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Success = Running my own race
I had crashed and burned at the LA Marathon in March after not modifying my pace for the early hills, and I was determined not to make the same mistake again. Sunday's Santa Clarita Half Marathon was one of my "A" races this year, and I was out for a half mary PR. I knew what pace I wanted to run to get sub-1:35 (7:10 or slightly faster), and was going to stick to it.I started the race with two friends who were trying to go 1:35 and 1:38, but it became apparent that they were going to run 6:45 pace. I looked down at my Garmin, stuck to my guns, and executed accordingly. People passed by me, and I let them. I was feeling comfortable but still working hard, and knew that I needed to maintain pace in order to not bonk later on. I took my PowerBar Gels as planned (at 40 and 70 minutes), and executed my race strategy.I passed my first friend at mile 4 with some encouraging words, and then saw my next friend around 7 or 8. I had a few slower miles around there, but started to pick things up around mile 10. I was feeling good, and at that point realized that getting to the finish was the equivalent of just running around the Rose Bowl once. After a few short hills towards the end I found myself on the homestretch, and reached the finish line in a new PR of 1:32:53. Yay!Both planning and training helped get me to my goal on Sunday. For the past month I have been doing weekly track workouts with the Los Feliz Flyers on Wednesday nights at Cal Tech, and my speed has definitely improved as a result. I took yesterday off, and due to scheduling constraints had to do my 20-mile long run today. Surprisingly it went very well, and hopefully was a good indicator of things to come at the Ridgecrest 50k next month. It has been interesting training for both a half marathon and 50k, and I am curious to see the results of my next adventure.
California, United States
Team Elite Triathlon, Athletes/Active Lifestyle
I competed in cross country and swimming in high school, and ran on the UCLA cross country…MORE
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By: Christopher D. Jensen, PhD, MPH, RDNutrition & Epidemiology Researcher
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