13.1 miles/2:50:39

My race number was 310. I would never have believed that this would become my target time.

I went into this race feeling pretty good. The twelve miler a couple of weeks earlier had gone reasonably well; I mean, I had finished that on more or less a ten minute mile pace, and I had had something (albeit not much) left at the end of it. So I had a reasonable expectation that I could manage a 2:11-2:15 half marathon.

There were factors that suggested I might not manage that time, though: it was a bit warm, and I was bit tired.

My last full training run with Portland Fit last year, before my knee became too insurmountable a problem, was the twelve miler two weeks before Helvetia. I finished it, but I had a horrible time doing so - I didn't drink enough, and it was a very warm morning: the heat utterly killed me.

So when the morning of the 19th dawned bright and warm and sunny, despite forecasts earlier in the week that the warm weather would break and we would have cloud, well... I was worried. But I had my hat, and I had been training myself to drink more, so I was still quite optimistic about how things would go.

The tiredness, though, crept up on me rather.

As I've mentioned in other posts, we've been painting in the week leading up to Helvetia. We finished painting on Thursday, and Friday was spent merely trolling around Portland in the blistering heat looking for carpet. It was more rest than the painting had been, but it was still poor preparation for a half marathon!

But it was exciting arriving at the Hillsboro Stadium. All the runners around, with their supporters and the organisers and the folks filling the floor of the stadium. There was a tremendous energy about the place. I was just really glad to be there, regardless of my worries about the heat and so on.

I chatted with another yellow PFitter who I've spoken to before about knee troubles. He's had some difficulties as the distances have got longer, but the sensible fellow has bought new running shoes and (critically, I should think) new work shoes and his knee problems have just gone away. Lucky beggar... oh, to be young enough again for that to happen for me!

Then the starting signal went off. It only took a minute or so to cross the start line from my starting spot, so if you check my time on the Helvetia web site it's not far wrong. I tried to settle down into a frustratingly slow pace to start, but it just wasn't happening. This got me into trouble later, of course, but at the time it just felt good to be running. Part of the problem is that it's very easy to get into the mind set of overtaking other runners and walkers, particularly in a mixed pace start as you tend to get in a race. So I was doing too much overtaking and not enough careful pacing at the beginning.

Even so, at mile 1 I was at about a 10:15, so I patted myself on the back for maintaining a sensible pace in sight of my goal time.

Mile 2 came quickly too, and I'd run it in about a 10:30 (I'm afraid I do not have accurate mile splits; I will need a watch with more memory slots if I'm going to do that).

I don't remember mile 3, but I remember mile 4 because it was about this point where I needed to have a short walk break... not a good sign, I thought at the time, but it was only for a minute or so. The hills had begun, you see, and my legs were just tired.

There is a famous hill in Helvetia. I had been told that its reputation was overstated, that in fact there were othere hills I'd run already which were tougher. Unfortunately, I had misremembered the route profile which had been posted on the PFit boards and I convinced myself that a rather small but steep hill at the four mile mark was It. I was wrong.

Between mile 5 and 6 we hit the real hill. By this time one of my usual Saturday running buddies J had caught up with me (this always happens - he's faster than I am, but he starts out slowly and catches up after three or four miles). J decided he was going to be pragmatic and walk The Hill, but I decided to forge on and run it, just to show it who was boss. I can be really pig-headedly stupid sometimes.

So, the big hill was out of the way, and there was just another seven miles of rolling hills to contend with. At this point we were dead on eleven minute miles, which would have been ideal negative split territory (that is, running the second half of the race faster than the first half) if I at least had not been consistently slowing down over the first six miles. Those first six miles, I felt, had gone quite well though. And there were still lots of trees shading the route.

Miles 7 and 8 were tough. The half way point is on the far end of a little out-and-back loop tacked on at the top of a long but fairly shallow hill on the way up to an aid station, like an appendix. It looks like you're set to just turn left and head down the hill, then as you approach you realise you have to turn right and carry on up it! Quite a nasty shock, actually. I should have studied the course better.

This is where I started to really do a lot more walking, like a half and half mix. Despite the shade on this little appendix I was beginning to overheat, and my legs were starting to go rubbery. I had shooed J on, because I couldn't keep running and did not want to hold him up, and I was just running down the hills and walking up them. I didn't feel too good. I filled my secondary water bottle at the aid station standing at the neck of the appendix. Thank you to all those volunteers!

There was a long down hill from that aid station to mile 9, and the official photographer was on this stretch too (I don't like my picture much, though). But the stretch for me which was hardest was going between miles 9 and 10: the road seemed to go on forever, and all the shade had gone. We were running into the sun, and the trees (where there were trees) were not shading the road any longer. I nearly dropped out along this stretch. I was starting to feel queasy from trying to force myself to drink too much, and I was starting to feel cold despite the heat.

Then we turned a corner onto a stretch of gravel road. I actually didn't mind this; it was easier on the feet than the tarmac had been, and although it was dusty it was along here (around mile 10) that I figured that I could at least walk the rest of the way. Three miles is an easy walk.

I don't remember much about miles 10 to 12, except that the route was very straight and parallel to the freeway. The queasiness went away, but this was partly because I wasn't drinking as much. I couldn't take another of the gel shots, so I just decided to carry on without any more. I was still feeling oddly cold, too, which in retrospect is quite worrying.

We turned the corner back onto the road we had left Hillsboro on and came back past the Portland Fit aid station which cheered me up hugely - great people at Portland Fit, and the music really perked me up. I knew it was only a mile, and I had resolved to at least try and run in the last mile, but I just couldn't do it. Only a hundred yards past the 12 mile marker I was back to a walk (albeit trying to walk quickly).

But I did run more of it than I expected: there was another PFitter I started running with who kept me moving, and then I was cheered on by AC Zee, and then my running buddy J, who had already finished and got his medal, came back to pick me up and run me in over the last quarter mile. What a star!

Finishing Helvetia was tough, and my final time reflects that I think. I came very close to dropping out of the race, but I'm glad I kept going.

And it was a great learning experience.

Two things now, though:

1. I need a heart rate monitor, because I don't do a good enough job of listening to my body and controlling my pace at the start of a race.

2. I need to do more heat training. I know I can work in the heat, for the same reason I know I can do a marathon - I've done it on the bike! Not recently, of course, but still... I know my body can do it. It's just a matter of reminding it how.

A good day, though.

Just need to do two of those in a row now :-)

Posted by Dunx at June 19, 2004 09:16 PM