2012 Boulder 70.3 Bike Split

2012 vs 2011 Bike Splits - Fairly Consistent Riding

I decided to compare my 2012 bike split to my 2011 bike split from this race to see how they stacked up, given that the times were nearly identical (~1 minute faster in 2012).  In 2011, I entered this race with a measured functional threshold power (FTP) of 315 watts; in 2012, it was 325 watts.  At the same level of intensity (intensity factor, or IF), my split should have been faster, but probably more than a minute so.

As you will see from the graphs below, the difference was that I rode the 2012 race at a lower overall FTP and a lower IF than the 2011 race.  However, my total split remained essentially the same.  In a race where I actually got to do the run, this would have been a pretty good execution of the bike leg.

The Data

The 2012 data is shown in the graph below (click the picture or caption to view a larger version).  Before I get into a real comparison of the data, I should note that in both races, I used the following equipment:

• 2009 QR Lucero Lite TT bike
• SRAM red components
• Quarq SRAM S975 cranks (53/39)
• Zipp 808 wheels
• Sidi T2 shoes

Equipment in 2012 that differed from 2011 includes:

• Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet vs. Bell Sweep road helmet in 2011
• SRAM Red 11-26 cassette vs SRAM 11-23 in 2011
• Garmin Edge 800 vs CycleOps Joule 2.0 in 2011
• Garmin HR Strap vs no HR strap in 2011

Using the Garmin was nice, because I would break down the race into custom-length sections via the "auto-lap" function.  This would allow me to monitor my performance over specific portions of the course.  I chose to break the race into quarters (14 miles each).

My goal was to maintain my normalized power (NP) over each 14 mile section at about 260 watts, while also trying to maintain average power (AP) at about the same level.  The ratio of NP to FTP is the IF, while the ratio of NP to AP is called the "variability index" (VI), which measures how steady your effort is over the span of the measured interval.  A low VI (close to 1.0) indicates you road very steady without too many discrete hard surges or easy efforts.  This can be important in a triathlon, because too many short, hard efforts can really tire you out, and can have a huge impact on one's ability to run well off the bike.

As you can see from the data, I was about 5-6 watts higher than my goal effort on the first loop of the course.  The 1st and 2nd 14-mile segments show that my NP=266 watts, with IF=0.82 (i.e., 82% of FTP) and VI=1.03.  Not too bad.

Lap 2 of the bike was not bad either.  My power dropped about 11 watts to 255.  Less than I wanted, but still very, very close to IF=0.80.  In that last 14 mile stretch, I had a very hard time staying in the aero position.  I did a lot of bike racing this year, so I was not on my triathlon bike nearly as much.  Consequently, I hadn't adapted well to the aero position for significant periods of time.  That is probably the reason that my last 14 mile split was about 3 minutes slower than both of the previous 2, yet power output remained fairly close to the other splits.

All-in-all, this was a pretty good bike split.  The overall numbers were right where I wanted them, with NP=260 watts, IF=0.80 and VI=1.02.  Average speed for this bike split was 24.04 mph for a total time of 2:19:53 unofficial (officially, 2:20:01, still right at 24 mph)

2012 Ironman Boulder 70.3 Bike Split

On the 2011 graph, the auto lap functionality was not available (or I didn't think about how to do it with the Joule), so I had to re-create as best I could after the fact using the available data.  The total distance measured is different from the 2012 graph because the Joule measures speed/distance based on a speed sensor and magnet placed on the wheel.  If your calibration isn't spot on, the measured distance will not be even as accurate as GPS.

The 2011 race was very similar to 2012 overall, but there were some distinct differences.  First, I knew I wasn't doing the run that year, so, I started out really trying to blaze the bike, because I didn't need to save anything for the run.  Consequently, if you look at the first segment, you'll see that my NP=282 watts.  Based on my FTP at the time (215 watts) that's an IF=0.87, or 87% of my FTP.  That's VERY hard for a half Ironman split.  In the second 14 miles, I realized I couldn't keep that up for the entire race, and you'll see that I backed off considerably to NP=270 watts (IF=0.83), which was still pretty high, but still manageable.  VI for both segments was great (1.01) as I rode very steady.

