Harbor Lights Half Marathon Race Report

When I signed up for this race I figured it would be a bit cold, but I didn't expect it to pour rain the entire race.  The weather at the start was 49 degree with showers. This presented the dilemma of what to wear. I choose shorts, a very light weight long sleeve tech shirt and a very light weight rain/wind jacket. I debated the jacket but I was glad to have it. The start of the race was also delayed about 15 minutes due to traffic issues on the course. My goal for this race was to beat my previous PR of 1:42:46, and hopefully go under 1:40.

Cold and wet but not too crowded at the start.

My strategy was to take the first three miles at a 7:30 pace and then evaluate how I was feeling. In my head I knew I could probably just keep that pace and then kick it up the last 3 miles. That plan didn't work. I made a critical mistake. At mile 5 I grabbed some water to drink. I don't know why, I wasn't even really thirsty. The water was cold. I gurgled it down while not really stopping because I like water-boarding myself and then at mile 5.15 I felt a cramp coming on. This has happened to me before so I knew what to expect. And what I expected was pain. That pain was a side stitch to be more accurate. It kicked in full gear and it literally staggered me. If you've never had one it feels like someone is taking a rake to the inside of your ribs and it's almost always on the right side of your body. Oddly enough scientists don't even really know why they happen. But they do happen and glugging water, like I did, is a known cause.

Pay no attention to the heart rate. I don't think it works well when it's raining, it messes up the optical sensor.

I had to slow my pace considerably. I even walked for a few seconds which is humbling. This happened in my last half and I remembered that it DOES go away after a while. And by a while I mean a few miles. While extremely painful it doesn't cause any injury. So I tried to relax, I went slower, and I simply ran through the pain. You can see on my pace chart (above) how my pace (in blue) dips hard when the cramp hit. Little by little was able to work myself back up to my goal pace, but I did lose valuable time, and it hurt.

Around mile 8 I felt like I could run normal again. However, the cramp feeling never went away and always seemed to be threatening to return. Even with the cramp in the background I was able to plod through the remaining wet miles. I even managed to run a pretty fast final mile!

Look! My feet aren't touching the ground!

My sweet wife came out in the rain with our three kids to cheer me at the finish. There was hardly anybody there due to the rain and cold. She is truly amazing and I'm a blessed man to have her support and friendship.

16th place in my age division out of 121. 124th place overall out of 2122 people.

My official time was 1:40:32 which is a new PR for me! I'm very happy about making a new PR. However, I am also left wanting a bit more. I feel very confident that if I could have avoided the cramp I could have ran a sub 1:40. Oh well, that just means I have to try again!

Update: I looked at my GPS again and it says I actually finished a Half in 1:39:46! While that's not my official time, I'll take it!

Oh, and about my goal to run the tangents? I think I did pretty well. My Garmin reported I ran 13.13. Several people around me had their watch's mile lap alarm going off 10-20 seconds before mine the whole way. I even heard one woman report she ran 13.41!

Tl:DR Rained the whole race, got side cramps at mile 5, recovered and still PR'd. 

 

It's Science

Ever wonder why you run faster during a race? Or why you just seem to fly off the starting line during a 5k even though you told yourself before the start to 'take it easy'? Well it turns out it's science. A recent article in the Physiology & Behavior journal looked at "the influence of the presence and absence of competitors on pacing, overall running performance, and mood state during a self-paced run". Basically they compared how amateur runners (like me) ran 3 km alone verse being in a group. The results are not particularly surprising. The runners ran faster overall, faster during the first 500 m, and perceived the effort/fatigue level at the end as less than when running alone.

I'm on the far right in the green. There's nothing like the pre race jitters.

The findings of this study suggest "that the presence of competitors induces a fast start, which results in an improved overall performance and reduced post-exercise vigor scores, compared to an individual run." There is something going on in the brain that makes us able to run faster, do better, and feel less tired about the whole experience when we have competition. In other words if you want to become a faster runner it's a good idea to run more races!

Look at these silly boys madly charging up the hill as the gun goes off.

For shorter distances, like a 5k, it's not always beneficial to fight the "run-fast" urge at the start. Going out fast against competition doesn't necessarily mean you will run slower overall. In fact the study indicated that running the first 500 m fast is part of how you end up with a faster overall time. Everyone seems to talk about how beneficial negative splits are. They certainly are the goal for longer races but not necessarily for the 5k. Other studies have shown that running the first mile of a 5k 3% faster than goal pace is the optimal pacing strategy. Forget trying to achieve a negative split, just run fast the first mile....but not too fast. How fast is too fast? If the first mile is run more than 6% faster than the goal pace you are likely to crash and burn. So if you're running a 5k, don't feel so bad about going out fast, you just might end up with PR.

In other news: I am enjoying enduring my taper week. Not running is actually harder than it sounds. I also have the strong urge to go pick up heavy metal things and put them back down in an attempt to build muscle, but I am resisting that urge so my body is rested, recovered, and ready for the Half Marathon on Sunday.

