Race Report - Chicago Spring Half Marathon

For the past 4 weeks or so I've been really focusing on getting my run fitness built up enough to perform at my best for the Chicago Spring Half on May 16.  I've been slowly ramping up the miles week by week and paying special attention to body composition to be as lean as possible for race day.  I put together some pretty good training weeks and achieved the body comp I was looking for (actually the lightest I've ever been since I've been competing in triathlon and endurance sports).  Unfortunately, I ran out of time to get some really decent long run miles in my legs (my longest run was 13 miles the week before the race) but I felt plenty prepared for the 13.1 mile distance.

I also decided to use this race to experiment with the run/walk strategy that I plan on using during the marathon at Ironman Wisconsin.  I began practicing it on my long runs a few weeks prior to the race.  I knew it would be tough to be able to run my goal time (1:25:00) using the run/walk but I wanted to get a feel for it in race conditions anyway.  The plan was to run 9 minutes and walk for 1 minute for the first 10 miles of the race.

Race morning came and I was feeling pretty good.  My legs were a little fatigued from doing a 56 mile race simulation ride with a 4 mile run at marathon pace the day before, but nothing that I felt would limit me.  It was a pretty low key race for a downtown Chicago event (only about 3,500 runners).  The course was an out & back along the lakefront path with a slight tailwind on the way out.  The weather was almost perfect with high 40 degree temps and sunny for race start.

I started out the race according to plan: take it fairly easy the first 3 miles targeting 6:35 pace for the 9:00 run portion, then from miles 3-10 target 6:05 pace, and after mile 10 give it everything I had to the finish.  All was going according to plan, but things got pretty tough at about the 9 mile mark.  I was having a difficult time holding the run pace and I could feel my form starting to break down.  By mile 10 I could really feel the fatigue in my legs.  I was determined to not allow anyone to pass me and to stick with a guy I was playing cat & mouse with all day.  Finally, at mile 12 I passed the guy (fellow Ironman) and tried like hell to pick up the pace but I just didn't have a sub-6:00 mile left in me.  I crossed the finish line completely spent!

The good news: a new half marathon personal best of 1:26:50 beating my half marathon PR set last year at the Steelhead 70.3 triathlon by 1:29.

The bad news: I was 1:50 off my goal time.

Obviously my run fitness isn't where I thought it would be at this point.  I can point to a lot of reasons for this but I think the primary reason is the lack of long run miles since returning from my stress fracture in March.  A couple more months and I think I'll be where I want to be.

I was also a little disappointed that I didn't have the "mental fitness" to dig deeper in the last 3 miles to really turn myself inside out.  I got to this point for the first time last year and I think with more training it will come back.

As for the run/walk approach, I think it could be altered to yield a better result for the half marathon distance.  I like the method but for this distance I think I would have been better off doing either a 10 minute run/40 second walk or 15 minute run/1 minute walk.  I just never felt like I was in a good rhythm.  But that's what these "C" races are for...trying new things so when the "A" race comes you are well prepared and can execute a plan that you know from experience will work.

It turned out to be a fun day of racing and socializing with fellow Endurance Nation athlete Matt Ancona who captured his first overall win!  I was so happy for him - he's an unbelievable athlete who has a really bright future in this sport.


Andrea and Drew also made it down to the finish so it was great fun hanging out with the Anconas and then taking a stroll up Michigan Ave watching Drew look up at all the big buildings and taking in the big city chaos - we just don't get the opportunity to be downtown enough.

Now the focus is on continuing to build up the run mileage and really concentrating on some quality bike workouts in the coming weeks leading up to my next race: High Cliff Triathlon (half Ironman) on June 19.  I've got a long ways to go to get to where I need to be for Ironman but I also realize I have the time and just need to be patient - it will come!