Today we ran the Joker's Wild half-marathon in an attempt to get qualifying times for start corrals at the Chicago Marathon.
Distance: 13.3 miles
Duration: 1:40:08
Pace: 7:32
HR Avg/Max: 167/184
notes:
Not really sure how to approach these notes... I felt like I had a really good race and I enjoyed the run but at the same time I felt the event was poorly managed which left me in a post race bad mood (being exhausted probably didn't help either)...
THE BAD
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I think I'll start by venting about the race... First and foremost was the fact that the race was 13.3 miles instead of 13.1 like a half-marathon is supposed to be. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel that if I shell out 60 bucks to run a half marathon then they could at least measure the course right...
Secondly, there were not joker's wild... let me elaborate on that. Supposedly the reason this race was called the Joker's wild was that everyone who finished the half-marathon was supposed to be handed a playing card and if you got the joker you won a prize, but when we got to the finish line, no card! I asked a race staffer about this and they didn't really have a good explanation. Seemed like poor planning. Not necessarily the biggest deal in the world but after all the entire theme and concept of the race was based around this, plus it seemed like a fun and I can't really think of a good reason (besides poor organization) why they couldn't pull this off... but anyway, enough bitching, on to the fun stuff.
THE GOOD
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First off, the course was really really tough... The course was a 6.5 mile loop which was completed twice. Each loop contained a two plus mile stretch of some pretty steep up hill running. Basically Mile 2-4 and Mile 8-10 were entirely uphill which made for a ass kicking race. I don't mind the hills (actually I find them challenging and fun) but it didn't make for a good race for setting any PRs. Combine this with the heat and the extra .2 miles of running and you have quite the race.
My goal was to break 1:45 so I could qualify for start corral C at the Chicago Marathon, which I did quite handily... My secondary goal was to break 1:35:59 for start corral B, but this turned out to be right out of reach.
I decided that since I wanted to at least attempt to break 1:35:59 that I should start the race fast so I went out with the 1:30 pace group. I kept up for the first two miles at 6:50 mile pace until we got to the hills. At this point I dropped off the pace and was on my own. I battled up the hills for a couple miles dropping off to a 7:30 pace. After the hills, I was beat and I still had 9 more miles to go. I knew that I couldn't keep up the effort I was going. I started to get passed by several runners. Luckily what goes up must come down and the next couple miles were down hill. I used the next miles to gather myself and dropped my pace back down to 7:20. Somewhere along this stretch I got passed by a young lady who seemed to be going at a good pace so I decided to tag along with her and let her set the pace. I stuck with her for about 2 miles and we steadily started passing some people.
When we got to the halfway point I had caught my second wind and was feeling pretty good. I hit the 6.55 mark at 47:29 which was exactly on pace for a 1:35 half... I knew that if I really pushed it I could be able to hit my goal.
I picked up the pace a little and ran my 7th mile in 7:12 hitting the 8 mile point at 57:51 (7:15 pace). That's when I got to the second round of hills. I hit my next two miles at 7:51 pace and by the 10th mile I was dead. I hit the 10th mile marker at 1:13:37. This meant that I would have to run the last 5k in 22:22 to meet my secondary goal (7:12 pace). The course was downhill so I thought it might be possible, but I also knew that I was wearing down. At this point I made to conscious decision to slow down and coast it in for the next 3 miles. I knew that I would easily meet my 1:45 goal and if I went all out I still might miss my goal by a few seconds plus would pay the price in my marathon training for racing too hard. It turned out to be a really good decision in light of the fact that I had 3.3 miles left because of the long course. I know I would have been really upset if I had put it all out there and hit my goal time for 13.1 only to find I still had .2 miles left.
I ran the final 3 miles at a 8:15 pace. I started getting passed by some people including the girl I had ran with and then passed earlier but resisted the urge to speed up knowing the my legs would thank me for it later.
Finally I reached mile 13 and started to approach the finish line which was of course up another hill. Luckily I had slowed down and was starting to feel pretty good again so I had a little left for my legendary kick... I burned up the hill towards the finish line, raising my hands in victory... 1:40:07... wish I had ran a little bit harder so I could have broke 1:40 but it didn't matter.
THE UGLY
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Some additional notes from race day...
Robbie's story...
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My friend Robbie also ran the race. He finished in a time of 1:38:45... now the reason I bring this up is that he claims to have finished in 1:36... he even timed himself and showed us his watch to prove it. I figured they must have screwed him up by passing his timing chip over the mat again after he had finished. However after further investigation it's not so clear... See, I reviewed the race results which list him finishing 41st overall with a time of 1:38:45. I figured that if he really ran faster than he should have finished in a higher place, in fact according to the results the 30th place runner finished in 1:35:51 so 1:36 would put Robbie in 31st... This means that the 32nd-40th runner should have actually finished after Robbie finished, but when I looked at the race photo's which are shot in chronological order they clearly show that Robbie actually finished 41st as stated in the results... Now I suppose it's possible that there was some kind of timing hiccup that messed up all the times around Robbie but I also know that I finished in 1:40:07 which I could collaborate with my own watch... At this point I remember looking at Robbie's watch with the 1:36... his watch was not a timex or anything, it simply read 1:36 with no seconds after it. This leads me to think that maybe Robbie just has a broke ass watch, but hey... if he thinks he finished in 1:36, who am I to tell him any different.
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Photo Awards
Also wanted to include some racing photo's just for fun!
Here's Robbie, Me, and Symons finishing, post race, and some funny ones of some other people's mishaps to make us feel better about ourselves...
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