Go! St Louis Half-Marathon

The executive summary...
1:39:12, new PR by almost 3 minutes on the toughest half course I've ever tackled.
Official 6-mile split: 46:17
Unofficial 10-mile split: 1:16:38

The long version...

Back in November, when I stayed on the lower deck and chatted with Coach Kristen for a while on the B2B awards cruise, Go! St Louis Half-Marathon became pretty well established as my A-race for the spring. Now I know that at that moment, I still didn't fully realize what else was already happening on the upper deck, or would happen in the 5 months since. ;)

In the winter racing season, Kristen kicked my butt in run training, partially aided by this El Nino winter that kept me focused on running, instead of wishing I was on the bike like I had at times last winter. I put up some stout numbers, including a 1:07 in the 15k at Gasparilla in February... but some little detours in March had me going into St Louis feeling like I had the speed, but not the miles, for a really strong halfathon. I was pretty sure that my A-goal of 1:37 was gone. Mind you, much like Gaspy, a PR was almost a lock, but if it was the highlight of my weekend it would have to be considered a fail.

Shawn and I got into town (literally from opposite directions, thanks USAirways and Frontier!) Friday afternoon, and my old running buddy Audrey picked us up at Lambert. With Audrey's wrestler-corrupted-into-running fiance Dave in tow, we hit up the expo and then started the grand beer/food/sightseeing tour of St Louis, which went from Growlers Pub on Friday night all the way through to Ted Drewe's after dinner on Sunday night. Along the way was a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, the journey to the top of the Arch, plenty of Schlafly beer, enough pasta and St Louis-style pizza to feed a small army at Joey B's on the Hill, and a meetup with Shawn's friend Kecia for some of Obama's favorite pizza at Pi. I think it may take me half of tri season to work all that off.

Sunday morning was a bit warmer than expected... close to 60, which isn't quite ideal racing weather for me. Dave had the hook-up on parking, so we didn't have to leave until a bit after 6am for a 7:00 start. Chilled out with Shawn until about 10 minutes before the race start, then made my way to an appropriate start with both the 3:20 marathon and 1:40 half-marathon pace groups. The race ended up starting a few minutes late, but that wasn't a big deal. I was across the start line in about 30 seconds, and quickly settled in with the group.

The first 2 miles were pretty flat, down Market and then turning south a couple blocks short of the river...then heading toward Anheuser-Busch. Mile 1 came up on schedule at 7:35, and mile 2 at 7:36. The third mile included the first water station, and a couple of turns as the course snaked thru the brewery. With a total of nearly 13,000 finishers between the two races, this section of the course got a little tight, and I was up on the sidewalks a couple of times just to find daylight... 7:49. Out of the brewery and onto Lynch to start the 4th mile with the first legit hill of the race. This was my first real serious push into Z4, and I knew it was "on" when I remained solidly in Z3 going down the hill back to Broadway... 7:29. Heading back up Broadway it was amazing just how far back the rest of the field stretched. Yes, I was looking and I had drifted way over toward the median, even knowing that Shawn likes to run on what was the opposite side of the road and would be hard to find. A pothole that nearly turned my ankle was the wake-up call I needed to get back to my race, if I was going to have a good day. There would be plenty of time to find Shawn later. 7:27... finishing the "easy" part of the race in 38-flat.

The turn up Chouteau held the next nasty hill, and I was taking more frequent looks at the Garmin, knowing I'd be in Z4 but not wanting to be pushing too hard against my threshold at this point. At the end of the 6th mile was my brief moment of crisis... in my haste to get my GU, the zipper on the mini-pocket on my Mizuno shorts was stuck! I wasn't sure how this was going to fly, so I got my Gatorade and went on, semi-resigned to the idea I might have to make do without gel. Heading up Olive is where the hills got nasty... not very steep, but looooonnnng. Miles 6/7/8 were 7:35/7:25/7:39. Disaster was narrowly averted at the end of mile 8, when I took a few moments to walk calmly and get that pocket unzipped to get my GU. Guess I coulda made do with Hammer Gel at that point too. Of course, I got at my gel as I was rolling into the aid station with *gels*... water would have to wait almost a quarter mile. WTF were they thinking?!

In this 9th mile, I started to ease ahead of the pace group. Of course, this is also where my quads started to hurt a bit. At least it was that "working hard" kinda hurt, as opposed to the burning of dehydration from my first halfathon. There were a few more spectators on Forest Park Avenue headed out toward the turnaround near 10, and that was starting to feed my energy. Coach Garmin said 9 and 10 were 7:37 and 7:34... some quick math as I looked at the clock at the actual marker told me I hit 10 in 1:16:38... a new PR at that distance!

So I had PR'd 10 miles and barring a major collapse, had a halfathon PR in the bag. But I still needed a fairly special 5k to meet my B-goal of 1:40. It was time to go racing. Accordingly, I picked up the effort a little bit and would spend most of the remaining 5k on my threshold. Mile 11 went by pretty nicely in 7:22. But I had the full sun on me, and low 60s is a bit warm for me to race in the sunshine. At the water station, I drank a cup of Gatorade, then a cup of water, and then dumped a cup of water on the back of my head and neck. Between that slowdown, and a sun-baked climb of an on-ramp as we transitioned from Forest Park Ave to Market Street, the 12th mile would be a 7:41. The water station just after 12 would be a bit quicker... drank the Gatorade, then just took one cup of water to pour on my head. The rolling hills would have their last big hurrah, a dip by Union Station, and then one sadistic uphill after that... so nasty that the race director put the jog to Chestnut at 18th, after which we still had to climb some more before finishing with the last block (maybe 2) downhill. Mile 13 in 7:08 per Coach Garmin, and then kicked in at a 6:32 pace. (total race distance per Garmin was 13.18)... last 5k per race clocks in 22:34.

Finished at 1:39:39 on the clock, 1:39:12 on the chip... almost a 3-minute PR, and that's going from a dead-flat course (Shamrock, only Myrtle Beach is flatter) to the most challenging half-marathon course I've run, and not PR weather for me at that. Not bad for a boy who felt "fast but undertrained." Chalk up halfathon #14 or 15.

Waited a few minutes in the chute for Audrey and Dave to finish, after which we collected our Chick-elob and headed back to their place to get cleaned up. A big cheer on the drive home when Shawn txt'd to say she made halfway and her ankle was still feeling ok. We would venture out to find her on course between 20 and 21, and then back downtown to see her finish. As good as I felt about taking 3 minutes out of my PR, I'd have to say it's on equal footing (at best) with seeing Shawn overcome her bum ankle to slay the beast that was Go! St Louis, and check off marathon #16 and state #15.

Now I have a little time to chill, but I know bike and swim will re-assume center stage sooner than later. I'm 7 weeks out from Tour de Cure, and the channel is up to 63 degrees. Coach Kristen is hinting strongly that the Cervelo will be out on Saturday, and the wetsuit on Sunday. Philly (olympic) Tri in June... B2B Half in November... Charlotte Thunder Road half-marathon in December. Philly in November is tempting, even (especially?) as a drink-beer-and-sherpa-for-Shawn function, but the planning schedule shows me on graveyards that weekend, so even tho I technically could swing it (you know, a little va-cay), one or more individuals will probably have a hissy-fit.