Shamrockn Half-Marathon Report
My first race of 2009 was yesterday. The Shamrock'n Half-Marathon in Sacramento, CA.
I did not train specifically for this race, but used it as 13-mile training run. So up to this point, i had done a run of longer than 11 miles since my last half in November.
Drove up on Saturday and spent the night at a friend's place since I didn't wanna drive up at some ungodly hour on Sunday morning.
I was still up early though, about 4:45 AM and left the house about 5:30 and got to Raley Field at 6 am. A fair amount of people were there and it was COLD (for a CA boy), in the 40s and breezy. Wore my lightweight jacket, but didn't think i would wanna run in it, so I checked it. About 7 am, i was still really cold and went to the car to get my long-sleeve dry-fit shirt and put that on, so I was wearing 2 dri-fit shirts and hoped I wouldn't get too hot later on.
The race had 3 waves. Wave 1 started at 8 am and included runners with projected times under 9 min/mile and all relay runners. Wave 2 started at 8:10 and was for runners between 9 and 11 min/mile (this was my wave) and Wave 3 started at 8:20 for all runners over that plus the walkers.
Race started right on time and I waited for wave 2. Start was not too crowded and got going pretty quickly. I had decided to follow the 2:20 pace leader to see if I could keep up and I started out strong as always. First mile was across the Tower Bridge into downtown Sacramento and I could see the state capitol in the distance (averted flipping it :)). I passed the pace leader about mile 2 mainly because other slower runners were making it hard for me to follow. At Mile 3, the Wave 1 runners were just passing the Mile 5 mark on the other side, so I was making good time.
I hit my 10k time at about 1:04 which is a really good pace for me at 1:14 at mile 7 as I ran through Old Sacramento. I was thinking that I could just break 2:20 if things went as planned. By Mile 8, I could feel my digestive system waking up...bad news. Luckily at Mile 9 there were some porti-pottys, so it was pitstop time. I dunno about anyone else, but I wanna make sure if I take a pitstop that there wouldn't be anymore till after the race. So I took a bit longer than usual to make sure everything was taken care of and started back out again. I estimated it to be about 6-7 min of lost time.
At Mile 11 my legs really started to feel it. Quads were starting to fatigue fast. My hips were ok, so I kept on going. Hit Mile 12 and I started to do that self-talk and challenge to see how much I had left. It wasn't a whole lot, but I gave it all. I felt the adrenaline pump through my body as I came down the final straightaway. The finish was actually inside Raley Field down the 3rd base line and that line couldn't have come soon enough as I crossed at a chip time of 2:25:49. 50 seconds off my personal best, but I would have shattered it minus pitstop time.
A little disappointed, but I knew I left it all out there on the course because i had nothing left in the body afterward.
The course featured a lot of out and back routes, so it wasn't the most scenic, but it was mostly flat and doing the waves was pretty smart as there were about 4000 runners in the race.
I placed 176/206 in my division (not last haha) and got my Shamrock finisher medal.
Will post pics when I get them, but overall I'm happy with the results and now its back to training for the full marathon on May 31
Brian
~350
I did not train specifically for this race, but used it as 13-mile training run. So up to this point, i had done a run of longer than 11 miles since my last half in November.
Drove up on Saturday and spent the night at a friend's place since I didn't wanna drive up at some ungodly hour on Sunday morning.
I was still up early though, about 4:45 AM and left the house about 5:30 and got to Raley Field at 6 am. A fair amount of people were there and it was COLD (for a CA boy), in the 40s and breezy. Wore my lightweight jacket, but didn't think i would wanna run in it, so I checked it. About 7 am, i was still really cold and went to the car to get my long-sleeve dry-fit shirt and put that on, so I was wearing 2 dri-fit shirts and hoped I wouldn't get too hot later on.
The race had 3 waves. Wave 1 started at 8 am and included runners with projected times under 9 min/mile and all relay runners. Wave 2 started at 8:10 and was for runners between 9 and 11 min/mile (this was my wave) and Wave 3 started at 8:20 for all runners over that plus the walkers.
Race started right on time and I waited for wave 2. Start was not too crowded and got going pretty quickly. I had decided to follow the 2:20 pace leader to see if I could keep up and I started out strong as always. First mile was across the Tower Bridge into downtown Sacramento and I could see the state capitol in the distance (averted flipping it :)). I passed the pace leader about mile 2 mainly because other slower runners were making it hard for me to follow. At Mile 3, the Wave 1 runners were just passing the Mile 5 mark on the other side, so I was making good time.
I hit my 10k time at about 1:04 which is a really good pace for me at 1:14 at mile 7 as I ran through Old Sacramento. I was thinking that I could just break 2:20 if things went as planned. By Mile 8, I could feel my digestive system waking up...bad news. Luckily at Mile 9 there were some porti-pottys, so it was pitstop time. I dunno about anyone else, but I wanna make sure if I take a pitstop that there wouldn't be anymore till after the race. So I took a bit longer than usual to make sure everything was taken care of and started back out again. I estimated it to be about 6-7 min of lost time.
At Mile 11 my legs really started to feel it. Quads were starting to fatigue fast. My hips were ok, so I kept on going. Hit Mile 12 and I started to do that self-talk and challenge to see how much I had left. It wasn't a whole lot, but I gave it all. I felt the adrenaline pump through my body as I came down the final straightaway. The finish was actually inside Raley Field down the 3rd base line and that line couldn't have come soon enough as I crossed at a chip time of 2:25:49. 50 seconds off my personal best, but I would have shattered it minus pitstop time.
A little disappointed, but I knew I left it all out there on the course because i had nothing left in the body afterward.
The course featured a lot of out and back routes, so it wasn't the most scenic, but it was mostly flat and doing the waves was pretty smart as there were about 4000 runners in the race.
I placed 176/206 in my division (not last haha) and got my Shamrock finisher medal.
Will post pics when I get them, but overall I'm happy with the results and now its back to training for the full marathon on May 31
Brian
~350
Great report; Does make me realize I'm living in the wrong state!! In the 40's, hell that's shorts and a t-shirt (long sleeve if it's windy). Oh well, you'll probably never get the joy of running on a clear night at about 5 degrees -- it's a very spiritual experience, kinda hard to explain though. Very zen like.
Anyways, great report and great race!
--Dan
Anyways, great report and great race!
--Dan
Good job bro... train well for the full... you will do great.
Your Friend In Health & Sport,
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
I'm right there with you Brian, sad to say. Sounds like you still had a great race. My last half was also my personal best even with 3 pit stops. It's all good. Doc wants me to try using metamucil for a while before trying anything prescription. We'll see.
Thanks for sharing. It's still fun knowing you were running faster. You can feel it in your bones. It's truly great!
Take care Brian!
Linn
Thanks for sharing. It's still fun knowing you were running faster. You can feel it in your bones. It's truly great!
Take care Brian!
Linn
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