Koala Houston Half Marathon

Race Summary – Good pace for first half – I planned a negative split so was dogging the first half a little at a 168 heartrate target vs 170 which I believe to be what I can average for a race (minus first mile). After a pitstop mid race loosing over a minute I lost my racing momentum and adjusted to run the back half not so hard since I no longer had a shot at winning my Age Group or even getting an award - really I just wanted an excuse to slow down I think - actually as it turns out with a full effort back half I think I could have scored 2nd if I really fought for it - so anyway - for whatever reason - I ran the back half at a marathon pace heartrate. I must say I just enjoy the marathon pace MUCH more than the faster pace – seems like I can hold that pace forever’ish.

The Learning – don’t have late (finished at 9ish) night dinner before early (7am) race – not the first time I’ve learned this – after my last mistake like this I made a rule - 14 hours pre-gun no solid food – just liquid carbs – but I broke my rule last night under the illusion "It's only a HALF marathon".

The race – Start 54 F Finish 63 F average 57 F @ 90% humidity with ZERO wind. 2076 Finishers

Per Garmin:
1 5:47 152 (Max 166)
2 5:39 169
3 5:50 168 Some underpass hills – I tend to speed up down hills and slow uphill – Gerardo and Brett ribbed me a little after as looked to them like I was doing fartleks mid-race.
4 5:54 168
5 5:46 168
6 5:46 168 Mile 2-6 average 5:47/168 – Projecting 170 pace 5:41 (My theoretical best pace I could have maintained for the day).
7 6:13 165 Pit Stop – stopped watch for 66 seconds
8 5:56 165
9 6:09 163
10 6:04 163
11 6:10 162
12 6:03 161
13 6:04 163 Mile 8-13 average 6:04/163 – Marathon Pace
13.26 1:31 169 Ran it in to just get under 1:20.

Total 1:19:58
Place 19th
AG 4th. (really 6th with Sean taking Win, Wilmer taking Masters and Gerardo, Francisco and Adam taking top 3).

Although the race itself wasn’t all that good – I do like the fitness indication I got from it. From it I’m thinking a 2:40 marathon is likely, a Sub 6mpm pace is a stretch at San Antonio (Assuming good conditions) although if I could get another 10F cooler than today maybe I could nail the Sub6mpm.

I tried my “turbo-drive” taper for this race which involves running a medium run with as much cloths as I can stand to sweat as much as possible - did this on Friday morning – 12 miles 7:44 pace with heartrate 150-158 (would typically be ~6:30-6:45 at this heartrate). It seems to have helped as on a pace test prior on Thursday in similar conditions (57F) at 170 bpm for 3 miles, the last two miles averaged 5:51 vs the 5:41 from miles 2-6 today – so appears the “turbo-drive” workout gave me ~10 sec/mile - past times I've got as much as 20 sec/mile so didn't quite capture all the potential. I think that turbodrive workout would have been more effective if it wasn’t so cold outside when I was running in sweats (45-50F) – the chill in the air made its way thru my sweats to cool a little and I didn’t sweat quite as much as I have in the past on these “turbo-drive” runs (yes I weigh myself before/after these workouts to see how effective they were). Definitely planning to keep this workout in the plan pre San Antonio and maybe I'll add an extra layer if it's cold out. Here is the results graphically