2007 SEAFAIR HALF MARATHON



I ran my 4th half marathon yesterday (does that mean I've run 2 full marathons now?) in Bellevue. It was a beautiful day and the race conditions were nearly perfect at the start time, and I felt relatively prepared for this race -- having trained consistently over the past 3 months.

The good news: I set a new personal best time of 1:45:46, beating my last time by about one minute.

The bad news: I only beat my last time by one minute. I thought I could run faster than that. Weird.

Anyway, I should focus on the positive. I had a really good time yesterday and didn't hurt myself. In fact, I took it rather easy during the race and never really stressed myself out, which is probably why I didn't run any faster. I focused on keeping my breathing absolutely controlled and at no point yesterday did I resort to panting -- even on the short stretches of uphill. I suppose mentally I was very much in control, but not really in a super "competitive" mode. I've learned that the excitement of competition can have a huge detrimental effect on my ability to keep my heart rate down, so I downplayed the fact that this was a race and just went out and had a good time.

The course was a lot of fun! It was mostly rolling hills, and I enjoyed the fact that there were so few runners. I never once felt like I was going to get run off the side of the road. I've had training runs with my buddies where I felt more crowded!


The elevation profile looked like this:

Compare the elevation graph to my splits and the numbers will kind of make sense:

1 - 7:51
2 - 7:58
3 - 7:35
4 - 7:48
5 - 8:16 (long, gradual uphill climb)
6 - 7:46
7 - 7:45
8 - 8:07
9 - 7:47 (a lot of steep downhill)
10 - 8:35 (was very fatigued for these next 3 miles!)
11 - 8:15 (was mostly flat, but I was not feeling great here; got passed by everyone I'd passed earlier)
12 - 8:56 (my slowest split; I'd like to do this one over)
13 - 7:37 (could see the finish so picked it up a bit, even though it was uphill)
.1 - 1:24

Miles 10, 11 and 12 were extremely difficult for me -- which is exactly what happened to me on Mercer Island about 3 or 4 months ago the last time I raced. I was determined not to let that happen to me again, so yesterday I had strategized and brought along 4 packets of Gu, which I consumed at miles 4, 6, 8 and 10. The long, steep downhill on Kamber Road and Richards Road around mile 9 really took a lot out of me. I focused on not braking my forward momentum and really tried to pick up my pace on the downhills, thinking that I would exert less effort by doing so. In retrospect, however, I think my extra push on the downhills took something out of me, because subsequent to the dowhills is when I really suffered -- on the flat!

So, score one for the Gu, subtract one for the downhill push.

Not only is running a lifelong seminar in pain management, it's also a lifelong seminar in nutritional and strategic adjustment.

Speaking of pain management:

My ankles feel pretty good today; so do my knees and feet. That's the good news. But I am particulary perturbed by the fact that the most painful part of my body during yesterday's race and even now --a day later - is my right shoulder! (Yes, I run on my feet and not on all fours -- just in case you were wondering). Probably the biggest contributing factor to my slowdown during miles 10, 11 and 12 was that my right shoulder was throbbing with pain. The same thing happened to me on Mercer Island and I later deduced that my scalene muscles (which connect the cervical vertebrae to the first couple ribs and therefore act as auxiliary respiratory muscles, in additional to simply holding the head up) were impinging on my brachial plexus nerve. During the past several weeks I've focused on trying to keep my neck and shoulders relaxed while I run, and also I've tried to keep my breathing well under control because I assumed that out-of-control panting is what taxes the scalenes.

But, even though I didn't pant yesterday I still got the pain -- so it's back to the drawing board on this one. I really need to resolve this particular issue if I'm going to spend another couple hours out on a running course in order to finish a full marathon. I simply won't be able to tolerate that brachial plexus nerve pain for 4 hours.

I'm confident I can resolve this issue, however, just like all the other little things that come up when you try to be an athlete. Especially at my old age.