Pre-Race Update
Monday: 3 Miles Easy
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 3.5 Miles Easy
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Shakeout: 2 Miles Easy + Strides
This has been such a long week, amplified by my body's adjustment to DST and my
ridiculous energy levels. During past training cycles I was pretty sure I had peaked, but after feeling the way I feel I'm not certain any more! Never quite felt like this.
The Course
A scenic 13.1 mile romp through our nation's capital. The course starts on the north side of the Washington Monument, runs along the east bank of the Potomac River, continues north through West End and Kalorama, and this is where the course gets dicey. Around mile 7.5, we will hit a wildly steep and curvy hill as the course turns from Rock Creed Parkway to Calvert Street in Adams Morgan. Legend has it those who hit this hill too aggressively are still sitting on the ground recovering to this day. I am either going to way slow jog this, or possibly even just walk.
From there, the course heads east across Adams Morgan/Lanier Heights, through Columbia Heights (see all those neighborhoods with "Heights" in the name? Hills!), and finally turns south through Howard University. From there, we're almost home as we have 1.5 glorious downhill miles barreling down North Capital Street, and the final mile turns through Mt Vernon Triangle/Penn Quarter before ending around the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall, just a few blocks away from the race start.
And - bonus! - the cherry blossoms are blooming early this year, so this will be more of a cherry blossom race than the Cherry Blossom races in 2 weeks! Should be a pleasant start.
All in all, this is a pretty good course, but that hill around mile 7.5 is a killer. The downhill at the end mitigates things somewhat, but hitting that hill too hard is concerning. I thought I was gentle on it in training a couple weeks ago but it was still too much.
The Weather
Almost perfect!
The forecast has been shifting between rain and sunny skies. It looks like the rain will start a little earlier today and end during the night, and hopefully be completely out by tomorrow morning. We'll deal with some moisture and wet roads for sure, but as long as the rain is out that will help.
Forecasted race start T+D is 39+27 = 66, ending T+D is 41+25 = 66. That's as good as it gets. It's going to be windy, with sustained winds of 10 mph and gusting to 20 mph. Not quite the conditions I dealt with at the Philadelphia marathon, but close. The wind makes this right on the edge of needing tights/long sleeves, as ordinarily with that T+D I'd be in shorts and a t-shirt. That will be a game-time call tomorrow morning.
The Transportation
Road closures everywhere. No matter, I like public transport. I'll use Metro.
...What's that you say? Metro isn't opening early? Fiddlesticks. Guess I'll have to Uber/Lyft in the morning, then Metro home.
... What? My Metro station is closed this weekend? Crap. I guess I'm walking home. A leisurely 60-minute jaunt following an all-out half marathon, I guess.
The Nutrition
Bagel and banana 2 hours before race start. Last sip of water 1 hour before race start. EGel 5-10 minutes before start. 2 cups of water per water table. EGels at 45 and 90 minutes. I even bought myself some new flavors for race day.
The Pacing
I am all over the place on this one. In September I went out at 8:30/mile and held on okay until I faded in the heat near the end, and finished in 1:54:26 (approximately 8:44/mile). I think I was close to holding on throughout if the heat got me. The problem is, this time around V.O2 has calculated my training plan on my 1:54:26 HM, which means an 8:30 pace is only 4 seconds slower than my LT pace in training. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but it does mean I'm probably not quite where I was in September.
On the other hand, September was, in no particular order - hot, personal life stuff going on, intertwined with my marathon training. This time around, the weather is nearly perfect, my mind is clear, and I have trained exclusively for this half. I missed a week due to a nagging pain, but that is gone. No injuries, and I'm clearly peaking.
An 8:30/mile pace is a 1:51:21 finish. That's a big PR. With a tentative plan to run Dopey in 2024, I'd love to have a corral A qualifier, which is a 1:53:45 finish (8:41/mile). That feels very reasonable, but I think I'm faster than that. The strong training cycle and very favorable weather has me tempted to swing big, especially with another chance for A coming up at the Broad Street 10-miler on April 30 - especially because Broad Street is a fast, straight, net-downhill race.
As I'm typing all this out, I'm thinking of going out at 8:35, and accelerating after the big hill if I have it. That's past the halfway mark, and the elevation becomes much better at that point. I don't want to start too slowly if I'm faster than I think, and I've got a second shot at A soon (1:24:30 10-miler is an 8:27/mile pace).
The Bib
Very happy to report I got this in a good spot in a near-record only 30 minutes of positioning and re-positioning. Additionally, I continue to drink well with others.
Race report to follow!
