Barefoot, Kilted, and Shirtless for the Mississauga Half!

Not a great finishing time (1:57.46.2), but not a bad one either. I went out too quickly at the start (when will I learn?), and pushed the hill at the 10K mark a little too hard. Not surprisingly, I paid for both of those mistakes later, with my pace dropping significantly post-18K. Still, it was a good race and I was reasonably happy with my finish.

A big highlight was a dailymile meetup before the start. I chatted with another good friend while waiting in the start line, ran with another for a short distance in the first few kilometers, and chatted with two more at the finish. That made the race much more of a social event than my races usually are. For an Aspie like me, this sort of stuff is a big deal.

And the weather was pretty much race-perfect: 10C at race start and 19C at the finish, sunny, with a 10 km/h wind, and 42% humidity.

The Meetup

The dailymile crew

Dailymile meetups are fun. Interesting, too, as they involve re-connecting with folks I already know, meeting face-to-face with people I’d only connected with online, and meeting new friends. This one was a large group, involving runners who were doing the half and full marathon distances.

The Numbers

My official stats for the half were as follows:

Chip time: 1:57.46.2
Average pace: 5:30
Overall placing: 816/2363
Category placing (male 60-69): 14/48
Gender placing: 525/1058

Interestingly, those numbers suggest that I may finally have broken out of my “mid-pack runner status” in terms of overall and category placing (though not in gender placing). That makes me feel much better about my slow finishing time.

Some Analysis

More numbers. The following kilometer-by-kilometer breakdown, generated by my Garmin Forerunner 210 and filtered through the SportTracks application, tell the story far better than any photo could. Look down the list, and then read on while I unpack the numbers a bit.

Kilometer 1: 5:24 min/km
Kilometer 2: 5:16 min/km
Kilometer 3: 5:18 min/km
Kilometer 4: 5:15 min/km
Kilometer 5: 5:19 min/km
Kilometer 6: 5:26 min/km
Kilometer 7: 5:26 min/km
Kilometer 8: 5:16 min/km
Kilometer 9: 5:18 min/km
Kilometer 10: 5:21 min/km
Kilometer 11: 5:46 min/km
Kilometer 12: 5:33 min/km
Kilometer 13: 5:35 min/km
Kilometer 14: 5:30 min/km
Kilometer 15: 5:35 min/km
Kilometer 16: 5:28 min/km
Kilometer 17: 5:29 min/km
Kilometer 18: 5:34 min/km
Kilometer 19: 5:36 min/km
Kilometer 20: 5:43 min/km
Kilometer 21: 5:31 min/km

My target finish time for this half was 1:53. I’d planned carefully for that. In theory, it was all very simple. I could pull off that finishing time (and therefore a new PB) if I kept an average pace of 5:21 min/km. Simple, right?

Concept was good, execution was rubbish.

Studies of runners at half and full marathon distances suggest that a pace only 2 seconds quicker than the runner’s targeted training pace means diminished performance later in the race. As you can see from the above numbers, I blew things completely. For kilometers 2 through 5, I was doing as much as 6 seconds faster than my target pace. And I did it again for kilometers 8 and 9. In fact, the only kilometer for which I held my target pace was kilometer 10. I slowed down a lot going up the hill at kilometer 11, and then dragged myself along for the second half of the race distance.

That was just lame. There’s no other word for it.

The Finish

Strong old animal Continue reading →

Official stats for this morning’s Missisauga Half Marathon…

Chip time: 1:57.46.2
Average pace: 5:30
Overall placing: 816/2363
Category placing (male 60-69): 14/48
Gender placing: 525/1058

Interestingly, I broke out of my “mid-pack runner status” with this one in terms of overall and category placing (though not in gender placing). That makes me feel better about my slow finishing time.

The other good news is that I’ll turn 65 next month. That means that, in many races (but not this one), I’ll move to another age category (65 to 69). I’ll be at the younger edge of that one. Woo hoo!

Full race report to follow soon.

The Mississauga Half Marathon is only 11 days away. That means it’s time to put down in writing what I’ve thinking about for weeks – how to run the race.

If possible, I’d like to better my current PB for the half which is 1:54:58 (set at the Sarasota Half in mid-March). If I were to aim at a finishing time of 1:53, that would mean an average pace of 5:21 min/km. My pace at Sarasota was 5:27, which means upping the pace for Mississauga considerably. Training’s gone well, though, the Mississauga course is a (slight) net downhill and, more importantly, doesn’t have the nasty stretch of rough asphalt that Sarasota did. So far, so good. I’ll put 1:53 down as a Target.

Next comes a Desirable. That would mean a finishing time of 1:54, which would still give me a PB, just not by as respectable a margin. A 1:54 finish would require an average pace of 5:24, which, given my training, is doable. I’d be quite happy with that.