On the second loop, you'll see I suffered a bit from that hard first segment, as my NP dropped even further to 253 watts (IF=0.78) in the first 14 miles of Loop 2, and even further to 250 watts (IF=0.77) in the last 14 miles of the bike leg.  This lap shows what can happen when you go out too hard.  Imagine how I might have felt at mile 9 of the run, had I had to run after that?

Overall numbers for the 2011 bike split were a bit higher than 2012.  NP=264 watts for all 56 miles, which is an IF=0.81 (remember, my FTP was 10 watts lower in 2011).  Average speed was just under 24 mph as I finished the bike leg in 2:20:50.

2011 Ironman Boulder 70.3 Bike Split

Takeaways

• Raising FTP is good (duh!).
• Riding a consistent effort is much better than riding too hard out of the gate and fading at the end.
• Speed will come over the course of the ride.  This is not a bike race.
• Get a comfortable fit and learn to stay aero for the entire length of the race.  There's a lot of free speed there without additional effort.

Have I said anything we don't already know?

2012 Boulder Peak Triathlon

The Boulder Peak Triathlon

I raced the 2012 version of the Boulder Peak this morning finally getting to see what hard bike and run training could do for me.  I had a breakthrough year last year, but injured my achilles tendon at the end of my outseason.  So, going into 2011's race, I hadn't run at all in 6 weeks.  Cool weather and a full outseason/inseason of training made this year's race a super PR.

Just the Facts

2012		2011
Finish Time: 2:17:05 Swim: 26:34 (1:47/100m) T1: 2:51 Bike: 1:05:25 (23.9 mph) T2: 1:17 Run: 40:58 (6:37/mi)		Finish Time: 2:26:48 Swim: 27:05 (1:48/100m) T1: 2:25 Bike: 1:08:17 (22.9 mph) T2: 1:23 Run: 47:48 (7:41/mi)

The Long Report

The Boulder Peak is probably the oldest and certainly one of the most fun triathlons in the Denver/Boulder area.  I think this year marked the 21st edition.  I've been competing in it since I moved to the area in 2004 (aside from a hiatus in 2010 for Lake Placid), and I always have a lot of fun.  I was looking forward to this race because of my breakthrough year last year, and the steady improvement of my running.  Last year's achilles injury had me not running for six weeks prior to this race, so I knew my run fitness would be low.  This year, I've managed to stay healthy, and was looking forward to seeing how my work had paid off.

Weather here in the Denver area has been really hot and dry all summer.  Record low snow in the winter has us in a drought condition.  I had been expecting a very hot and dry race, probably with some smoke in the air due to the wildfires we've had here and in Wyoming.  Fortunately, Mother Nature smiled on us, and we had rain move in throughout the week and temperatures cooled off significantly.  On race day, my concerns switched to whether or not the roads would be dry enough to really hammer the bike.  :)

This was not an "A" race for me, so I had not really tapered, and continued to train through on my regular schedule.  I ran a fairly hard 10K on Friday, and then did my regular 3 hour (60+ mile) ride with my cycling team on Saturday morning.

Race Day

On Sunday morning, I woke up at 4:00 am to grab a quick breakfast and head out to the Boulder Reservoir (transition opened at 5 am, and I had a 45 minute drive).  I looked outside and was momentarily overjoyed, as it seemed the rain had stopped, and I was sure the roads would be dry by the time my wave went off.  I made some breakfast to get in a little nutrition... I always have the same breakfast on race day, toast with peanut butter, a banana, coffee and lots of water.  Since I'd be going off in one of the latest waves, I took a couple of Clif bars with me, too.  I ate one in transition and another just before they closed transition.


As soon as I started loading the car, I realized that the rain had not, in fact, stopped.  It was drizzling lightly and the roads were still wet.  Bike went in the car instead of on the car, and I headed northwest to Boulder. It rained the entire way, sometimes hard, sometime just a drizzle, but it was clearly not ready to stop.


Arrived at the Rez just after 5 am, and things were not too crowded.  In the steady rain I got body marked, started setting up my stuff in transition and then began the long wait for 8 am and my wave start.  Fortunately, the rain stopped about 30 minutes before the first wave went off, and the sun actually started to peek through the clouds.


