Back in March of 2011, this race was my first half ever. Now I have run it three times. This brings up a good bit of reflection on just how I am progressing at that race distance.
I have finished 9 half marathons over the last two years, 10 if you count the Medoc Meltdown as a half (I completed 13.4 miles in that run). My times range from my best of 2:03 to my slowest of 2:31 (or even 3:07 if you count the Medoc Meltdown). Here is how all my HMs compare with each other.
Race Date Time Pace
Tobacco Road 3/20/2011 2:26 10:58
Flying Pirate 4/10/2011 2:31 11:37
Canonnball Run 10/8/2011 2:07 9:43
OBX Half 11/13/2011 2:03 9:17
Roanoke Canal 3/10/2012 2:18 10:32
Tobacco Road 3/18/2012 2:11 10:01
Flying Pirate 4/22/2012 2:17 10:27
Medoc Meltdown 8/18/2012 3:07 13:57
Roanoke Canal 3/9/2013 2:24 11:11
Tobacco Road 3/17/2013 2:18 10:29
Now, the Medoc is a bit out of place, but that was my first real trail run of any distance and did involve a fall along the way. The rest all seem clustered around the 2:15 to 2:20 mark, which is about what I was expecting at my first half two years ago. I did get faster in the fall of that year, but I have now gone back to times similar to when I started. I had been hoping to get my half time down below the 2 hour mark after hitting a 2:03 in the fall of 2011, but that has yet to happen. Still something for me to work towards.
Now that I have run the Tobacco Road three times, I thought it might be helpful to look over how all of those runs compare to each other.
So, here are the details for my three runs of the Tobacco Road half marathon. MT stands for moving time. The difference between MT and Time (my official time) is due to porta-potty breaks. There were three of those in year 1, only one in year 2, and two yesterday. I still have a bit to go in figuring out just how much coffee I can take in with an early morning race start.
Year 2011 2012 2013
Time 2:26 2:11 2:18
Pace 10:58 10:01 10:29
MT 2:19 2:10 2:16
Pace 10:28 9:55 10:18
Mile Splits
1 11:06 10:00 10:20
2 10:28 9:27 9:53
3 10:56 9:43 11:07
4 11:05 9:45 9:34
5 13:19 9:18 9:35
6 10:11 9:53 10:17
7 10:23 9:48 10:41
8 10:57 9:35 9:57
9 10:46 10:21 10:24
10 10:47 11:23 10:47
11 12:16 10:26 11:54
12 10:30 10:22 10:36
13 10:22 10:01 11:02
14 9:47 11:13 10:52
Not really sure what I can learn from all of this, but it is fun to look back at how three runs of the same race compare. I can look at my splits and figure our where I took my breaks. Since I know the difference from my Time and MT, I can take those minutes out where I think they occurred, and I then get a good idea of how consistent (or not) my pacing was. From my memory of these races, I recall finishing feeling much stronger back in 2011 than in either of the last two races. I did fade at the end more in the last two than in my initial race. It could just be that I am more assured of finishing now, and as a result push more as I feel able to during the race. Probably I push a bit too much for the distance at those times that I feel real good.
Its been a lot of fun. I think the half is a good distance for me to run. I know it will be a real challenge to gradually get my time down to the two hour mark. Will it happen this year? Don't know, but it will eventually happen. Who knows, maybe even next month.
