Ready to Rock N' Roll

Picture the starting line: it's 7:05AM in Providence. 4,000 or so runners line up in more than a dozen corrals on Gaspee street near the Providence mall, wisps of steam rising from their heads in the morning fog. Katy Perry blasts over the speakers, followed by Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory". The race director, in a polite English accent, asks for everyone's patience as they clear the last few cars off the 13.1 miles of road ahead - "for everyone's safety". 

My first thought is, "do these guys know Rock n' Roll, or what?" 

Ok, I was a little grumpy. I woke up at 5:30, shivering, on a friend's couch in his spider-infested house. On top of that, my first mile of the race was dreadful. I was stiff, slow, cold, and I forgot my watch. 

But ah, the beauty of long-distance running. Once I got over being a miserable bastard, I was ready to race again. After a few more slow, steady miles, I gradually picked up the pace. By the end of it all, I finished with a Personal Record - 1:32.45, 30 seconds faster than my previous best at the New Bedford half earlier this year.

What this made me realize? I'm awful at racing. 

By that, I don't mean I'm slow, necessarily. Just that, for my current level of training and ability, I feel as though I should be able to easily achieve the times I've been hitting. Take this race, for example. I had originally planned on running around 7:30/mile. I was grumpy and distracted for the first few miles, took it easy for the middle of the race (that was part of the pre-race plan), but when I realized I was already going far faster than anticipated, I stepped it up hard for the last 5k, and kinda lost steam in the last 1/2 mile or so. If I was more consistent in my splits, or ran a smarter race (i.e. THINKING the whole time instead of just the last few miles), there's no reason I couldn't be hitting these times and far better ones even today. Ok, maybe not today. I'm still a bit sore. 

But the point is, I need to get better at this. My overall goal for the 118th Boston Marathon is to qualify for the 119th Boston Marathon, so I need to be smart about it. Qualifying times are 3:05 for my age group, so I need to actually run slightly faster per mile at Boston as I did in Providence. Half of the plan to reach those splits is to train hard and smart for the next 6 months, but the other, possibly bigger half, is to get better at the whole racing thing. 

I'll accept any pre-race rust-shaking techniques, in-race tips, tricks, mental bargaining, etc. I need to use the next 6 months to work on this sort of thing so I can maximize my potential. I almost feel as though I still don't have a baseline time for a half marathon to work against, simply because I get better at racing each time I go out for one. I'm training at the same time too, but it's hard to tell what gains are made with training versus with race technique. 

Ok, now I'm done complaining. Really, I should be much more excited, it's just strange to think I ran a bad race AND PR'ed. This is how excited I was at the time, though: 

The good news? I get another crack at this in just 2 weeks for the BAA half. I have to say, the one good thing that comes from not running your best race is the motivation for next time. And given the proximity to 'next time', I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm ready to Rock again.

Just....less Katy Perry this time, please.

More details and results for the Rock n' Roll Providence Half Marathon can be found here.