Oshkosh Half Marathon - Race Report

I have made it no secret that my ultimate goal for the marathon is running a sub 3 hour marathon, especially since qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2010.  Ever since running the Boston Marathon in 2011, I have focused majority of my efforts toward triathlon.  This year is going to be different.  My main focus for the spring of 2014 is the Green Bay Marathon.  In preperation for the GB Marathon, I scheduled the Oshkosh Half Marathon as a race to gauge were my current fitness is.  I did not plan on treating this race as an "A" race, but a "B" race.  I definitely wanted to put up a fast time and do the best I could, but I honestly had no clue as to what type of time I was capable of.  The last half marathon I ran was in 2008 and I finished with a time of 1:38:43.  My latest marathon time was last year's Green Bay Marathon with a time of 3:10:32.  I often use McMillan Running (www.mcmillanrunning.com) to help predict race times and help set realistic, yet challenging goals.  I first put in a goal marathon time of 2:55:00 and according to their calculator I should theoretically be able to run a 1:23:09 half marathon.  So, just like that, I had determined a goal time for my first half marathon in nearly 6 years.  

Training Plan

My training plan has been geared around one goal in mind.  Running 26.2 miles in less then 3 hours - period.  That simple.....but it's always easier said then done.  Ever since running 30 miles on my 30th birthday, my training plan has focused on strictly prescribed pace workouts.  I have been doing mile repeats, goal marathon paced workouts, long runs, and tempo runs.  Each of these differing workouts have a specific goal pace.  My mile repeats have been done around 5:20/mile, long runs at an easy 7:45-8:00/mile, goal paced workouts are at or below 6:50/mile, and my tempo runs at 6:20/mile.  The days leading up the Oshkosh Half were far from being a taper.  The Saturday before I did an 8 mile run with 5 mile repeats, followed with a 14 mile goal marathon pace run on Monday.  On Thursday I had a track workout consisting of 6x400m sprints with a total mileage of 6 miles.  I took Friday off and then a short 2 mile run on Saturday.  I honestly felt really well on both Saturday and Sunday morning leading up to the race even with my higher training volume/intensity.

Day/Night Before

Saturday was a busy day/night for my family and I.  It started immediately after finishing my short 2 mile jaunt.  Sarah brought the three girls, with her parents, to a Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at the Local YMCA followed by an Easter Egg Hunt.  I left to get down to Oshkosh to pick up my race packet and then met up with the family shortly after their breakfast.  After the Easter Egg Hunt, we went to the grocery store for their annual "Bunny Hop."  It's nothing special, kind of a trick-or-treating style day but Easter Themed with the Easter Bunny.  When we finished making our rounds at the grocery store, we went to the same hospital Harper was born at to visit our good friends Pat and Melissa to see their new son, Connor.  We spent about 45 minutes visiting and then we returned home to get the kids down for an afternoon nap.  Later that evening we had plans to go out to dinner with the entire extended family from my dad's side to celebrate the birthday of my deceased grandfather.  This has been a tradition with my dad and his brothers and sisters for the past 10-15 (or more) years.  My dad came from a family of 12...yes, 12!  So, any time they are able to get most, if not all, together, its pretty special.  We went to a local supper club for dinner and I did my best to eat as close to the Whole30 rules as I could.  I drank water, had a salad with tomatoes and eggs and no dressing, and a broiled piece of haddock for dinner.  My only flaw with dinner was the cup of rice which was served as a side.  I figured it was my best option, and certainly better then the other options of white potatoes (fried, hashed, baked, etc.).  My biggest flaw was having 2 small squares of the cookie cake for my aunt's birthday.  Oh well, you need to enjoy life every now and again.  Don't worry, I won't dive into the number of beers I took down Friday night while playing Cards Against Humanity with my in-laws or the number of handfuls of M&M's that I ate with the beer.  :)  Either way, I was in bed and sleeping around 10pm with my alarms set for 4am.....ugh.

Getting to the Start Line

Without fail, my alarms went off when I told them to...4am sharp.  I was tired, but excited to get my 2014 race season under way.  I finally got my butt out of bed around 4:15 and immediately poured a cup of coffee and ate my traditional prerace meal of boiled sweet potato topped with natural honey and almond butter.  The weather was at the front of my mind all week.  It had been forecasted to be a cold and wet weekend ever since the extended forecast came out.  Saturday was a cool and wet day and rained pretty much all day.  The forecast for Saturday morning called for temperatures near 40 and a 30-40% chance of showers.  That morning it was not raining when I woke up, but the roads and everything else was wet from all the overnight rain.  I immediately jumped onto Weather.com and saw that the rain had a chance of holding off until later in the morning.  Either way, there was little I was able to do about it, at least that's what I told myself.  After a little relaxing and stressing over the radar, I was on my way to Oshkosh (about a half hour drive south of my home) by 5:20.

After getting to Oshkosh, I eventually was able to find my friend Bob and hung out with him until about 15 minutes before the race.  At 6:15am I took my new standard pre-workout supplements from Hammer Nutrition; Race Caps Supreme, Mito Caps, and Anti-Fatigue Caps.  We stayed inside the convention center where the race was based out of to stay dry and warm.  Around 6:45am I started a brief warm up just to get the legs moving and to loosen up.  It was nothing what I would have liked, but hey, it was cold outside and I valued standing indoors in the warmth over being outside in the dreary weather.  By the time I got to the start line it was about 6:55 and I took an Energy Surge for a final boost of ATP just prior to the race starting.  After the National Anthem we receive a pre-race briefing in regards to the current course conditions following yesterdays rain.  No shocker, but there were parts of the course that were flooded, especially the sections that were located on the a trail section of the course along the river.
  