Marathon training for the spouse

I stand corrected; humble pie is your husband running more than double the miles of you in a week.

People often neglect the fact that training for a race is a sacrifice.  It's a sacrifice of time and energy and money.  However, even more neglected is the fact that it is a sacrifice for the spouse of the one training.  Perhaps it means giving up something financially so you can pay for the race or maybe it means giving up a Sunday afternoon together so they can get in that long run.  At this stage in our life, Ben and I have found it nearly impossible to run races together because of our kids.  They are too young for us both to sacrifice time and energy and we can't just leave them home alone to go to the race early in the morning (plus, who wants to babysit at 5 am?!).  We've run one half marathon together and it required my mom flying in all the way from Kansas to help us out.

The Crawlin' Crab half marathon

It can also be really hard not to get jealous of Ben.  Sometimes I'm jealous of the time he has to run or the pace he can keep or even how good of shape he is in now.  I want to be there too.  He gets to write fun posts like 'My Week in Review' and my week in review is no where near exciting or impressive.  It's humbling, to say the least, but in spite of all this, I firmly believe these sacrifices are worth it.  They teach our kids that we support one another and loving someone means sacrificing for them.

Ben's had his fair share of sacrifices over the years.  I hurt my ankle during our one half marathon together and Ben had to sacrifice placing in our annual hometown 5k race to run with our daughter the following weekend.  That was a painful sacrifice...3 miles in 50 minutes=pain!

He also made sacrifices for me when I was training for my first half marathon.  He brought the kids down to cheer for me as I crossed the finish line and it is a moment that I will never forget.  I know getting our kids up at 6 am and driving an hour and sitting in traffic and navigating crowds is not something he was excited about doing, but he did it for our family and I am so thankful they were there!

Sixty Four

Sixty four is the number of turns in the Harbor Lights Half Marathon. Ouch. It's like they gave a crayon and a map of downtown Norfolk to a child and asked them to draw a race route. I guess the turns will keep me from zoning out and going into cruise control mode. Though the course is very flat the number of turns makes me think it won't be a naturally fast race.

My strategy is to run the tangents. A tangent is simply a straight line that just touches the curve. In other words, run the shortest distance possible. If done correctly you can shave off a good amount of distance and it is completely legal to do. The idea is to not 'swing out' before a turn, or cross to the other side of the road too early. Simply run the shortest distance possible from one point to the other. Not only is this good advice but it is actually how race courses are measured. If you don't do this you will probably run more than the actual race distance. The USA Track and Field Course Certification Manual says that "a race course is defined by the shortest possible route that a runner could take and not be disqualified." This route is actually very difficult to follow due to the throngs of other people. In fact USATF also states that "most runners don’t actually run the SPR (shortest possible route), so the distance recorded by their GPS device will usually be longer than the certified length of the course." They don't care though. The point of the race certification is to make sure you run at least the distance the course is certified for. Thanks a lot.

People smarter than me have done calculations to see how much distance you lose if you run the outside of a 90 degree turn verse the inside. It comes out to about 40 feet. So there are 64 turns in this race. That means there is a possible variance in distance from the turns alone of 2560 feet or 0.48 mile! That could easily be a 4-5 minute swing of time just by running the corners smartly.



Red turn = good, blue turn = bad

The main enemy of this strategy for me is People (because they won't just get out of my way for some reason), pot-holes (I like my ankles working), and the simple fact that I just don't ever think about this when doing my regular runs during the week. I'll be sure to post what my GPS watch says I ran for the race when it's all over.

In other news I ran four miles at lunch on my normal at-work run route. It's an out and back that has about a two miles through the woods on a trail.  On the way back I saw a snake, screamed like a girl, and pranced around for about 10 seconds. Snakes aren't cool. They should stay off the running path.

Cheerios?

General Mills, the company that makes Cheerios, is being sued for false advertisement and misleading labeling. The issue has to do with the Protein Cheerios. Apparently the box claims it has 7 grams of protein per serving. Regular Cheerios only has 3 grams. But the serving size for Protein Cheerios is 55 grams while the serving size for regular cheerios is 28 grams, see the problem? The box claims it is a high protein variant of cheerios, but you are only getting more protein because you are eating twice as much per serving! Not only that, Protein Cheerios has a whopping 17 grams of sugar per serving. Compare that to normal cheerios with just 1 gram of sugar per serving.  To put it into perspective 4 grams of sugar is equal to about 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. That means that a serving of this stuff has over 4 teaspoons of sugar dumped on! They should have called it 'Cheerios Sugar'.

Protein is very important for muscle recovery and lots of companies are trying to 'cash-in' on the protein craze. You should eat a good amount of protein, especially if you are active. Many experts suggest around 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight.   But you don't want that protein accompanied by a bunch of unnecessary sugar. The point to all this is make sure you read your nutritional labels carefully. Just because it says 'protein' on it does not mean it's healthy.

