1:58:37
Ok, I know this is juuuuust under 2 hours, but I'll take it... I've been chasing this goal for a year and as serendipity would have it, managed to accomplish the sub 2 mark in a race where I had resolved to just finish... I guess that's how it happens, right? Right when you decide to do something one way, it works out another- and in this case, in another way that was much better than I anticipated...
The weekend started out as so many race weekends do...
Head up to Bham on Friday to stay at Shayne's new place... Grab dinner with he and his gf, then got to hang out a bit before heading to bed... Managed to eat way too much, stay up way too late, and tell too many stories that aren't meant for gentle audiences such as you, dear reader... It was good to hang out with Shayne though, since he moved to Bham during Christmas break and I haven't seen him much since...
Spent Saturday on Shayne's couch watching movies... During the day, the temperature dropped drastically, hovering in the mid 30's... I looked at the weather for race morning, and it was predicted to be in the 20's... Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Thankfully, I had packed like a woman and included some cold weather running gear, just in case... Met up with the usual suspects on Saturday night for dinner: Kendrick, Sara, Chad, Evan, Alex, Matt Schmitt, Hallie, Hallie's mom and bro... This was the first time that many of these folks had the pleasure of meeting the new gf, Anna-Margaret, whom they all adore now... AM was running Mercedes too, which in itself was awesome, but pair it with my prayers for the Lord to send me someone who values being active, and I'm in hog heaven...
Crash at Chad's, as per usze... We talked the night before about the race, and how we both were just gonna kinda go out and see what happened... Chad has hired a new coach and has been focusing a LOT on running, but nothing high mileage-- he's focusing more on frequency, and with something crazy like 50 miles a week, I'd say he's hitting the mark... We both kinda said that we were gonna run the next day, but didn't really expect much- I was focusing on just finishing without cramping or throwing up/dry heaving; Chad was focusing on finishing 13.1 miles...
Race morning... it's cold... really really cold... the kind of cold that for me, if it hadn't been a race day, I would have stayed in bed all day, drinking coffee and watching Netflix... AM shows up to Chad's and we load up to head downtown... I had a strange calm over me before the race, which proved (in my opinion) to be a good thing for me...
The night before at dinner, Kendrick had said that he had planned to jump in with me at mile 8 and run me in to the finish, no matter how good or bad I was feeling.... I thought it was a nice gesture and had already prepared my "Slow the fuck down, Kendrick" talk to give him when he would ultimately try to push the pace somewhere way past what I could manage... I ended up not having to give him that talk...
Starting the race, I had decided to use the same pace plan from last year's race: miles 1-3 @ 10:00, 4-10 @ 9:08, 11-13.1 @ max effort... I managed to stay conservative the first 3 miles (10:01, 9:53, 9:58) and was feeling pretty decent... At mile 4, I kind of lost AM at an aid station, but managed to look back and say, "See ya later", to which she smiled and said ,"Ok"... Come to find out, she hung with me for several more miles, just a few steps behind me, without me even knowing... Lil' stinker...
I ran up on Bobbi Cobb, who is an undergrad and member of the UA Tri Team... I told her my pace plan and said she was welcomed to run with, but that I wasn't a talker during races... much to her credit, she hung with me, even though she later admitted she wasn't doing well at all... She ended up having a great race at 1:57:xx... She pulled away a little bit around mile 6/6.5 (maybe 7) and having run the course twice before, I knew I needed to save the legs for mile 9/10'ish, since that's where I seem to blow up every year...
Wind our way through the neighborhoods of Bham, which is one of my favorite parts of the race... this year though, something was different... I seemed to be more focused on running instead of "all the shiny things"... I was keeping a concentrated effort on monitoring my cadence, trying to run with my head up more to maintain good form, and trying to monitor leg turnover so as not to drop pace... Even though I don't run with the fancy Garmin shoe pod, I'm starting to "learn" what my body feels like when I'm hitting certain paces/cadences, what it sounds like to hit certain paces, how I breathe at certain paces, and how I manage my mental faculties (like addition/subtraction of time from the Garmin Virtual Partner mostly) and doing quick scans of how I'm adjusting to the terrain... It's all a learning process, and one that until now, I had chosen to learn the hard way...
But I digress...
I see Kendrick right at about mile 8, right where he said he'd be... I don't even break stride and he hops right in and says, "My nuts are FREEZING!!", to which I promptly responded, "Please shut your mouth, just run"... To say I was ornery is an understatement... at that point, I was doing some math in my head to see if it was going to be possible to break 2 hours... at the pace I was running, I had resolved that I wouldn't break 2, but I'd come close and still PR, which I was happy with...
K checks in and I tell him that I'm doing fine, feeling pretty good, to which he suggests dropping the pace to 8:56... I update my Virtual Partner to 8:56 and promptly run 8:34 and 8:40 for the next 2 miles (most of it was downhill, thankfully)... I figured if I could run down an 8:56 pace, I could get awfully close to breaking 2 hours...
