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Read about my training and the race or skip to the bottom to see the charts and graphs.

Coming Back With the Trumpeters

I returned to Mount Vernon to do my sixth Nookachamps Half Marathon in January of 2005.  This event is usually a pleasure for several reasons.  First - it's very well-organized, it's a pretty course, and there are hot showers at the end.  Second - the event shirts are great.  It's been the same design for at least ten years, with only the color changing.  1996 was forest green, 1998 navy blue, 2001 grey, 2003 red, and 2004 black.  2005's shirts were blue.  All that said, the biggest reason I enjoy going back is because I always meet friends their.  In recent years, my friends Kathy and Dave and I have gone out to lunch afterwards before hitting the road back towards Seattle.

Other factors worth mentioning are that there are some very good runners that do Nookachamps.  In particular, the faster 40 and up crowd seems to flock here.  I don't stand a chance of ever placing in my age group.  Of course that's never factored into whether I do a race or not (as I've only ever placed once, and that was unexpected enough that I left before collecting my prize). 

It's January, and any time the weather's better than lousy we appreciate it.  2005 marked the third year in a row of very good running weather.  We've seen fields full of migrating trumpeter swans (and some others in flight), run past fields with frozen ponds, by big hills with a dusting of snow, and even gotten a rare glimpse of Mount Baker.

I wanted to come back for this year's race for all the reasons I've mentioned.  But I also wanted to PR in the half.  I'd set new personal marks in the marathon and 5k within the past two years, and run a faster mile than I thought possible too.  My half marathon PR was set eight and a half years prior (1996 Super Jock and Jill Half).  I wanted to prove to myself that I am still getting faster.  I was further motivated by turning 40.    I felt that the quality of my training was pretty high, and that I had the ability to beat the old mark.

Looking for an out?

There were a few hurdles though.  The logical hurdle was that I'd need to have someone watch the kids for me.  Kris was away for the weekend, enjoying a rare weekend away with her friends in California.  She was kind enough to cast about for a sitter for me though - finding one of Kayla's former teachers to come over.  Now there were no excuses!

Leading up to the race, I'd not really tapered.  In fact, the previous three weeks had me doing some especially challenging runs in the mountains, including a really tough 25K on Tiger Mountain.  I wasn't sure whether it was fatigue or age, but I also found that my mile splits were not as fast as they'd been a few months back.  The Sunday before the race, I did a speed workout and really struggled at the end - doing mile splits just under 7 minutes.  In order to PR, I would need to average under 7:40.  I began to feel that the PR goal was out of reach this time.  It didn't help that my legs felt tired during the two relatively easy runs I did during the week just before the race.  I had no gas left to push up hills, and poor acceleration when I did three minute-long bursts on my last run before the race (doing these three bursts has been a tradition for me before a race for the past two years).

I whined a bit about how tired I was to Kris.  She listened patiently, and then told me she thought I'd not rested enough and that I was allowing myself to concede before the fact.  In a way, I was kind of looking for an out, not wanting to really try and fall short.  I also felt ambivalent about going off on a day when I had the kids to myself.  I felt as though I should really spend the time with them.  Of course they were excited about spending the day with Kenna, so I wasn't going to get any out there.

My last chance at bailing out was the weather.  It was below freezing, but didn't snow me in the night before.  The roads being clear, it looked like I had no choice but to head for Mount Vernon.

Race Day

I got up early to eat, and to prepare breakfast and lunch for the kids.  My stomach was a bit iffy.  I probably ate a little more than I should have the night before, and unwisely departed from my superstition of eating plain pasta with veggies and olive oil the night before a race (opting instead for deliciousVietnamese food).  More doubts, but I'd have to make the best of it.  The kids got up earlier than usual, and were excited when Kenna drove up just before 7:30.  I gave her the rundown of the kid's daytime routines, and hit the road.

I made great time up to Mount Vernon.  I had a bit of time to kill before the race and spent it relaxing, then talking to friends.  I registered, collected my blue sweatshirt, and hit the restroom before doing some cursory stretching.

My friend Peter mentioned that he was probably going to pace some others to a 1:40 race.  I still felt this would be ambitious for me, but it was intriguing for another reason.  In the 2004 race, I'd run a good 10 miles before crashing.  As I struggled to finish at a reasonable pace, hating every step, Peter ran up behind me just after mile 12 and said in an all-too-chipper voice "I thought I'd never catch you!".  Peter is usually faster than I am, but was using the race as a training run.  Consequently, he had plenty left in his tank and kindly pulled me across the finish a mere 35 seconds off my PR (my fastest time in 8 years!).  I felt awful, but knew then the PR was within reach.  So after hemming and hawing, I deciding to hang with Peter and his crew as long as I could. 

