Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon RR

Updated with race photos and video:

One more mile to go.

Finish Line

Half way there.

First run race of the year is in the books.

Around 10pm Friday night I get a text wishing me luck on my race Saturday and I am like wait wait wait, my race is Sunday??   Checked online and sure enough the race is Saturday morning.  So that was fun rushing around getting my gear together for the morning. And chugging a bottle of Carbo-Pro before bed.  Luckily I had ate almost a whole broccoli onion almond pizza that afternoon after a long swim and easy 45 minute run and thinking I was going to do a long ride Saturday I wanted to be carbo-loaded. 

Honestly it really wasn't as big of a deal as it might sound... it's only a tune up race for me.

That morning I had two packets of oatmeal with my First Endurance MultiV.  Then a bottle of Carbo-Pro on my drive out to the Great Dismal Swamp in Chesapeake.  The coarse is pancake flat on a paved bikeway through the woods. I did this race like 4 years ago.  I think it was my second half marathon ever.  I think it took me like 1:50 to finish and I injured my IT band really bad running in shoes I shouldn't have been running in.

During my drive I realized I forgot my Garmin.  But, turned out I was better off without it.  I just ran based on how comfortable I felt and that was for the best I think.  I had no idea what pace I wanted to keep for the race therefore my Garmin would of been pointless.  I do like to have it just for comfort purposes though. I checked my watch every few mile markers to see where my timing was at. Turned out that my comfort zone was around 6:10-6:15 pace.  I was pleasantly surprised how good I felt throughout the race.  I had even given myself I chance at a sub 1:20 finish time as I crossed the halfway point at 40:30 (yeah I would needed a negative split, but it was doable).  I took in a few cups of water throughout the race as well as two PowerGels 2x caffeinated.  The coarse was an out and back.  So it was nice running back with the other mass of runners giving me shouts of encouragement for a few miles.  I appreciate that more than they know.  There were over 1000 people running I think. 

My official time was 1:22:07.  Finished 12th overall.  I'm pleased with how I raced.  It's so early in the season right now.  For better or worse I needed to race 13.1 miles.  This gives me confidence that my new training plan is working.  My legs were far from fresh for the run.  But I think I did a good job of staying on top of my training recovery through the week, which put me in a decent condition to race 13.1 miles.  Hopefully this gives me a good measure on how I might do during the run leg of a half ironman.

I'll need a few days to recover from this run before I get back into speed training.

I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone can break the World Record Marathon in London this weekend.  And the Boston Marathon is on Monday and hopefully Ryan Hall can win.  Maybe I'll remember to sign up for Boston 2012 this year.

Next up for me is Dismal Dash 40K TT #2 in Suffolk, VA next weekend. Which I still need to sign up for.