The Swim


I usually do a quick swim warm-up, but there was a slight breeze, the temperature was in the low 60s, and I didn't feel like shivering until I dried out after swimming, so I nixed the warm up and just sat on the beach until my wave was called.  I did manage to get stung by a bee on my right bicep (wtf is a bee doing at the Boulder Reservoir beach at 7 am?), but shook it off.


The Men's 40-44 age group was about 135 strong, and split into 2 waves (I was in the second wave).  When we finally went off I stayed to the inside (clockwise swim, which I hate, since I tend to breathe left) where there was a little less congestion.  Things strung out fairly quickly, as we seemed to have mostly really fast or really slow swimmers, so there weren't a whole lot like me, who are right in the middle.  I had clear water the whole way and just tried to stay smooth.


Out of the water in 26:34 (42nd in AG, 342nd overall).  No real goal  time, but I as happy to beat last year's time by 30 seconds considering I haven't been swimming much.


T1 (aka the camping trip)


I have no idea why, but my transitions suck.  I'm always over 2 minutes in T1, and this time was no exception.  I had the pup tent pitched and the campfire roaring as it took me a solid 2:51 to get myself out on the bike.


The Bike


This is my strength.  I LOVE biking, and I spend most of my training time riding.  This year, I joined a cycling team, and have ridden even more than previous years, including some road races and criteriums.  I knew I'd be strong on the bike, and I wanted to use this race to gauge my fitness for the upcoming Boulder 70.3.


I had made a mistake in not manually zeroing and connecting to my Quarq prior to coming to the race.  Because of this, I couldn't get my Garmin 800 to lock onto the power meter before the race started.   I was 2 minutes into the ride when I noticed I had no power feedback.  Fortunately, it was a simple matter to navigate to the setup screen and connect, which I even managed to do at 22 mph.  :)

Boulder Peak Bike Course

The bike course is basically a big "oval" with the first 1/4 to 1/3 being uphill.  As shown in the map, you start from the Boulder Reservoir and gradually climb up Jay Rd and US36 until you turn left on Lee Hill Rd.  This begins the significant climbing up and over Old Stage Rd. and then down to Lefthand Canyon Rd.  The course then continues briefly and slightly uphill on US36 until you turn right onto Nelson Rd.  Nelson Rd. is primarily downhill for about 4 miles until you take another right on 63rd St.  63rd runs due south for about 5 miles, and is essentially flat, although there are a few very small rollers that can surprise you if you're not ready for them.  Since I train out here, I know this course very well.  Once you reach the end of 63rd, you take another right on The Diagonal (highway 119).  This is a slight uphill (but essentially flat, and still very fast) 2.25 mi section after which you make another right turn back onto Jay Rd and then quickly again back toward the reservoir.  The last mile-and-a-half back to the rez is all downhill and very fast.  You can make up a lot of time in a short distance by staying on the gas.


Climbing to the Old Stage Summit

The climb out to and up Old Stage Rd.

Once I got the power meter connected, I settled in and started hammering the bike.  I had two goals in mind for the bike.  First, I wanted to beat last year's time of 1:08:00 and shoot for about 1:05:00.  Second, I wanted to practice holding back (if needed) to set myself up for running well off the bike.  I figured I could be as high as 95% of my FTP and still manage a 40 minute 10K, but I was ready to pull back if I felt I was over-working myself.  The first third of the course is the climb to and up Old Stage Rd.  In about 7.5 miles, you climb about 1400 feet, with most of the elevation gain coming in the last couple of miles.  On the climb out to and up Old Stage, I stayed steady and on the gas.  Usually, I feel like I need time to recover from the swim, but this time I was able to hold 95% FTP all the way up to and over Old Stage Rd.  I passed a ton of people on this stretch, as it's typically the slowest part of the race, and I was holding solid power.  You can see from the graph that Old Stage really pitches up, but my 5 minute peak power was still less than 110% FTP.  I managed this entire section at 95% FTP. Right on target.


