Houston Half Recap
Its been a while since I have recapped a race. Quite honestly, there wasn’t much to recap last year. Houston had started out being a marathon, because the plan all along was to be healthy at Boston and then run a very big PR at the Marine Corp Marathon. And if I was close, Houston would be the last chance. It all seems so laughable now after how the year went – that was my original plan. Hey you have to dream big! After the 301 at St. George, Boston was to be 255 and then see what I could bring that down to later in the year. Anyway, after the toe break, I signed up for CIM to at least salvage the year with a decent race and I could bump this down to the half
I wasn’t expecting a PR in Houston, but I knew I wanted to run well and even. My CIM buildup for two months was as good as it could be for such little time and only peaking at 45 miles. I took time off after and started to gradually build. Prior to Houston I was in the low 30s maybe two weeks, with a ten and a twelve miler. Still, the half is my favorite distance and after scratching from three last year, It would be over 1.5 years since I last ran one. In my opinion, you can push through a half without the most optimal training. Marathon, its gonna hurt a lot more. So any way, back to the recap.
Went to Houston on Friday and it was great Ashley still came even with dealing with her stress reaction and needing to defer. We had a nice dinner and went to bed early. It was humid in Houston! The next day when I did my 3 mile shakeout my Vo2 max dropped. I know, I don’t put much stock in the watch, but still not what you want to see. The weather for the next day was looking ideal. 40s and cool. After a relaxing day of hydrating and eating it was bed time around 9PM. I definitely do not get the nervous feeling for a half that you do the night before a full. There is something that is just so daunting about 26.2 miles. Since we were .4 from the start, I planned on getting up at 550 for the 7am start. I don’t need a lot of time to digest and I just like to sleep as long as possible. Drank my SOS, ate my oatmeal with peanut butter and I was off to the start. I jogged there and thought I could enter from the front of the corral, wrong. I had to go all the way down and up the back, which at this point I had about 10 minutes to start. Corral A had times in the 8 minutes included, so I did feel bad trying to sneak up people the whole length of it. I definitely heard some comments, but whatever.
Got to my position I wanted, right around the 7 minute pace. I wanted to go out slower and drop it down from there. I took some Honey Stinger gummies and we were off. The 3 hour pace group flew by me and quite honestly were not in my site the first 4 miles. I was thinking just keep with what you had planned, do not go out faster than 7 minutes. You can make it up at the end and that is much more pleasant than the death march. Just at 7 for the first mile, great. Mile 2 656, we are in good shape. Around mile 3 I was excited to see Ashley, she was going to be somewhere around there, but I missed her. 647 and i figured at this point i could drop down into the mid 640s. Even though the 3 hour pace group was not in sight, I tried not to let it throw me off my plan. I knew I could do the negative split from when I was running 715s to start at Publix and came down to finish at 1:30:02 on serious hills. I was ahead of the game here.
Miles 4, 5, 6, the group was coming back into view. I took one of my gels at 5 and was feeling great. The course was flat and you were constantly seeing new things along it, not boring at all. I was taking water and/or gatorade at every stop even though it was cold. Miami left the fear of god in me to be dehydrated in a race again. 641, 648, 637 and cruising for those miles. I think it was around mile 6 I pulled up on the 3 hour pace group and stayed there until the branch off which was just under mile 8. 644 and 640 for 7 and 8. After the pace group broke a way there were a few of us running and that kept pulling me along, mile 9 643.
After this, the wind came out and it came out hard. I didn’t notice any wind during the race before this, but miles 10, 11, 12, I dropped back to a 650 average – 649, 650, 653. I was trying to do the mental math in my head at this point, could I make it under 130? I knew it would be close. Prior to those miles, I planned on maintaining the low 640s or even get into the 630s. I just tried to remain focused and saying nothing really hurt, there is no need to slow down or fear slowing down. Mile 13 I found a second wind and it felt like I was flying! My GPS started to act up here and the 601 it read was not correct, I estimate low 640s to high 630s. I knew it would be thisclose. I didn’t even see Ashley taking my pictures a half mile before the finish. I just knew if I could finish strong I would be under. In the end it was 1:29:45 and my second fastest half (well tying my second half of St. George), but second fastest stand alone half with not much mileage under my belt. I am super pleased to bring this fitness with me to start my Boston training. My next test will be the Publix Half March 1st. I definitely want a course PR, but a regular PR would be even nicer on a tough course.
Houston was definitely a race I want to put on the calendar again. Going in there with some serious fitness, the course profile, it will definitely be a PR kind of day.