Smartest Race I Ever Ran

Date: 06/10/06
Time: 8:00am
Route: Helvetia Half Marathon (view route)
Distance: 13.1 miles
Official Time: 1:56:54
Dog: No
Notes: As part of my training for the Portland Marathon with PortlandFit, I ran the Helvetia Half Marathon. A half marathon is 13.1 miles and before this race my longest training run was only 10 miles. I had also been a bit lax in my training runs compared to when I did PortlandFit 3 years ago. So, heading into the race I was a bit reserved about my expectations. In fact I was a little nervous. I knew that this would be a good measure of my progress and preparation for the big one coming in September.

Look here and you will see my name listed as the 122nd male finisher, with a time of 01:42:44.0 and an average mile pace of 7:50--that was my result 3 years ago. Not too bad, but I knew that I was in nowhere near that kind of shape this time.

Hoping to salvage a decent race, I choose to run with a couple of my friends who are also training for the marathon. My plan was to try and keep up with the fastest of them and hope for the best. I haven’t been training with a watch, so I didn’t really know what kind of pace I could maintain, but I figured something around 9 or 9:10 minute miles would be doable.

It turns out a 9 minute pace was almost exactly what Tiffany Housely was running and we settled into a nice groove. She was a great companion and offered not only a comfortable pace, but an interesting conversation as well, which, as anyone who runs knows, can help to make the miles sneak by.

What I did remember about this race from a few years ago was a stretch in the middle that sucked.



See that elevation chart? There’s nothing but hills for 4 miles, right in the middle of a 13 mile race. Well, the comfortable pace suited me, because when we got to the hills I hardly felt my effort level increase and then we were through them. Sure mile 5 was clocked at 9:45, but it is nothing but a big hill!

After the big peaks, there were only a couple of miles of slightly rolling hills, followed by 4 flat miles—and I’ve been comfortably running, actually saving myself to finish strong. In my limited racing experience, that was a first. When we passed the marker for mile 10 I was able to drop the hammer and increased my pace by 60 seconds a mile. Unheard of for me. I’m usually the guy who’s being passed by everyone at the end as I try to claw my way to the finish.

Add to all of this some good food and water management during the race and I easily ran the smartest race of my career.


Mile Splits:

1. 9:11
2. 9:19
3. 9:00
4. 9:03
5. 9:44
6. 8:58
7. 9:22
8. 8:52
9. 8:58
10. 9:17
11. 7:56
12. 7:33 <--Wah Hoo!
13. 7:48

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