Northshore Half Marathon Race Report:
Sunday was my half marathon that starts at the same park as my 10 mile night trail run did this August. Luckily for me, October temps are much nicer for running and sleeping in a tent! It was a long weekend! Saturday morning I woke up early and got to LSU for 6:45AM. My BIL and his family were in town for touring campus and the game on Saturday. So it was my job to provide the food for the tailgate. Cooked a pastalaya that came out pretty good. Left campus around 2PM to unload tailgate stuff and pack up camping/running stuff. Made it Mandeville for around 5PM and picked up my bib from a friend who picked it up for me earlier than day. That was extremely helpful!! After a short visit, I made my way to my tent spot and set up everything and started cooking my second meal of the day which was spaghetti and meatballs. I had boiled the noodles at home so I didnt have to bring extra water and another burner. I also had some garlic bread that I cooked in a dutch oven. Food got going and I watched the LSU game while letting is simmer. By 10 PM I was ready for bed and felt LSU had enough control to where I could go to sleep and feel confident we would have kept the lead. Just as I was heading for bed I started to text about a shooting on campus... again... by our tailgate!!!! So, I had to call to check on my dad and family that was watching the game at the tailgate, while also texting my wife who was at the game with the kids and her brother and his family, plus my uncle, about the craziness that was taking place outside the stadium. By the time they all made it off campus after the game and while trying to avoid the area of the incident it was midnight.
Race day started at 5:00 AM and temps around 58. It was a nice morning for a run!! my plan had 16 mile total for the day with 10 at MRP. So to fit in all the miles I decided to run from my campsite to the start, plus a little extra for a 1.5 miles before the race and then do the reverse after the half. Made it to the start just as the corrals opened. Based on how the last few tempo runs have gone, on Saturday I decided a realistic goal of 1:45:00. A few months ago I was thinking maybe a PR or sub 1:40:00 time but I just didnt see it happening. So heres how it went:
Mile 1 - 7:49
Mile 2 - 7:47
Mile 3 - 7:45
Mile 4 - 7:49
Mile 5 - 7:40
Mile 6 - 7:48
Mile 7 - 7:56
Mile 8 - 7:51
Mile 9 - 8:02
Mile 10 - 8:27
Mile 11 - 8:52
Mile 12 - 8:18
Mile 13 - 7:54
The last .17 per garmin - 7:17
Finish time 1:45:09 or ~8:00 pace average.
So all was going well until somewhere around mile 9 which with the 1.5 mile before was 11 ish mile in. Started feeling my quads wanting to cramp up so slowed down some to avoid major issues and make sure I would finish. Hydration belt got a little bouncy once i started sweating alot, so I need to figure that out to prevent chaffing next time. Overall I was happy with the effort and see that I am on pace but still have a lot of work to do to reach my 3:30:00 marathon goal. The last 1.5 after the race back to camp was not fun, but I did make myself do it. Even less fun than that was breaking down camp and packing up to go home lol. I was tired!! Anyway, a good week of training in the books for a total of 45 miles. This week is a recovery week with only 33 planned. Thanks for reading along!