Leaf Peeper's Half marathon 10-5-08 Top ten and new PR!!

I was so psyched to race this as it’s right in my back yard basically and it’s a very well run race. I can walk to the race and the course is on the road I train on. I knew the course like the back of my hand—a very cool feeling as most of the races I do, I’m not that familiar with the course other than driving it.

I was using this race as an indicator of where my injuries are and to make a final decision about whether or not I’d race the Cape Cod marathon. I had my QT2 breakfast at 8:30 with an 11 start. Walked to the start---great to see so many friends!! This is a very large half marathon (by VT standards) with around 6 or 700 runners. The race is so popular that it fills up each year. I’ve been shut out of this race before due to it’s popularity.

I knew all the big guns would be here and I would have to PR to even crack the top 10.

The gun goes off!!! My execution plan was to hit the first mile in 6:05 and no faster. Ultimately I wanted to produce as little lactate as possible in that first mile as I tend to go out too fast and this negatively impacts the aerobic system especially at longer races. If you go anaerobic your body won’t settle into an optimal fuel burning state. For these longer races you really want your body to spare glycogen as much as possible. If you go way over your lactate threshold (especially early on) you’re going to burn up a lot of glycogen whereas if you build into it starting under LT your body is going to use a better ratio of fat to glycogen.

I felt great right from the start and was holding back big time. I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible, no wasted energy.
First mile was hit in 5:52. Definitely faster than planned but yet I was relaxed and heart rate was relatively low.
I settled into a front pack of Sam Davis, Joe Mcnamara, Tom Thurston (neighbor and training partner), and 2 other guys I didn’t know. I was completely humbled running right with Sam and Joe. These are 2 of VT’s most accomplished runners and 2 guys I’ve looked up to for years. I was running right in the pack with them which really gave me a rush. I felt amazing. I couldn’t believe I was hanging with these guys.

There were about 3-4 guys off the front of our pack but they were all spread out. My buddy Justin Ryea was about 50 yards off the front of our group by himself for the first 8 miles or so when he started lifting the pace.

I hit the 3 mile mark in 17:37 ! We were moving!
5 mile split was 29:32 ! Whoa. I couldn’t believe how fast we were going. We were holding sub 6 pace. I still felt good but was right on the edge.
6 mile split was 35:35
8 mile split was 47:58
10 mile split was 1:00:48
My 8 and 10 splits were the fastest 8 and 10 I’ve run ever!! And I think the 10 included one of the 2 big climbs on the way back. I definitely slowed on those 2 big climbs.

Around mile 7 or so, Sam Davis and I got dropped from the group. Then Sam dropped me. I hung about 50 yards behind him for the next mile or so and when we hit the first big climb I decided to really hammer it and catch back up to him, it worked!! I caught him by the top of the first climb. We ran together up the next one. Then this guy came out of no where (I later found out he’s the top x-c runner for Norwich U). I jumped right on him like I was in a bike race. Sam got dropped at that surge. I hung with the guy for a bit and then got dropped by him. About a mile later I reeled the x-c guy in and then he attacked and dropped me. He stayed about 10-15 seconds ahead of me for the remaining 2 miles.
I crossed the line in 9th overall and 1:20:00 !!! I sprinted so hard at the end trying to get under 1:20 but just shy of it.

This was a 36 sec PR, top ten result and I was psyched!!! No pain from the overuse stuff I’ve got going as well, which means Cape Cod marathon!! Thanks also to Skirack and Mizuno for the great award!!!


Lindsay had a killer race in the 5k!! She was 4th overall in 20:xx.