Things proceeded as normal with my own training. On December 6th, 2015 it was time for another race. A half marathon known as the Last Call. I had run the same race the year before in 1:53 (a PR at the time). I was interested to see how I would perform relative to last year. How would the Hansons training pay off for a half marathon after completing a whole cycle and being in the midst of another one. It was a cold cold morning (30s-40s). I remember wearing a long sleeve and shorts. A few middle age guys came by and commented on my choice of shorts. They seemed to think it was a bad idea. We’ll see I guess, as I tend to run hot.
I also decided to bring a new addition to my racing repertoire. For the last 3 years, I had been using some version of a Nathan’s water bottle belt. Initially with two bottles, and then eventually three bottles. But the belt had been giving me a lot of grief. Sometimes the bottles would come flying out during a run. The belt was generally heavy (carrying as much as 30 oz of water around my waist). The bottles also occasionally leaked all over me from behind. So, I invested in a small Nathan’s handheld water bottle with a pouch. I wanted to test this much smaller and lighter option out in anticipation for Dopey. Could I have enough access to water during a race that I could get away with just a single 10oz bottle that I would refill throughout? I had generally refilled the 3x 10oz bottles, but would one single bottle be enough for a marathon? And could I really tell the difference from the weight loss when running?
The race was an out and back, so the strategy was to be conservative through the first half, and then just race as hard as I could through the back half. My half PR from August 2015 was a 1:45 (8:05 min/mile) so I tried to stay close to that in the beginning. I ran the first half in 52:03 (7:56 min/mile).
I was still feeling strong so I decided to open up the legs and see what I could do. A 7:31, 7:08, and then a 6:53?!?!?! LIKE WHAT THE WHAT?!?! I had never run a mile under 7 minutes. Now here at mile 9 of a half marathon was a sub-7-minute mile. But it wasn’t any sub-7-minute mile. It was nearly the necessary pace for a sub-3 marathon (6:52 min/mile). Now granted it was necessary to run 26.2 miles at 6:52 to hit the sub-3, but a single mile was achieved in a race. The pace actually felt somewhat sustainable at the time. It’s possible, I thought to myself. I may actually run a sub-3 someday and qualify for the Boston Marathon!
I finished up the race on a bit of a slow-down (not terribly surprising when you bust out a mile WAY past goal pace). I finished the race in 1:38:49. A new PR by almost 7 minutes in roughly 4 months-time. An improvement of 7%! That’s a huge jump in PR times. But setting a half marathon PR wasn’t the end, it was merely the beginning of another record setting day:
1K - 4:09
1 mile - 6:52
5K - 22:03
10K - 44:36
Half - 1:38:47
Garmin Link
All unofficial PRs set during the Last Call half marathon in 2015. There was little doubt left in my mind that the training I was putting in was seriously paying off.
. Definitely need to be careful. Too many people just don't pay attention.
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