Any runner worthy of the name knows, though, that races always bring surprises. Given that, I’ll put in an Acceptable here, which would would be anything under a 2:00 hour finish. To pull that off, I’d simply need to run at a 5:41 pace. These days, that’s pretty much cruising speed for me, even over a couple of hours.

So I’ve got all these positives: my home course, net downhill, good training, and a promising weather forecast (low of 10C, high of 17C, and a 40% chance of light showers). As if that weren’t enough, I’m going to a meetup just prior to the race start with some of my dailymile buddies. And I’m going to be barefoot, kilted, and wearing blue and yellow for Boston.

All those ducks, all in a row. Let’s hope it goes as planned.

This was a good one. My finishing time of 1:54:58 was a new personal best (by about a minute), and I ran the course four minutes faster than I did last year. That finishing time put me 13th out of 46 runners in my age group (male, 60-64). If I’d been one age group up (65-69), my time would have made me 8th out of 31. I turn 65 in June. So there’s hope for me yet.

The race started, as it did last year, at 7 AM, about half an hour before dawn. That meant starting in darkness, which always feels a little odd to me. Not bad, not good, just odd. The great thing about it was that the sun came up as I was heading back across the John Ringling Bridge, at about the 6.5K mark. That was quite a sight. About half a kilometer later, I saw, hovering over the big pack of runners on the bridge, an octocopter with a camera mounted on it, exactly like this one.

Someone was having some serious – and very expensive – fun!

After the bridge, the route turned north, along Tamiami Way (Route 41), a nice stretch of barefoot-friendly road where I settled down to my target pace. North along that flat, straight stretch, then left towards the Ringling Museum of Art, then left again and into the Neighbourhood of Rough Asphalt. OK, that’s not entirely fair – it’s actually an upscale community, called Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores, of lovely 1940s and 1950s Gulf Coast-style homes.

It’s very pretty (I wouldn’t mind living there), but the road surface isn’t comfortable on bare feet, especially ones that are trying to go quickly. The problem, you see, is that, back in the day, pavement here was made with crushed coral as part of the asphalt mix. It was probably inexpensive, and it seems to have lasted well, but it’s hell on the soles of the feet. It slowed me down, just as it did last year (but not quite as much, because I was expecting it this time).

After about 5K of that challenging nonsense, the route got back onto Tamiami Trail, and we were on our way to the finish. More spectators and more comments (“Omigod, he doesn’t have any shoes!”, “Badass!”, “Awesome, dude!”, “Yay Canada!” and the like). I tweaked my pace just a little bit in order to finish well and in style.

After crossing the finish line and accepting the humungous medal, I happily consumed a cup of yogurt, granola, and fruit, drank a bottle of water, and waited for my amigos Chris G. and Marcus C. to pull in. Here we are, in front of the beer truck after the race finish. They’re still wearing their medals. I’m wearing pink stains from chafed nipples.

Did I mention the nipple chafing? No? Well, I made a bad rookie mistake, and forgot to BodyGlide the nips. Didn’t notice it at all while running, but someone pointed out the telltale pink stains after the finish. Argh.

I also finished with a blister on each heel, and my feet were pretty tingly. Otherwise, I was in good nick. The weather was near perfect for this traveler from the frozen north: 10C at race start, 21C at the finish, sunny, 17 km/h wind, 56% humidity.

What worked well for this one? Well, my heart rate-based training program paid off big time. Because of it, I was able to manage my pace well, even through the gnarly bits. I adapted to the Florida heat quickly and well. My fueling protocol was spot on. (Whey protein isolate drink 2 hours before race start; two electrolyte tabs 1 hour before; 1 Hammer gel 5 minutes before; Hammer HEED throughout race; 1 Hammer gel at halfway mark; Hammer Recoverite immediately after the finish.) And my running kilt was absolutely the right choice. It was far more comfortable than any shorts I’ve ever worn, and will be my drug of choice for all future races.

I think I’m finally becoming a runner! Or, more correctly, I’m discovering a joy in racing that I hadn’t thought possible. And, if I keep to a similar pace and finishing time next year, I may even be able to break out of my long-standing “I’m just a mid-pack runner” habit. Turning 65 and moving up an age category might just do the trick. Older and quicker would be perfectly alright with me.

By the way, this is the only race I’ve ever run where I was paced by pelicans. This pic was taken by one of the official race photographers at about the 16K point of the race, right in the midst of the “Bad asphalt, go to your room!” section of the route. We don’t get pelicans back home in southern Ontario, so I was delighted to see them.

I want to do Sarasota again next year. Bad asphalt and all, it’s still a good course, and a great race. Maybe I’ll be even quicker. Old dog, new tricks, that sort of thing.

On Sunday, I ran my second Sarasota Half Marathon. It was a good one!

My finishing time was 1:54:58 (5:26 average pace for the distance), which means I set a new PB, and ran the course 4 minutes faster than I did last year. I placed 13th out of 46 in my age group (male 60-64). I’m very pleased with that result.

I’ll post a full race report as soon as I get some photos pulled together. Stay tuned!