The Great Race

Then it was time to go out to the start.  It was a beautiful morning, but very cold.  The temperature was about 22 or 23, depending on which thermometer you believe.  I was dressed for the occasion though, wearing two shirts, a thermal hat and fleece gloves.  We jostled into place, and suddenly the gun went off - no countdown, just GO!  I think they like watching us scramble.

Peter and Bob set what felt like a pretty brisk pace, as we went uphill a little heading out of town.  My legs felt tired and my breath short, but I decided to keep at it for a while.  We passed the mile marker in 7:40.  At that point I felt I'd be hard-pressed to PR as the too-slow pace felt like too much to sustain.  Peter peeled off to join a group shooting for 1:45, while Bob pressed on ahead.  He steadily increased the distance until he was about 150 meters ahead of me.  So now I was without a pacer, but passing the second mile marker with a split of 7:14 I couldn't give up either.  At this point I felt pretty good.  I was nervous that I'd pay for the fast pace later, but each time I tried to slow down, I'd end up doing another sub-7:35 mile.  Miles 3, 4, and 5 passed uneventfully, as we ran by fields of swans and frozen ponds.  There was no wind, and I felt plenty warm by then too.  It seemed the thing to do was to do what felt good.

As we ran along Clear Lake, I started to feel pretty good about how things were going.  My legs were a little sore, but rather than slowing me down, it acted as a throttle keeping me from doing something stupid.  On the other hand, the mile splits told me that I was being a bit foolish - going over 7:30 only twice in the first six miles.  I decided that I'd take my chances though.  Oddly, I'd set my watch to show the splits in BIG numbers and the cumulative time in small numbers just that week.  This meant I never saw the cumulative time, just the split.  For a short while I calculated how much sub-1:45 time I had "in the bank", but after a while I just focused on each mile.  I think this ended up being really important too - it was a very uncomplicated race strategy.

I missed hitting my watch for the 7 mile marker, but thought I was right around an 8 minute split.  This is right about the time we turn around and run into the oncoming pack of runners.  It was a lot of fun - I was feeling good about my race and I got to see others doing so too.  We ran back into the town of Clear Lake, and headed up the only substantial hill on the course.  It's not very long or steep, but it caused me to slow down a bit to keep my effort somewhat even.  With more than 5 miles to go, it's not time to push past comfort yet.  As I made the turn at the top of the hill, I felt tired but okay.  This is where the course changes a bit.  Instead of running through open fields, we're on windy roads with some steady up and down.

As I pushed on, I felt myself keeping an ambitious pace, but staying within my capabilities.  By now, I'd started passing people steadily.  As I passed miles 8, 9, and 10, I didn't have much of a sense of how close to a PR I was.  I knew it was within reach though, so didn't really want to slow down.  At mile 11 after doing a 7:33 split, I really felt like I had something in reserve (unlike last year).  I surprised myself with my fastest split between 11 and 12 though, touching an even 7 minutes.  I wouldn't be able to sustain that, but I didn't feel like walking either.  By then, we'd re-entered the Mount Vernon city limits, and I was looking ahead for the turn into the campus.  It's a fairly straight shot from there, and I estimated visually where it was.  This is a bit bad, because if I'm off, I'll get down about it and start looking for a reason to slow down.  I managed to focus on one step at a time, and saw the mark getting closer.  I'd caught a partial glimpse at my cumulative time at mile 12, but wasn't sure whether it said 1:30 or 1:32.  I decided I wouldn't worry about it, and just run as fast as I could.

When we turned in, I sped up a bit, and passed several people as we entered the chute area.  I didn't see the clock until I was almost there.  It was ticking from 1:38 to 1:39 - and I knew I had the PR.  Crossing the finish, I felt so much better than last year, and was very proud of the time too.  I walked a bit, and congratulated Bob on his PR (he did 1:38 and change) before heading in for a shower.

Lessons Learned

Every time I run a race, I learn something.  This time I learned a couple of things.  On the mental side, I was able to avoid conceding the goal too early.  On the other hand, I was able to make the race about more than just that - and enjoyed most of the time I spent on the course.  I even spent some sightseeing time - watching the swans in flight and looking for mighty Mount Baker in the distance, as well as looking at details along the road with my photographer's eye.  All of that took the focus off of the goal but didn't jeopardize it.  On the physical side, thinking of the race as 13 smaller mile splits was also key.  I could throttle up or down to make up a little time or recover a bit.  But looking at the splits instead of the cumulative time meant I wouldn't try to do the impossible either - if the PR was out of reach I'd see only the pattern of splits, but not try to do a 6 minute mile.  And I really felt good about being in control of the race.  The lesson for me there is that a very simple race plan is often the best.

The bonus of course is that I vastly enjoyed meeting friends and wearing my new blue sweatshirt adorned with trumpeters.

Charts and Graphs for Running Geeks