hosting the NIRCA national championships so lots of teams representing their clubs, everyone got pretty pumped up. The start of the Half Marathon was simultaneous with the 5k race start and it was downhill so we fully anticipated a lightning fast getaway from the gun. In an attempt to stick to Danny's pacing plan, about 5 of us had deliberately hung back from toeing the line and then had to cut through 30-40 slower runners in the first quarter mile.

The reality of the challenge in this race really came home in the 4th mile - just as we were supposed to be picking up the pace to 6:05 there was a serious hill climb which had me gasping for breath and legs hurting from the effort - I think Danny must have forgotten about that one when he put the plan together! We regrouped and made time back up on the downhill hitting our target time at the 10k mark.

I always feel some relief at the 10k mark in half marathons, it's not really half way, but psychologically it always seems to be OK to think "I've just got to do that over again and I'll be in the final mile..."

This course however had no respect for the false hope instilled by getting to halfway, miles 8 and 9 were really hilly forcing big variations in pace and effort which are much more tiring than just running steady on the flat. As we hit the biggest of the hills in this section of the course (leading up to mile 9) Danny started to fade and I was feeling pretty good so pushed on, opening up a gap as we climbed.

I passed the 10 mile mark at 1:01:35 - the 10 mile mark is another huge psychological moment for me in half's - it means there's "just" 5k left to go. I knew from our short warm up run that the final mile was pretty much all uphill. My original training plan had been to cruise the last 3 miles but the excitement of the race got the better of me and I pushed on. The course was still hilly but the fluctuations were much less, more steady grades, and I found I was able to settle into a pretty good rhythm, right up to the final hill around 12.5 miles. It felt like I was crawling up it - some spectators gave much needed encouragement and I was passing other people, but it didn't feel like I had any forward momentum.

My race time was 1:20:10, I won the 40-49 age group and was 43rd place overall. It was a really challenging race and this result gave me great confidence in my training & preparation for Louisville.

 After the race, we regrouped at QOB, with pulled pork from Big Woods in Nashville and Quaff ON! beer to enjoy on the deck. I got the chance to meet up with new Quaff ON! team mate Matt Flaherty who's the "real deal" - a professional runner, owning the US 50 mile road race championship course record and numerous Ultra Marathon running victories. He'd run the 5k race (winning in 14:59) with team mate Danny Fisher, who came home 2nd (15:27) - It's an honor to call great athletes like them my team mates.

Pink Power 5k Race - Thinking of Spring....When will Winter end?

After the Ultra Cross race at Southern Cross my focus turns from cycling to running and Spring half marathons.  I'm aiming to break my PR of 1:19:48 when I run the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon in Louisville, KY on April 19th.  I'm aiming to go under 1:18:00 with a target race pace of 5:54 min/mile.

The bad weather in Indiana has prevented most serious speed workouts with tracks covered in snow and roads icy or snow covered so there's lots of work to do. There are 8 weeks until the race to build up speed and the strength to sustain it over the race distance.

This week the weather was just about kind enough and the Quaff ON! team were able to meet up for "Track Tuesday" which has only happened on two other occasions in 2014.  On Satruday, after two easy days and a rest day, the Crossroads of Indiana Race Series Pink Power 5k race started at 9am.  I planned to use this race as part of a workout which I had dreamed up - in the cold wintry parking lot outside Hamilton Ice Center it was not feeling like such a good idea.... I planned to run the course 3 times at my target half marathon race pace, twice before the race, with a 4 minute recovery and then run the race after a 5-6 minute break.  It's easy to back out of hard sessions like this, particularly when it's something you're doing on your own, so I posted a message to my team mates on Friday evening with my plans by way of making the commitment & knowing they'd be chasing me up to see how I got on - that's enough peer pressure to make me follow-through!

I started my repeats at 8:15 and ran 18:22 for the first time over the race course which is twisty and if anything slightly long.  After a 4 minute recovery, I ran the second repeat in 18:46 - this was by far the hardest psychologically.  Finally, I lined up for the race with nearly 300 other people.  Team mates, Joe Bell and Sara Martin were there as well and I knew that with the other people around me in the race, the third repeat would be easier than the second.  Joe set a fast pace at the start opening a small gap by the mile mark, we were together with the rest of the field about 10 secs back.  In the middle of the race, Joe moved ahead as I was feeling the effects of the previous efforts however, my pace was still good as far as my training target.  Towards the end of the race, it felt like I as starting to close down the gap but Joe won easily about 9 secs ahead of me, my time being 18:13.  It was great to see Sara come home 3rd overall out kicking her rival for the women's victory, Melissa Truex, over the final tenth of a mile.  So the Quaff ON! team took 1, 2, 3 and 1st in the women's race - a great result on the day.  We were all surprised because in previous years, this event has drawn a fast field and our times would barely have been top 10 results in last years race (see below), but you've got to show up to end up in the results and a "W" is a "W" no matter what!

Here's a link to the race section on Strava

My 3 efforts today on the course:

The average pace over the 3 x 5k course distance is 5:54 / mile - exactly my target!

Results from 2014 and 2013

 The Quaff ON! Team finishing 1-2-3

Joe Bell

Tim Proctor

Sara Martin