The Big Descent

The Old Stage/Lefthand Canyon Descent

After you crest Old Stage, there's a steep descent down to Lefthand Canyon Rd.  Unfortunately, there's a 35 mph speed limit on much of this stretch (due to a serious injury to a competitor a few years ago).  So although you can't hit maximum speeds, you can still go fast, and get a little recovery from the climb.  The roads up here had not quite dried out, so I tried to take it easy on this stretch.  It's not very long, and the difference between 35 mph and 45-50 mph isn't going to net you a whole lot of gain.  Once I made the turn onto Lefthand Canyon, though, it was game on.  This is still a very fast descent, and I averaged 34+ mph as shown in the graph.  I also managed to keep the power pretty high (between bouts of rest).


The Back Half

Back half of the Boulder Peak Course

The back half of the course is mostly flat, but the initial downhill section can set you up for a really fast ride if you can recover from the Old Stage climb during the descent.  Making the turn back onto US36, I kept the speed and cadence high.  You're only on 36 for about 3/4 of a mile, but it's a false flat that can really slow you down if you're not ready for it.  The next turn onto Nelson is into a long downhill (approximately 4 miles) with maybe one or two short inclines along the stretch.  This is a place to make up huge amounts of time because you can really fly.  On this section, I was starting to feel like 95% FTP had been too ambitious, so I backed off to 90%.  However, because this section is all downhill, I was still able to manage 32 mph for this section.  Once you turn onto 63rd, you start getting a few short hills.  I recall from doing this race earlier in my "career" that I always seemed to have trouble with 63rd.  Not today, though.  I managed to stay aero and shift well to keep my cadence high.  There were a couple of "longish" hills that slowed me down a bit, but I continued to pass a lot of other racers from the earlier waves and finished this section at nearly 26 mph and right at 90% FTP.  The last "climb" of the back side of the course (which is really more of a false flat) was the 2.25 mi stretch down Highway 119 back to Jay Rd.  It's a slow climb at a grade of about 1%.  Not bad at all, and I was feeling pretty good.  I hit that stretch at just under 25 mph before heading into the home stretch.  The home stretch is a 2 mile gradual descent back to the Boulder Reservoir.  I took the opportunity here to go easy and get ready for the run.  Because it's all downhill, though you can carry a good amount of speed at a relatively low effort.  This stretch for me was at an effort of about 78% FTP, but my speed stayed constant at roughly 25 mph.

Heading back into the reservoir, I slipped out of my shoes and spun back to the Bike In feeling pretty good for the run.  I was thrilled to see my bike time was right where I wanted it at 1:05:25, a 3-minute improvement over last year.

Overall Bike Stats

Full Boulder Peak Bike Course Power File

Overall bike stats were pretty darn good, and I was very happy with the results.
3rd fastest split in the AG/23rd overall
NP=295 / AP=
IF= 0.907
VI=1.04
Avg Speed = 23.9 mph




T2

A little better in T2, though not as fast as I'd like.  I always put on socks for the run, and I had a little difficulty with them today.  In and out of T2 in 1:17.

The Run

This has been my hardest discipline for most of my triathlon "career".  My typical modus operandi has been to come out mid-pack in the swim, make up time on the bike, and then watch the parade of AG competitors pass me on the run.  I've worked very hard on my run for the last couple of years, and I finally started to see some breakthroughs last year until I injured my achilles tendon.  This year continued a run focus with several winter/spring road races culminating in my 4th place finish (1:26:36) at the Colfax Half Marathon in May.  Running 6:37/mi for a half marathon was beyond what I thought I could do.  But, it gave me a lot of confidence heading into the Peak that I could maybe, finally hold onto a solid run split.

Boulder Peak Run Course

After getting on my shoes and grabbing my visor and Garmin 405, I high-tailed it out of T2 and onto the run course.  My goal was sub-40 minutes (6:30/mi), and I was off to a good start.  The course is an out and back around the eastern half of the reservoir.  It's essentially flat with a few slight grades, but aside from being almost entirely on gravel (I prefer pavement), it's pretty fast.  I hit the course at about 6:20/mi, but I quickly realized I could not keep that pace (although I tried for a while).  Instead, I decided to adopt a strategy of resting the "downhills" and trying to avoid slowing down too much on the uphills.  That strategy didn't seem to work particularly well.