And just because it's vegan doesn't make it healthy either.

Week in Review

This week has been a week full of miles. I didn't really mean to run so much but it felt great. Actually I mentally consider Monday's 12 mile run to be part of last week's cycle. I am feeling very fast and fit right now. This gives me hope for a PR next Sunday at the Half Marathon.

I get to run some beautiful places

Alison my 8 year old daughter is running a fun-mile on Saturday, the day before my Half Marathon. So we have been getting in some training runs for her. I am very careful not to push her and I just want her to have fun. She has been having a great time running. She really wanted to do this race and she has been asking to do 'training' runs. I doubt I would be able to run like her when I was 8. 

A couple of observations for the week:

1. Baklava is a great pre-workout snack before a long run. Seriously give this a try. Alison is studying Greece in school so I decided to make some baklava for her. I had a piece before my long run today and also before my Navy PRT on Thursday. Perfect. Sugar, carbs, and protein from the nuts. I'm not sure you need anything else. It is 349 calories per serving, 35g carbs, 22g fat, 4g protein, and 19g sugar. Ok, it's not for the sedentary but it is great to fuel up before a big run!

2. Enjoying your runs is important. I seriously can't emphasize this enough. Today I saw a huge perfect looking pine cone while on my run. I picked it up and decided to bring it home. I don't know why. Maybe to show the kids, maybe for decoration, maybe because I just liked it. Yes, this means I ran with a pine cone in my hand for about 4 miles, don't judge. I got a few strange looks, and a few funny smiles. Don't forget to actually stop and enjoy your runs. Here are a few photos of what I enjoyed this week:

It was very large

The view from Windsor Castle Park in Smithfield, VA

Overlooking the James River while on a long run.

3. You can run faster than you think. This is pretty much true for every person who runs no matter you ability or experience level. Here's a quick example; me and Jen were running on Saturday and got to mile 5 of a 6 mile run when we realized we were going to be late getting back to the YMCA to pick up the kids. The child care was going to close in 8 minutes and we were still just over a mile away. So she told me to take off. I was tired from all the running this week, but I like challenges. I finished the last 1.3 miles at a 6:50 pace. I would never have run that fast unless I had the mental motivation to push myself.

I also did my 1.5 mile run this week for my Navy PT test in 9:17. That's the fastest time I've ever done and it is a max score for my age group. In my head I told myself "push it hard, the pain will be over in under 10 minutes." When I finished I realized I could have probably pushed it more and ran faster. The point isn't that I am all that fast but that each of us is truly capable of going much faster (and further) then we think. It comes down to this; are you willing to push hard and endure some pain? I think most of us (myself included) avoid pain and discomfort. But we ARE in fact much more capable then we think. At least that is what I am going to tell myself next Sunday when I start the Harbor Lights Half Marathon.

Monday - 12 miles at 8:15 pace

Tuesday - Weights for an hour. I focused on chest and arms. Once I am done with this half marathon I will start posting some weight training routines.

Wednesday - 6.24 miles at 8:17 pace PLUS a bonus mile with Alison at a 10:29 pace.

Thursday - 5 miles at 8:35 pace

Friday - 1.5 miles (my Navy PT test) at 6:11 pace PLUS a bonus mile with Alison at a 10:51 pace

Saturday - 6.21 miles at 8:09 pace with Jen

Sunday - 10.1 miles at 8:10 pace

Total miles for the week: 43.05 miles

Up next: this week will be a rest/taper week. My goal is to log about 12 miles and rest up for my race on Sunday. 

Molten Lava Cocoa Teff Pancake Recipe

These pancakes are from Ryan Hall. He is an Olympic runner and holds the U.S. half marathon record (59:43). I tried his pancakes to see how good they were and to fuel for a 6 mile run followed by a weight session. I made a few changes to the recipe so if you want to see the original go take a look.

Rather than make one massive pancake I made a bunch of 'normal' sized ones (8 of them about 4 inches across) so me, Jen and the kiddos could eat them. I had two of them and felt like that was enough. I also took some plain greek yogurt and mixed in some real maple syrup to put on top of the pancakes. To me, they were not moist enough to just eat plain, but that is mostly because I made them smaller sized rather than one huge 'molten' one, and I may have slightly over cooked them. So if you want more of a molten pancake (not fully cooked), then just make two giant ones from the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Teff Flour (you can buy this on Amazon or just use regular flour)
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• Dash of Salt 
• 2 scoops protein powder, Chocolate Flavor. (I have been using EAS 100% whey with good results) 
• 6 tbsp  Cocoa Powder
• 3 tsp raw sugar
• 2 tsp PB2 (this is powdered peanut butter)
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• Water as needed

Directions:

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add enough water to make the batter slightly gooey, but not overly runny.  
3. Pour the batter onto a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.  
4. Flip the pancake when bubbles appear in the middle, or when the edges begin to look firm.
5. Allow the pancake to cook for another 15 to 90 seconds, depending on doneness preference.