IMS Arizona Race Recap

Good weekend in Arizona.  Learned a lot about running, pacing, and especially fueling for marathons in general with the focus being on Boston of course. It was tough to be in a room with so many Dave-O/Schuey type marathoners (many sub-3 masters folks) and even a woman my age gunning to run 3:15 or better (very cool).  It was a low key group for the most part and I took away pages of notes (mostly on fueling) and a lot to think about.  In addition we all ran a fairly flat (not Chicago or Cleveland flat since there were three decent hills in the last half) half marathon and I did ultimately run the fastest time that I have run for a half since February, 2012 (1:42:57) and I placed 2nd in my AG to the aforementioned woman (who ran a 1:28!).  I had a mental lapse at mile 11.5 or so and actually walked through the small water stop at mile 12.  I know that I put a bit too much pressure on myself and lucky as I am, Greg McMillan and my McMillan coach are going to discuss some strategies to help me with this.  I experienced similar issues back when I was in peak form in the late 1980s/early 1990s, so I'm not surprised that they are back especially when the pressure is on.  I'm sure in ways that it is simply this year and the whole Boston thing from last year and in my effort to run a good race, I'm making myself just a bit crazy.   Most of you are laughing already thinking that me being crazy is nothing new - so just keep that to yourselves.  

The Boston Group after an easy recovery run.  Recapping the race, my splits were as follows:

Mile 1 - 8:05  (good start, but too much weaving around the kids)
Mile 2 - 7:39
Mile 3 - 7:38
Mile 4 - 7:39
Mile 5 - 7:40
Mile 6 - 7:42
Mile 7 - 7:39
Mile 8 - 7:46
Mile 9 - 7:49
Mile 10 - 7:54
Mile 11 - 7:56
Mile 12 - 8:25
Mile 13 - 8:05

Finish: 1:42:57  

Not too bad actually, but you can indeed see where I lost it.  Lot's of work still ahead.

This is a recovery week and I was able to run outside yesterday as it was 40F when I ran at noon.  Although it was 40F, the sidewalks were still covered in inches of snow as apparently we had another 6" on Monday night into Tuesday morning when I was returning home.  Today, several of us are hoping to get in a hill workout, but it is also supposed to rain hard so we may be forced back indoors onto the indoor track to run a tempo run.  I wish I could go out now (but I'm actually listening in on a conference call as I type this - oops).  

Long runs start soon.    60 days until April 21st.