Miles 0-7

Immediately after starting the race, I decided I would make it a goal to go out and just run based on feel and try not to look at my watch for split times.  I wanted to do this because I honestly had no idea if a 1:23 half marathon would be way to hard for me or way to easy and I didn't want to ruin a race by crashing in the final 2-5 miles or by holding back for fear of crashing and burning.  Shortly after mile 1, I had realized that I had gone out way to fast.  My breathing was pretty labored and I knew I had to cut my pace or I would never be able to survive the final 12 miles.  I slowed my pace a bit, but it really wasn't until miles 4 or 5 that I really started to feel like I was at the right pace.  The first 4 miles were ironically the wettest.  This was the section of the race that was run along the lake and river that goes through the City of Oshkosh.  There were sections of the course that were under a good 3-6" of water that were completely unavoidable.  It was at these sections of the course that I tried to make my gait as wide and quick as possible to try and stay as dry as possible.

Miles 8-13.1

I continued to count down the miles to get to mile 10, because at that point I knew I would just have a 5k to the finish line.  Miles 8-10 were the worst miles, mentally.  I had no one in front of me to chase and no one behind me to push me.  I was lonely.  I tried to continuously assess my breathing, my gait, and my overall general feeling, wondering if I needed to slow down, or if I could pick up the pace based on how much of the race was left.  By time I got to mile 10, I was in a comfortable grove.  I knew I could hang on with just enough gas in the tank for a strong push on the final mile.  After the 10 mile mark, I took a final Hammer Nutrition Energy Surge for a little energy boost to get me to the finish line.  I continued to slowly pick up the pace until I passed the 12 mile mark.  It was at that point that I picked up the pace.  There was still no one visible in front of me, but I was able to see another guy behind me.  With about a quarter mile to the finish line I really opened up, I am not sure if it was adrenaline or the Energy Surge, but I felt like I had a whole other gear and pushed hard and finished with a final time of 1:24:31.

Oshkosh Half Marathon - Garmin Details

Post Race

After finishing I was very happy to see my wife and kids (as always) at the finish line and we spent some time chatting about the race and stuck around to watch Bob finish the race.  It was special to see my wife and kids at this race.   I could have been the fact that the weather was cruddy and my wife still lugged 3 girls all 4 and under out to the finish line by herself.  It could have been the fact that we are now a family of 3 with a one month old.  Or it could have been the fact that this was Harper's first ever race.  Either way, It seems like since the Ironman and having our third daughter my family has meant even more to me then before.  I am truly the luckiest guy out there and I wouldn't trade my life for anything.  Shortly after Bob finished, they held the awards ceremony.  I was fortunate enough to finish in 12th place overall and 2nd in my new age group of 30-34.  I was thrilled.  

Other Notes

I was very happy with my time.  No, it wasn't the 1:23 I was shooting for, but really who knows if that was realistic.  Maybe if I had trained specifically for a half marathon and tapered and peaked for this race I could have run a 1:23, but I really don't care.  For me it isn't about this individual half.  It's about the Marathon, specially running that marathon in under 3 hours, and that race is now 33 days away.  I have been training hard for the marathon and ran this race in the heart of my training, so I am very pleased with my time of 1:24:31.  Plus, now when I input my official race time from this race into the McMillan Calculator, it predicts a theoretical marathon time 2:57:52.  Sure, I wouldn't mind a little cushion but that is a definite confidence boost.  A boost that I will take into the final month of my training.

Lessons for Future Events

There are few true lessons that I will pull from this race when it comes to the specifics of the race and strategies.  But I will say, this was the first race that I ran since strictly using Hammer Nutrition products and I will not change anytime soon.  This was also the first time I used Energy Surge and Anti-Fatigue Caps and I am extremely impressed with the results.  I can't wait to continue to use them in future races and triathlons.  I debated what I would eat or drink for my pre-race meal.  I have made a decent effort to eat a diet higher in fat and protein and lower in carbohydrates in an effort to become more fat adapted.  So, I debated drinking coffee with pure coconut milk in it was opposed to my traditional high carb meal that I ultimately ended up eating.  I think I will still eat my sweet potato before the Green Bay Marathon, but might experiment with just coffee and coconut milk for my triathlons and other races this summer.

What's Next

It's time to kick my training into high gear the next few weeks before my final taper before the marathon.  I am scheduled to take Monday off from training in an effort to properly recover before jumping back into pace specific workouts.  I have one more real long run on my schedule of 24 miles and then a final 20 miler before my taper.  I have 2 more goal marathon pace workouts and a couple of shorter, more intense runs on the schedule.  I also have the Jailbreak 5k coming up on April 26th, which has the Bloodhound Challenge for Law Enforcement Officers.  I have won it the past two years and have some high expectations to win it a third year in a row.  I will do my best, but like I say every year, it's only a matter of time before another quick person shows up and steals the traveling trophy from me.