Charleston 15 miler

I ran two half marathons (13.1 miles) in 2005. I had not attempted 15 miles in a race before although I had run 15 miles twice before in training and it was kinda tough. Audrey and I got up at 4am and drove down to the Civic Center in Charleston. We got there by 6:30am. Check in was really easy and I got to try on my first timing chip. You wear them on your shoelaces by running your shoelace through it then tying your shoe. When you start, a scanner detects you crossed the start line and then when you finish a scanner detects you crossed the finish line. This eliminates the need to stand at the front of the pack. You get an equal time to run the race even if you are in the back of the pack.

After check in Audrey took of shopping and I took off to look for my buddies. I tell her this is my support group. There were about 600 people running the 15 miler and another couple hundred running the 5K (3.1 miles). I found my buddies before the race and did some catching up plus warming up. Oh did I say conditions were near perfect. It was overcast with temperatures in the 60's. We lined up near the front on the right side. There was an announcer with a loudspeaker who was welcoming us and telling it will 5 minutes to start time and so forth. The amount of people coupled with the fact that you have to run through the scanners at the start made people pack in so for about 5 minutes it was wall to wall people.

The race started and it took a few seconds for those in front of me to get going but we were soon on our way. For the most part I think I lined up to far in front of the pack because alot of folks went around me. This winners would finish somewhere around 1 hour and 15 minutes. Yes they run at 12 miles per hour. I was shooting to finish the race in under 2 hours, so I needed to run about a 7:57 pace for the race. I knew I would start out slower than that and build up to it. Lee had told me there was a significant hill after about a mile or so that lasted for a couple miles. I ran at about an 8:05 pace or so for the first mile.

Then the hill came, it was a good hill for me. I like running hills for the most part. Almost any run I do includes a hill. However this hill was long in that it basically went up for 2 miles. First along the main highway out to corridor G then turning into some neighborhoods on smaller roads. The hill dropped me down to a pace of about 8:30 by the time I finally reached the top. I still felt good and was ready to make up some time.

Then came the part that I will really have to train for next year. 2 miles of moderate downhill. It was wild. I never get to run downhill that long and not that fast since I was trying to make up time. I just let myself go. Flying down the hill I saw the pace on my Garmin gps dropping like a rock. I knew I was doing damage to the legs but I was going at it all out. I had the ipod blaring and by the time I got to the bottom I was at about a 7:50 average pace which was excellent. I knew the rest of the race was pretty flat. 6 miles were done.

We were running then along the river near the capitol. It was flat with a couple of bridges to provide some slight inclines. A fellow behind me struck up a conversation and we began talking about everything for the next 3-4 miles. This made the time go by really fast. I was dropping a little bit of pace but I could tell it was going to be ok. The garmin was saying I was running at about a 7:55 pace by about mile 10. The garmin was reading the distance a little long. In other words when I crossed 10 miles the Garmin read about 10.09 or so. Doesn't sound like much but it can reek havoc on your pace calculation. Therefore I knew to make a 7:57 pace by the finish I was going to have to get the Garmin to read lower. That meant working harder.

I dropped back from my new found friend when we went through a water station. I took long drinks of water. My stomach was starting to hurt some. I had wolfed down a power bar about 1 minute before the start of the race. I'm not sure if that was smart or not. I was hoping it would give me the energy to finish the race. It may have upset my stomach instead. I'm not sure. I stayed behind the guy for the next couple of miles. About mile 13 I said ok it's now or never so I began to kick in some. I passed the guy I had been talking too and about two or three others. I was making significant headway on my pace as my Garmin now said a pace of about 7:52.

I was really starting to suffer by this time. My tongue was wagging, my legs were aching. It was just total guts to run those last 2-3 miles. But I kept getting faster and I could feel that I was going to do it by now. I am somewhat familiar with the streets around Laidley field from high school band days so I knew we were getting close. All I could think was keep good running form and use economy of motion. In other words run as fast as possible with as little extra movement as possible. Keeping everything pointed forward, head, toes, arms, hips. I was pushing hard, harder than I ever push during training.

At one mile to go, I was ready to get this thing over with. I put the hammer down and passed 3-4 more runners and my Garmin said a pace of 7:51. I was doing it. I didn't look at my total time but I should have. We hit the stadium and there are quite a few people there in the stadium cheering you on. The track is so easy to run on compared to the asphalt. I maintained my pace. One girl and one guy sprinted around me on the track. I countered back and got around the girl but not the guy. I hit the finish line and forgot to look at the clock but I pushed stop on the Garmin. I was out of it. Your brain pretty much stops working at this point. Plus I was sort of like numb from the waist down. I wasn't numb of course but I guess your body tries to block the pain of every muscle below your waist screaming in soreness.

After wandering around for a couple minutes trying to recover, I took my timing chip off and checked my watch, 1:59:04. That probably won't be my official time but it should be close. I don't know yet they haven't posted the results(** See bottom). This means I had a 7:56 average pace. Which was right on target. Most of my buddies finished at about 1:54 to 1:57. I've got a little ways to go (mainly a few pounds to lose) to catch them.

I was very happy with the race though and today (the next day) I really can't walk well. The front of my legs (quads) are in bad shape. Nothing else hurts. This is mainly due to running down the long hill. I will need to prepare for that better next year. It was a good race and a perfect day for running. This was great preparation for the marathon in November. It's 11.2 miles longer but I will be running slower. Shooting for about a 9:09 pace with a finish time of under 4 hours. In the meantime, I've got lots of training runs to do with about three training runs of 20-22 miles left in the near the next couple months. I feel like I'm ready even though at the moment it really hurts to get off the couch and walk down to the basement...

Oh and on the way home Audrey and I traded our mini-van for a cranberry (get it cranberryrock) Kia Spectra. It's a small economical sharp looking ride. We had a good day.

** They have posted the results now. My chip time or net time was 1:59:02 which was 2 seconds better than what I had on my watch. That's a pace of 7:57 per mile. It's hard to tell when to start and stop your watch when you run through those because there are two different strips you run across and they are spaced out by a few feet. I was number 170 out of 547 (top 31%), and I finished 14th out of 37 in my age group. I ran the first five miles at a pace of 8:09 (remember the hill). The second 5 miles at a pace of 7:52 and the third 5 miles at 7:47 so I was able to speed up the whole way which is great. That's the way you want to do it, push to the end.

To view the overall results.
http://www.charlestondistancerun.com/2006_CDR_15_OVERALL.htm

To view the results by age group. (Male 30-34)
http://www.charlestondistancerun.com/2006_CDR_15_AWARDS.htm