Well, I finished my fourth half marathon of 2012 and made it back to Columbus without too many problems. I went in to the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon a little nervous and a little excited.
Nervous because I'd never done this long of a run at night before. Now, when I say night, the run started at 4:30pm (by the time my corral made it to the starting line and got going it was more like 5:10pm). But I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to prepare the way I normally would for a run of this distance.
Excited because, although my training was a little rough, the last few weeks of training leading up to this run had gone well, and my speed had continued to get better on my long runs.
I went in to this run swearing that I was going to do it "just for the fun of running the Las Vegas strip at night" and not set any goals. Just have fun. But, like any other run, once I got moving there were goals starting to enter my brain. Two goals actually. One was to run the entire half marathon without walking (something I have yet to accomplish) and the other (which got in to my head at about mile #5) was to record a personal best time for a half marathon.
I'll let you know right now that neither of those things happened in Las Vegas.
I got a little more nervous about things when I started reading reviews of last year's Las Vegas Rock and Roll event on line the day of the race. It seems that they had several major issues with the race in 2011, and many of the runners were not happy. Some were so unhappy with the event that they swore never to run another Rock and Roll event ever. Not only did this make me nervous for the run that I was planning on doing that evening, but also for the other two Rock and Roll Half Marathons that I've already registered for next year. But, having read the website for this event, as well as some emails that had been sent out, it appeared that the organizers had taken a lot of steps to improve the experience for the participants and deal with those issues from last year.
Overall, I think they did a pretty good job of handling the event given the number of runners that were participating. At nearly 30,000 half marathoners, the registration was actually down quite a bit from last year, but it still made for a very large event.
Anyone who is familiar with Las Vegas knows that traffic along the strip is quite heavy, especially in the evenings. But not on this evening. The City of Las Vegas shut down the streets starting about 1/2 mile south of the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, all the way in to and including the streets of downtown Las Vegas. There wasn't a single car moving on those streets from before 3pm until after 8 or 9pm on Sunday afternoon and evening. This makes me understand a little better why the registration fee for this half marathon is the most expensive in the world, according to Runner's World Magazine. The number of Las Vegas Police Officers it takes to shut down that many major roadways in a city like Las Vegas costs a lot of money. Add to that the staff to run such an event and all the other perks and it makes for an expensive event to put on. Now, at anywhere from $165-$195 per runner times 30,000, I still don't think they lost money on the deal, but I really can't complain about the registration cost after seeing all that went in to it. I've run the Disney World Half Marathon, which was almost as expensive, and didn't feel like I got near the experience for the money I spent. If someone told me that I had to run another half marathon for that price but could choose between Vegas and Disney World, I'd choose Vegas. Like I said, I actually felt like I got some value for the money I spent. Having said that, I don't plan on running an event that expensive again.
Getting back to the actual run. I started off doing pretty well. By mile #2 I had settled in to a 9:46 per mile pace. Much faster than I had anticipated. I kept telling myself that I needed to slow up a little, but just didn't do it. I maintained that pace pretty steadily until about mile #8 when I started to slow down. My legs were starting to get pretty tired and feeling heavy at that point. At about the 11 mile mark I couldn't run any more. I stopped to walk with the intention of walking five minutes then running five and keeping that going for the last couple of miles. That didn't happen. After five minutes of walking I tried to start running again, but my legs would not cooperate. At that point I was still on pace to run a personal best, but I knew then it wouldn't happen. I could not run any more.
I can actually pinpoint what went "wrong" with this event. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not disappointed with my finish. I had gone in to this half marathon planning on "just having fun". I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that I had to stop and walk at mile #11, and I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that walking would prevent me from beating my personal best time. But, I reminded myself that this was just for fun, and I enjoyed the sights of the running along the Las Vegas strip and downtown Las Vegas at night.
My mistakes though, basically boiled down to three things. One was that I put too many miles walking on my legs in the two days leading up to this event. I guess it really wasn't the number of miles as much as the kind of miles. The kind of walking that happens in Las Vegas is a little different. I didn't rest my legs the way I should have leading up to a half marathon. Mistake #2 was that I didn't properly fuel myself during the race. Normally I'm pretty good about taking my GU Energy Gels at the proper intervals that work for me. For some reason, I didn't do that this time, and that was the reason that I was unable to to finish the last two miles with the run/walk that I normally would have. Mistake #3 was a simple mistake. One I actually realized I was making while I was doing it. At the pre-race area there was a "Refreshment" tent, giving out free food to runners. I didn't eat too much, but it was WHAT I ate that caused the problem. Anyone who runs long distances knows that you don't want to do anything to cause any gastro intenstinal issues during a race. You want to be very careful leading up to and during a race to eat the right amounts of the right kinds of food. I had been very careful throughout the day to make sure that I ate enough to not be hungry before the race, but not so much that it would cause problems during the race. Then, while at the pre-race area, I ate a very large apple. Not something I should have eaten at that time, and I paid for that late in the race.