We hit mile 10 and K says "5 K left Dave, you can do this"... I figure I've got nothing to lose by stepping on the gas, so I do... Managed to run 8:24, 8:24, 8:25 for the last 3 miles, and 6:58 for the last .12, a feat which I'm still wrapping my head around... I admit, the last 5k was miserable... I was fighting some side stitches and some left hamstring discomfort, but I didn't want to show it to Kendrick... With every grunt I let out, Kendrick came back with an encouraging, "You're doin' great man, you got this"...
By the last mile or so (maybe more), I was wrecked... I had some fleeting doubts about breaking 2 hours, but resolved to just push on through and go as fast as I could to have the best finish possible... K would get a few steps ahead of me and it'd piss me off, so I'd push a little harder to catch up... Near the end, maybe with .10 or so to go, K gets hawked down by a volunteer who demanded to see his bib number... He escapes this bitch's wrath and keeps running along the sidewalk, yelling at me the whole way, "Dave you got this, keep running hard!"...
I made the last left hand turn to head to the finisher's chute and my feet and lungs are on fire... K couldn't get any further, so he just offered a simple "GO!!!!!", to which I responded with one last ditch effort to empty the tank... I checked my Garmin and it said 1:58'ish (if I remember correctly) and I look up and see I've still got a short ways to go... As I get closer, I see the race clock clicking towards 1:59! I hear the announcer's voice boom over the PA, "IF YOU ARE RUNNING AND CAN HEAR MY VOICE, YOU WILL FINISH UNDER TWO HOURS!!"... and like that, I (like everyone around me) unleashed the hounds...
I have no doubt that I looked like a total fucking moron, flapping my arms and grunting and moaning, but I mustered up everything I had left and laid down the hammer... Sprinting, I crossed the finish line, hit stop on my Garmin, and let out a yell that rivaled the yell at NOLA 70.3... I looked at my Garmin: 1:58:38... I was winded... and speechless... I had done it... I had finally broken the 2 hour mark for a half marathon...
I found Kendrick at the exit of the finishers village area and through the coughs (was still trying to catch my breath!) I just held up my arms...
"Did you do it? What was your time?? Did you do it??"
"I did it... 1:58:38... I did it man"
"NICE! Congrats man! That's ballin!"
"Thanks man... I couldn't have done that without you... you pulled me those last 5 miles, thanks for that man..."
Then I went into a coughing fit like I always do after long runs...
Gathered up my gear from bag check and stood in the pedestrian mall area to put on some dry clothes... Bobbi was with me and we chatted about our times... In all of the excitement, I managed to leave my HR monitor strap (I'm assuming) on one of the planters next to Boutwell... After all the shit I gave AM about losing her stuff, I'm the one that lost something (that wasn't recovered, as AM's wallet was found!)
We met up with the group inside Boutwell, where I ran into Hallie... When I saw her, I just raised my arms like I did when I saw Kendrick after the race...
"DID YOU DO IT??? SUB 2?"
"I did it Hals... I finally did it, 1:58:38"
Hallie goes crazy and gives me a big hug... She of course, had an excellent race, picking up 4th in her AG with a 1:24:52... All of our crew had good races... Hammond ran a 1:24:34 and picked up 6th in his AG... Megan Williams won her AG with a 1:22:05 and Kristy Tippey picked up 3rd in the same AG with a 1:35:21... Alex Kamman took 8th in her AG with a 1:51:35... Bobbi and I both PR'd and went under 2 hours... Solid day for Alabama Triathlon! Chad took 8th in his AG with a 1:25:06... My friends are fast!
As I sit here, still wrecked from yesterday (the soreness in the legs, back, and abs is setting in) I can't help but reflect on how far I've come since the fall of 2009, not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well... A lot has happened since the spring of 2009 when I finally decided to quit my job and come back to school.... my life changed and I changed my life, all for the better...
But, life's not all about training and racing... What I've learned over the past 2.5 years is that life is about what you do, whose life you can impact, and what mark you can leave through training and racing... I've made some pretty incredible friends through triathlon and running-- friends that will be with me for the long haul... people who, by our association and influence on my life, are timeless, and very precious to me...
As an "athlete" (I still use this term loosely), I know I have come a long way... a very long way... If you don't believe me, check this out... This is a comparison, spanning three years, of the Mercedes Half Marathon for me... in my head, I know I've come a long way since the fall of 2009, but seeing as my Dad says, "Numbers don't lie"... So see for yourself-- in my three attempts at this race, I have managed to take off 22:19 from my race time(s)... 22:19, in the fall of 2009, was roughly a 2 mile run for me (@ 11:00 min pace, on a good day)... Now, I'm finishing 5k (tests at least) runs in a little over 24 or 25 minutes... To say I'm not pleased with my progress would be a huge understatement...
There's still a lot of work to be done... I've been focusing a lot of my attention on my diet/nutrition and have already seen some success, losing about 8 lbs since January 1st... The combination of consistent exercise and using a calorie counter app on my phone has made this process somewhat painless... At this rate, I'm hoping to be another 10 lbs lighter by the time the hotter months make their appearance... Being 20 lbs lighter during race season should produce some interesting things!
At this point, I've rambled long enough... I've managed to waste HOURS today going over Garmin data, writing this post, and talking to Kendrick about yesterday's race...
Thanks for reading...