Boulder Peak Run Pace Data

I hit the first and second miles pretty close to target at about 6:35/mi.  Mile 3 was ever so slightly uphill and I slowed to 6:45/mi and was laboring to breathe.  Fortunately, mile 4 was after the turnaround, so I was going slightly downhill, and was able to up my pace a little, without any effort (mile 4 looks short on the graph, but I was running about 6:40/mile).  Miles 5 and 6 got tough again, as I was running out of gas.  I slipped back to just under 6:50/mi for both of these miles.  Fortunately, I got the typical surge of adrenaline for the last 0.2 miles into the finish, and I picked up the pace to under 6:30/mi.  I missed my goal of sub 40-min or 6:30/mi, but I came pretty close.  Official time has me finishing at 40:58 for 6:37/mi.  Garmin clocked me at 6:41/mi, but shows the course short by about 0.08 mi.

Final Official Results


Time: 2:17:05 (Goal: 2:15:00)
AG Place: 10/134
OA Place: 82/????
Men: 76/????

May 21, 2012 Bike Workout

26 mile ride around most of the reverse Ironman Boulder 70.3 course at a steady effort.  Normalized Power was 281 (FTP set to 315); VI=1.04;

Avg. Power:	269 Watts
Avg. Speed:	19.9 mph
Avg. HR:	141 bpm
Avg. Cadence:	88 rpm

2012 Colfax Half Marathon

Short and Sweet Details

Official Time: 1:26:36
Pace: 6:37/mi
Overall: 27/3885
Men: 22/1441
AG (M40-49): 4/401

The Long Story

Background
The 2012 Colfax Half Marathon was a very personal and meaningful event for me for a variety of reasons.  First, this was a race I entered (originally to do the full marathon) as a tribute to my friend and former Endurance Nation teammate, Chris Gleason, who tragically passed away in November when he suffered a cardiac event in the last mile of the Philadelphia Marathon in November, 2011.  I didn't know Chris well, but he was a very active member of EN, and always extremely encouraging of everyone.  Chris had progressed from an average triathlete to an extremely good one, and like me, he had been working hard on the run portion of the event.  I believe Chris was shooting for a sub-3 hour finish in Philly and was very likely to make it before the event that caused his death.

Needless to say, Chris' death was disturbing to many of us at Endurance Nation as well as at Slowtwitch, a triathlon site and forum that we mutually frequented.  After Chris' passing, I decided to enter the Colfax Marathon on May 20, 2012 as a tribute to Chris, and to use his inspiration and focus to see if I could finally get to the elusive 3:30 time I have been seeking.  Unfortunately, time, family and other commitments and distractions prevented me from really training the way I wanted, so I decided last minute to race the half marathon instead.

I have been really focusing on my running and body composition over the past two years.  I've always been an above-average triathlon swimmer (which isn't saying much) and a fairly strong cyclist.  It was always frustrating to pass a bunch of people on the bike only to watch them fade into the distance on the run.  My last half marathon race was this same race in 2010.  On fairly meager training I managed to squeak out a 1:52:16 (~8:30/mi).  Prior to that, my PR was 1:44:02 (~7:55/mi) in 2009.

Last year I had really improved my running over the winter, and I was looking forward to seeing how well I could run at the Boulder Peak and the Ironman Boulder 70.3 triathlons.  Unfortunately, in March, during my final run test, I injured my left achilles, and it took nearly 6 months to fully resolve.  As a result, my run training took a real hit, and although I raced the entire Boulder Peak (I was happy to average 4:46/km on the 10k), I decided to skip the run on the 70.3.

The achilles injury finally seemed to resolve after September 2011, and I started running again.  I was surprised to find I really hadn't lost that much.  I rode my bike a lot over the summer and I think that helped with the run fitness maintenance to a large degree.  In any event, I was able to restart run training at an amazingly high level of fitness considering my dearth of running over the summer.

