Saturday, October 24, 2009

Half marathon time trial with Dan (1:31:04)

A college friend of mine, Dan Ham (who is also running CIM with a goal of sub 3:10), came up last night to run a half marathon time trial with me. Both of us wanted to run a half marathon as a tune up for CIM and were unable to find just the right one so I invited him to come up and run on the aqueduct. I told him I would pace him to a 1:30:00! It would be a long marathon pace run for me and a race effort simulation for Dan.

We started at 60th and the aqueduct and went east for 3 miles out and back. We left fluids on our cards for quick water stops. We then headed on the west side 1.5 miles to 70th and turned around again for another water stop at mile 9. I told Dan we could go out a mile and back twice for one more water stop, or out for two and back to end at 13.1. He said he was ok to go out two and back for the finish as he was carrying some fluid on a fuel belt. The last 4 miles were tough for Dan but he dug down deep to pull through in 1:31:04, an unofficial PR by 9 minutes!

We ran very even. Our splits were: 6:54, 7:00, 7:03, 6:54,6:49, 6:52, 6:52, 6:47, 7:06, 6:58, 6:58, 7:07, 6:56. Awesome Dan!

We went through 5 miles in 34:42
We went through 10 miles in 69:21
Finished in 1:31:04 (avg pace 6:57).

His VDOT based on today is 50.24 and predicts a marathon of 3:09:53! He is right on track.

I know he wanted to be closer to 1:30, even possibly under, but the last 4-5 miles were tough. He really had to grind it out and I ran a few steps ahead to pull him along. He got a nice ice bath afterward and we talked about how to best utilize his last 5 weeks of training. We decided he needs two 20+ milers and at least two more marathon pace (7:15) runs of 8-12 miles. He will be running easy this week and attempt a 20 miler next Saturday.

Temps were great but it even got a little warm towards the end. My car said 72 degrees afterward. I felt really strong today and could have continued at that same pace. I too need a few more long runs, fast finish runs and MP runs (6:40 pace).

43 days and counting.

3 comments:

Dale Lister said...

Good run!!

Are you, by chance doing an easy run early tomorrow? (or afternoon)

Chuck said...

Nice job of pacing Dan to a huge unofficial half marathon PR. Your training appears to really be going well!

Good job Dan! With 5 more weeks of training, cooler weather, and the excitement of the race, I believe that you can run sub 3:10.

Daniel said...

It really was an amazing effort out there today. I forgot to tell you, Karl, that I was also leaving you a few steps in front of me to block the sun's reflection in the aqueduct water. Thanks for the support, Karl! There is no way I could have done that well on my own.