2010 Swan Lake Half Marathon

You Just Never Know…

Leading up to this race, I had my doubts.  I was just coming off a strong marathon 5 weeks ago, and training the last couple of weeks for this race faltered because of vacation, heat, and humidity.  In the week prior to the race, Southeast South Dakota had received 5 to 8 inches of rain with major flooding, and I knew the course was a lot of dirt and gravel roads, which meant mud.  On race morning, I woke up at 4am, noted that it was still raining, I felt dehydrated, and I almost rolled back over to go back to sleep.  Lesson learned, which is part of my mantra, never give up, because you just never know what your body can give until you try.

The race is a fairly small race that benefits the Swan Lake youth Christian camp southwest of Sioux Falls, SD.  A full marathon, a half, and a 5.3 mile race.  My goal going into the race was a 1:45:59 or better, to get me into the C start corral at Chicago.  My ITBS is completely gone, but I have been having some Achilles issues lately in my left ankle, so just was unsure if I could maintain a PR pace for 13.1 miles.  Of course, I typically have a lot of self doubt regarding my running.  

The rain stopped by race start, but it sprinkled about midway through, then started with a steady rain in the last mile.  Nice and cool with temps in the lower 60s, overcast conditions, and nearly flat course.  The mud wasn’t that bad.  Once you got dirty, you couldn’t do much worse, and running in the compacted tire track helped.  The miles ticked off pretty easily.  I never could get into the zone though, and it was constant work trying to keep my breathing under control.  Felt my heart rate was pretty high the whole time, which is not surprising since I’ve never run this fast this far.  Legs did great, no problems there.  

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with my performance.  Official time of 1:44:19, 7th place overall male, and first in my age division of 40-44. I’m very glad I didn’t roll over and go back to bed at 4am this morning!  I was ready to give up before I even started, but stepping up to the challenge despite my doubts, I was able to nab a PR, an entry into the C corral at Chicago, and first in my age group.  So the moral of my story today, you just never know and never give up!

Splits:  7:54, 7:58, 7:50, 7:52, 7:58, 7:53, 7:49, 7:54, 7:59, 8:02, 7:54, 7:54, and 7:45.  Pretty even splits.  Was hoping to have sub8 for the entire race, and was pretty close except for mile 10. Se la vi.  Bottom line, I’m better than I was yesterday, but not as good as I’ll be tomorrow!  This gives me a nice confidence boost leading into the training for the Chicago marathon this fall.