When Chis passed away in November, I knew I wanted to honor his memory by setting a goal to reach for something he would have liked, so I chose one that he himself had been reaching for... a PR in the marathon.  So, I signed up for the Colfax Marathon and started training.

The Race

Race pace/HR details and a map of the course (with profile details) are shown below.

The race started in Denver's City Park, about 4 miles from my house.  I parked about a mile away and decided to use that as my warm-up.  I arrived at 5:30 am for a 6:00 am start, so I was a little later than I wanted to be.  I had eaten a banana and a bagel with peanut butter at 5:00 am, and I sipped a little water on the drive over to the race.  I got myself ready at the car and then jogged over to the starting line, doing a couple of short accelerations to warm up the legs.

As I was arriving at the start, they announced that all runners needed to line up in their assigned corrals.  I had been assigned to Corral B, which was right behind the first people to start.  I was a little disappointed, as I saw the 1:30 and 1:45 pacers up ahead in Corral A, and I figured I should have been in the front group.  But I figured it really didn't matter, as I was running my own race, and we all had timing chips on, so I just chilled out and waited while they did the obligatory announcements followed by the national anthem and the challenged athletes start.

At right about 6 am, the first corral was sent off.  We walked behind them up to the start line and the next thing I knew, we were off and running.

The course is pretty much flat, although is slightly uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back.  My strategy was simple.  I would push a little harder on the way out, while I was fresh, to see if I could keep my pace at 6:50/mi or better uphill, and then I'd rely on the downhill stretch to bank a little time without having to increase my effort.  It worked like a charm!

Miles 1-7 were exactly what I expected.  Mile 1 wound through Denver's City Park and ended just as we were leaving the park.  Mile 2 exited City Park and moved up Exposition to Colfax.  Mile 2 was the most difficult because it was all uphill and was the steepest incline.  It wasn't bad, though, and I managed to keep my pace at 6:50/mi for that split.  For the rest of Miles 2-7 (east on Colfax to Hanover), I was pretty much at 6:40 or better, hitting mile 5 at 6:25/mi when the climb turned into about a mile long descent between Monaco and Yosemite.  This stretch up Colfax was where I passed a lot of people.  I was running well pushing myself to try to keep my pace up, because I figured this might be where most people would try to conserve a bit for later in the race.  At about Mile 5 I passed the 1:30/mi pacer.  :)

Mile 8 was a short detour around Aurora City Park as we wound our way around to 17th St to head back to Denver's City Park (confusing, I know).  It was all downhill, and I hit it at right on 6:30/mi pace.

The surprise for me (which shouldn't have been a surprise, since I'd seen the course layout) was the climb from the Mile 8 marker to the Mile 9 marker.  I had in my head that heading back to Denver was all downhill.  To hit that mile long climb (although not a significant elevation change) was a little disrupting.  Still, I felt pretty good and I could hear Chris telling me to suck it up and enjoy the race.  So, I pushed the effort a little to keep my pace at 6:44/mi.  I managed to pass 5 or 6 more people by running hard on this stretch.

Miles 10-12 were what I had expected, heading downhill on 17th back toward City Park in Denver.  My pace was high (~6:34/mi) for this stretch, and I picked off three or four people who had been running in front of me.  As I was hitting the outskirts of City Park (~Mile 11), I could tell someone had come up on me, and was running only a few yards behind.  This was confirmed as we passed a spectator (apparently a friend of his) who encouraged him to catch me.  This, combined with the presence of another guy a little in front of me that I had slowly been reeling in, inspired me to surge a little at about mile 11.75.  I was still feeling good as we passed the Mile 12 marker, so I surged the pace again.

Mile 13 was my fastest, as I really wanted to finish strong.  I upped my pace to 6:25/mi and attempted to bring it home.  I managed to pass one more guy with about half a mile to go, but he stayed right behind me as we hit the finishing chute.  He clearly had a lot left in the tank and motored past me to finish a few seconds ahead.  The other guy who had been chasing me never did catch up, and finished 30 seconds or so behind me.

I was elated to see 1:26:36 on my watch, as this exceeded my goal and expectations.  I really expected to finish right at 1:30 if not a little before or after.  To be able to hold onto 6:37/mi for 13 miles was gratifying!