One other factor, one that I couldn't control, was the weather. Now the temperature was great during the run. A little warm (even for Vegas in December) at 70 degrees early, it dropped in to the upper 50's to lower 60's. However, there were some pretty strong winds that evening. Gusts of 35 mph can play havoc on your legs. Especially when you put that many miles on them. Some of the buildings helped to block the winds most of the time, but when the wind blew, running against it was not easy.
I do believe that, given my performance through the first eight miles, that I do have the capability of running a faster half marathon than I have so far. My next half marathon will be in Myrtle Beach on February 16. My three goals are:
1 - To run the entire half marathon without any walk breaks. Given my performance here in Columbus in October, I know that is a goal that is within my reach. I was so close then, and I'm optimistic that Myrtle Beach will be the place that I'll finally accomplish that.
2 - Run a personal best time. In Columbus I ran a 2:16:28. My times have continued to improve, and given my performance through the first 11 miles in Las Vegas, I know this is something I can accomplish if I train right and learn from my mistakes.
3 - Run a sub 2:10:00. This would require me to average about 9:53-9:54 per mile. Through the first 8 miles of Las Vegas I was running a steady 9:46, and at the point when I stopped to walk I was running at 9:53 per mile. If my times continue to get better, and I run the entire half marathon and I refuel properly, and I do all those other things I need to do to prepare, this is a goal that is within my grasp.
I'm challenging myself a little more this time around. Usually I set an "easy" goal a "medium" goal and a "hard" goal. This time I think two of the goals are medium to medium/hard and one goal is hard.
My legs have recovered pretty well after last Sunday's half marathon. I know what mistakes I made and can work to avoid those same mistakes in the future. I've got five half marathons planned for 2013, one of which will give me another state to cross off my list of states I've raced in. I'm not going to put the cart before the horse, but I hope that by the time I run Columbus next October I'll be setting a goal of running a sub 2 hour half marathon. We'll see what happens though.
In the mean time, I will be registering tomorrow for the Snowflake 5K run, which will be held in Dublin this Sunday. If I'm one of the first 500 males to finish I get a nice mug.
Nervous because I'd never done this long of a run at night before. Now, when I say night, the run started at 4:30pm (by the time my corral made it to the starting line and got going it was more like 5:10pm). But I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to prepare the way I normally would for a run of this distance.
Excited because, although my training was a little rough, the last few weeks of training leading up to this run had gone well, and my speed had continued to get better on my long runs.
I went in to this run swearing that I was going to do it "just for the fun of running the Las Vegas strip at night" and not set any goals. Just have fun. But, like any other run, once I got moving there were goals starting to enter my brain. Two goals actually. One was to run the entire half marathon without walking (something I have yet to accomplish) and the other (which got in to my head at about mile #5) was to record a personal best time for a half marathon.
I'll let you know right now that neither of those things happened in Las Vegas.
I got a little more nervous about things when I started reading reviews of last year's Las Vegas Rock and Roll event on line the day of the race. It seems that they had several major issues with the race in 2011, and many of the runners were not happy. Some were so unhappy with the event that they swore never to run another Rock and Roll event ever. Not only did this make me nervous for the run that I was planning on doing that evening, but also for the other two Rock and Roll Half Marathons that I've already registered for next year. But, having read the website for this event, as well as some emails that had been sent out, it appeared that the organizers had taken a lot of steps to improve the experience for the participants and deal with those issues from last year.
Overall, I think they did a pretty good job of handling the event given the number of runners that were participating. At nearly 30,000 half marathoners, the registration was actually down quite a bit from last year, but it still made for a very large event.
Anyone who is familiar with Las Vegas knows that traffic along the strip is quite heavy, especially in the evenings. But not on this evening. The City of Las Vegas shut down the streets starting about 1/2 mile south of the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, all the way in to and including the streets of downtown Las Vegas. There wasn't a single car moving on those streets from before 3pm until after 8 or 9pm on Sunday afternoon and evening. This makes me understand a little better why the registration fee for this half marathon is the most expensive in the world, according to Runner's World Magazine. The number of Las Vegas Police Officers it takes to shut down that many major roadways in a city like Las Vegas costs a lot of money. Add to that the staff to run such an event and all the other perks and it makes for an expensive event to put on. Now, at anywhere from $165-$195 per runner times 30,000, I still don't think they lost money on the deal, but I really can't complain about the registration cost after seeing all that went in to it. I've run the Disney World Half Marathon, which was almost as expensive, and didn't feel like I got near the experience for the money I spent. If someone told me that I had to run another half marathon for that price but could choose between Vegas and Disney World, I'd choose Vegas. Like I said, I actually felt like I got some value for the money I spent. Having said that, I don't plan on running an event that expensive again.
