My training plan called for 16 miles on Sunday, so I planned on running 3 miles to warm up before the 11.5 mile race. Warm up was perfect, 9:20, Zone 1 HR, felt great as I got to the starting line. I was looking at this as more of a Tempo run than a race, and my plan was to pace a friend from the running club said he wanted to run a 7:45/mile pace. I made a big mistake at the bag drop. I left my GU/Salt Tabs in my bag, so the plan for practicing my marathon nutrition was screwed up. I knew I would be fine to run this distance, but I missed out on a great opportunity to practice my aid station/nutrition plan.
Miles 1-2: We went out a little fast for the friend I was going to pace, @7:27, and he paid for it in mile 2 where we dropped to a 7:56. Turns out I'm a terrible pacer, and when he said go ahead and run, I did.
Miles 3-6 (7:34, 7:24, 7:25, 7:31): The course is on a very flat paved bike bath that runs from Fort Sheridan to the Great Lakes Naval Base, perfect chance for a Tempo run. There was a woman whom had just gone by us, so I caught up with her, and her pace was right around 7:30, so I settled in with her and we chatted for a bit. I adjusted my plan, and decided to make this more of a HR run. The plan was to keep my HR @ or just under 160 (mid Zone 3 for me). This went really well and felt great the entire time.
Miles 7-9 (7:34, 7:34, 7:30) Still feeling pretty good, though the humidity was starting to get to me. I let the HR climb to 162-63. We enter the base right around mile 8, and the 7:30 pacer group caught me right about that time. I ran with them until we hit "Hero's" hill.
Miles 10-11.5 (7:20, 8:13, 4;24 (for the last .55)) This is the part of the race that makes this a challenge. We run down a steep hill to the shore of Lake Michigan, but when you run down hill...you got to run up. (check out the elevation profile at the end of the race http://connect.garmin.com/player/365519772 ) I struggled to recover my pace after the hill, but as able to finish pretty hard for the turn to the finish line. My Dad and Son were near the finish (my 11yo did the 3 Nautical mile run) and it was fun to see them.
Result: 1:27:23, 7:36 Average Pace, 158 avg HR (PR by 3 minutes from last year, where I actually raced it much harder), 90/825 overall, 13/60 Age Group. http://results.active.com/events/fort2base--3/10-n...mile-searchable/patrick-morris This was a very successful Tempo race for me, though I did skip the 1.5 mile cool down run I had planned and instead went to breakfast with My Mom, Dad and two of my kids! Great run and a fun race I will try to keep on my racing schedule!
Chicago Marathon Training adjustments from the race: I think keeping my HR 156-160 (which translated to 7:30ish yesterday) will work out quite well for Chicago. It was interesting to note the difference allowing it to creep up a bit to 162-3 at the end made in how I was feeling. Pretty comfortable at 158, much more of an effort @ 162-3 and then into the 165+ range after the hill. Without my built in pacer in Chicago, I'm going to really have to concentrate on keeping that HR where I want it, regardless of pace, and I was able to do that pretty successfully yesterday.