I managed to finish 4th in my age group and 27th over all.  I finally felt like maybe I was a real runner, and I was happy that for once, I didn't see that long line of folks passing me during the race.  :)  Next up for my running are my only tris of the season at the Boulder Peak and the Ironman Boulder 70.3.  The Peak is always a lot of fun, and this year, I plan to finally meet two goals at the 70.3.  First, I will finish the entire race (I've entered 5 times and never completed the race) and I will break 5 hours at the 70.3 distance.

Cherry Creek Sneak 10 Miler - Race Report

The Cherry Creek Sneak 10 miler was my first running race back from an achilles tendinitis injury that plagued me all throughout last year and really limited the amount of running I was able to do until about September of 2011.

In the 2010-2011 offseason, I had really focused on running, and had dramatically improved my pacing durnig training runs.  I had been looking forward to testing out my newly-found run fitness at the Ironman Boulder 70.3 triathlon and had set my overall goal to race a sub-5 hour race.  Alas!  It was not to be, as the injury never really resolved, and I chose to drop out after the bike rather than risk more serious injury.

After resting, massage, and about a hundred other things, the injury seemed to resolve toward the end of September.  I resumed my run training, and was surprised to learn that I hadn't lost that much fitness.  After learning about the unfortunate and untimely death of an acquaintence and Endurance Nation team mate at the Philadelphia Marathon in November, I resolved to run the Colfax Marathon in his honor (I later decided to dial it back to the half marathon instead).  The Sneak was to be a tune up for that race.

I arrived early to pick up my race number.  It was a little chilly, so I wore a base layer long-sleeved shirt under my race shirt.  I warmed up for about 20 minutes with easy jogging and a few short accelerations.  Soon, we all headed to the corrals, and after the national anthem, the race was set to begin.

Goal Time - 70 minutes -- Actual Time - 68.5 minutes (40th OA, 4th in M40-44)

When the gun went off, I was near the front of the 7 min/mile group.  I tried to get to clear ground as quickly as I could, and I was running at a very fast (too fast) pace.  However, once we made it a quarter mile or so, things thinned out a bit, and I settled into what felt like a comfortable pace.  At Mile 1 I was running 6:44/mi pace.  Mile 2 was all downhill, and I was able to up the pace to 6:31/mi without really increasing my effort.  Mile 3 included a very short, steep hill at the beginning, which slowed me down a lot, but I was able to make it back on the corresponding longer downhill into mile 4.

Miles 4-6 were a steady climb up Speer Blvd, Downing St. and 7th Ave to Cheesman Park.  Tehre were several people a short distance in front of me at this stretch with whom I seemed to be pacing well.  As we entered Cheesman Park on the latter half o Mile 5, I really picked up the effort (although, Mile 5 was by far my slowest at 6:55/mi) and passed several people.  The last half of Mile 6 was a nice downhill section of the Cheesman loop, and we headed back onto 7th Avenue for another mile of steady uphill.  Again, I kept my effort and turnover high, and managed to pick off a couple of others ahead of me before the turnaround at the Mile 7 marker.

Miles 8-9 were a welcome downhill stretch back down 7th Ave to Downing and back onto Speer.  I was feeling very good after the Mile 7 turnaround, and I picked up the pace to take advantage of the downhill section.  Mile 8 was my fastest at 6:22/mi.  During Mile 9, I started to feel the fatigue, and I slowed down to 6:33/mi.  When I hit the Mile 9 marker (1 more mile to go) we started a slow climb up to the finish line.

Mile 10 was a struggle, as I could feel the efforts in Cheesman and on 7th starting to come back to haunt me.  I slowed quite a bit in the first half mile, but as the finish line got closer, I was able to pick it back up and finish strong.

I was very glad to be finished, and really wouldn't have wanted to run any further.  But, the accomplishment felt great, and was a nice validation of the training effort I'd put in.  I managed to finish 40th overall (out of about 1400 competitors), and nabbed 4th in my age group (Men 40-44) out of 119 competitors.

Looking forward to the Colfax Half Marathon in a few weeks!