Getting back to the actual run. I started off doing pretty well. By mile #2 I had settled in to a 9:46 per mile pace. Much faster than I had anticipated. I kept telling myself that I needed to slow up a little, but just didn't do it. I maintained that pace pretty steadily until about mile #8 when I started to slow down. My legs were starting to get pretty tired and feeling heavy at that point. At about the 11 mile mark I couldn't run any more. I stopped to walk with the intention of walking five minutes then running five and keeping that going for the last couple of miles. That didn't happen. After five minutes of walking I tried to start running again, but my legs would not cooperate. At that point I was still on pace to run a personal best, but I knew then it wouldn't happen. I could not run any more.
I can actually pinpoint what went "wrong" with this event. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not disappointed with my finish. I had gone in to this half marathon planning on "just having fun". I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that I had to stop and walk at mile #11, and I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that walking would prevent me from beating my personal best time. But, I reminded myself that this was just for fun, and I enjoyed the sights of the running along the Las Vegas strip and downtown Las Vegas at night.
My mistakes though, basically boiled down to three things. One was that I put too many miles walking on my legs in the two days leading up to this event. I guess it really wasn't the number of miles as much as the kind of miles. The kind of walking that happens in Las Vegas is a little different. I didn't rest my legs the way I should have leading up to a half marathon. Mistake #2 was that I didn't properly fuel myself during the race. Normally I'm pretty good about taking my GU Energy Gels at the proper intervals that work for me. For some reason, I didn't do that this time, and that was the reason that I was unable to to finish the last two miles with the run/walk that I normally would have. Mistake #3 was a simple mistake. One I actually realized I was making while I was doing it. At the pre-race area there was a "Refreshment" tent, giving out free food to runners. I didn't eat too much, but it was WHAT I ate that caused the problem. Anyone who runs long distances knows that you don't want to do anything to cause any gastro intenstinal issues during a race. You want to be very careful leading up to and during a race to eat the right amounts of the right kinds of food. I had been very careful throughout the day to make sure that I ate enough to not be hungry before the race, but not so much that it would cause problems during the race. Then, while at the pre-race area, I ate a very large apple. Not something I should have eaten at that time, and I paid for that late in the race.
One other factor, one that I couldn't control, was the weather. Now the temperature was great during the run. A little warm (even for Vegas in December) at 70 degrees early, it dropped in to the upper 50's to lower 60's. However, there were some pretty strong winds that evening. Gusts of 35 mph can play havoc on your legs. Especially when you put that many miles on them. Some of the buildings helped to block the winds most of the time, but when the wind blew, running against it was not easy.
I do believe that, given my performance through the first eight miles, that I do have the capability of running a faster half marathon than I have so far. My next half marathon will be in Myrtle Beach on February 16. My three goals are:
1 - To run the entire half marathon without any walk breaks. Given my performance here in Columbus in October, I know that is a goal that is within my reach. I was so close then, and I'm optimistic that Myrtle Beach will be the place that I'll finally accomplish that.
2 - Run a personal best time. In Columbus I ran a 2:16:28. My times have continued to improve, and given my performance through the first 11 miles in Las Vegas, I know this is something I can accomplish if I train right and learn from my mistakes.
3 - Run a sub 2:10:00. This would require me to average about 9:53-9:54 per mile. Through the first 8 miles of Las Vegas I was running a steady 9:46, and at the point when I stopped to walk I was running at 9:53 per mile. If my times continue to get better, and I run the entire half marathon and I refuel properly, and I do all those other things I need to do to prepare, this is a goal that is within my grasp.
I'm challenging myself a little more this time around. Usually I set an "easy" goal a "medium" goal and a "hard" goal. This time I think two of the goals are medium to medium/hard and one goal is hard.
My legs have recovered pretty well after last Sunday's half marathon. I know what mistakes I made and can work to avoid those same mistakes in the future. I've got five half marathons planned for 2013, one of which will give me another state to cross off my list of states I've raced in. I'm not going to put the cart before the horse, but I hope that by the time I run Columbus next October I'll be setting a goal of running a sub 2 hour half marathon. We'll see what happens though.
In the mean time, I will be registering tomorrow for the Snowflake 5K run, which will be held in Dublin this Sunday. If I'm one of the first 500 males to finish I get a nice mug.