I’m gaining quite a collection of Boulder Marathon and Half Marathon beer glasses.  This is my fourth.  Each one is a different color.  Spring 2011 is red, spring 2012 green, and fall 2012 where I ran the marathon is orange.  And then of course the shirt colors match.  Time to start thinking about my race strategy.

I don’t feel the need to run aggressive like I did at Moab 3 weeks ago.  I’m still so happy with that performance, I could jog Sunday at my workout pace – around 8:30 per mile – and feel good about my winter half marathon season.  But then it would be a shame not to match my Austin performance in January and Moab race in March with an equally impressive run.  And that doesn’t mean I need to run quite as fast.  I believe it will be on par if I simply beat my previous times in this event.  And like previous Moabs, I’ve never run the Boulder Half especially fast.

I recall having a satisfying run in 2011 because of the negative split where I ran the second half 5 minutes faster than the first half.  The total time was 1:48 or an 8:19 per mile pace and is faster than my spring 2012 time.  I honestly expect to run under an 8 minute pace this weekend.  And I’ll play it according to how I feel the first mile or two, but I believe I’m in decent enough running shape that I’ve established a range that I can expect regardless of how I feel.  I think that range is 7:30 to 8:00 per mile.  Which is to say I will run a bit faster than my standard workout pace of 8:30.

I could be setting myself up for a disappointment considering I haven’t run all week.  But part of the reason for blogging this expected time ahead of Sunday is to commit myself.  Sure I’ll look foolish if I finish closer to 2 hours but I seriously believe I’ll break 1:45.  Question is, by how much?  Or what really has my interest is the strategy of the course.  The Boulder Half is essentially uphill on the 6.55 miles out and downhill on the return.  I’ve run a negative split on this course before and it’s apparent the elevation gain and drop lends itself to such a strategy.  I can’t commit to this but what I want to do is run the first half faster than the second.  I want to go out hard.  Not sure why since doing so suggests the second half will be work, but this is how I hope to run it.  We’ll see Sunday.  Karen and Ellie are talking about coming out to the Boulder Res to watch.

Sorry for that last post from Debbie Downer.  Got my run in today and feel tons better.  Karen knew I was having issues and tried to make me feel better by purchasing some microwave slippers to soothe my feet.  I can’t walk in them and they collect all the dog hair from the floor, but they are in my color – blue.  Of course, at the end of the day it’s up to me to make myself feel better.  That typically starts by having a productive day at work.  And on non work days, having an equally productive day either fixing up the house or getting in a massive run.  Or, running a race.

At races, a pretty girl hangs a medal around my neck after I cross the finish line.  There are guy volunteers too but I always steer toward the girl.  Then they take my picture in a winning pose.  That’s all feel good stuff.  Narcissistic for sure, but so what?  I had a facebook status update today that lined up all my friends’ who had profile picture updates.  There were 3 or so with the red equal sign pic to show solidarity for the gay rights issues under review this week by the Supreme Court.  And one from my buddy Merrill who changed his profile to show his new picture with a medal around his neck from having just run a half marathon.

Self centered bastard – that’s exactly how you make yourself feel good.  What did I do to make myself feel better?  I scheduled a massage for after the Boulder Half on April 7th.  A 90 minute session.  I’m looking forward to that now more than the run itself.  In a week and a half, before half this county is even awake I’ll have run 13 miles on the idyllic back roads of Boulder, quaffed two beers, and been rubbed down for 90 minutes.  And that’s after having spent most of next week in Breckenridge skiing.  It’s good to be me.

It’s been two weeks since I had a drink.  So I woke up this morning and had myself a beer, immediately after having run the 2012 Boulder Half Marathon in 2:03.  Except it wasn’t really 13 miles at a 9:24 pace.  It was 2 x 6.55 mile runs, the first one at about a 9:40 pace and the second half around 9:05 per mile.  I broke this run into two routines, like I did last year.  Part of the reason for doing this is because this course goes out uphill and returns downhill.  I’m just taking what the course gives to me and making a workout from it.  I did repeat last year’s negative split by a similar margin, although I ran quite a bit slower overall today.

I arrived at the Boulder Res around 7am.  I parked and began to walk around.  I wore fleece sweat pants and a wind jacket, but might have been fine without them.  It was warm.  I walked around the setup in circles until the race started.  I used the facilities a couple of times and returned my warmup gear to the car before the start, fairly certain that shorts and a tech t-shirt would be fine for today.  It was.

One thing unique to this race is how runners just mill around like fitness Zombies until the last minute before the race gun fires.  And this is fully orchestrated by the race director from his mic.  There is no sense of where to stand with the line of runners until he gives the go ahead to line up.  In 60 seconds, everyone does.  It’s like everyone around here is an old pro at this stuff.  The only reason I notice this is because I’m looking for a pace sign to stand next to – as an aid not to start off too quickly.  There are none.  I decide to take my chances by simply standing where I’m at.  I’d start in the very back, but I don’t know where that is in this shapeless queue.

I didn’t wear my Garmin thinking I wouldn’t need it.  I’m going out slow and hoping to run back fast.  I know what slow and fast feel like.  Having run this last year, I also know the results will include splits for the two halves of the run.  That’s all I’m interested in knowing.  To reiterate what I said up top, it appears I ran my game plan, but I don’t know that I did entirely.  I almost wish I did wear my garmin to prove this but I am certain I started out way too fast.  I was tired the first half.  I did recover and settle into a nice pace by the turn around point, but I felt heavy until the course turned downhill.   Last year I ran fairly hard the entire run back, except for a cool down the last half mile.  This year I only ran hard on the noticeably steeper downhills.  Then I would slow back down again.  Sort of an organic fartlek set by the natural course terrain rather than timed rest intervals.  Even though this is perhaps my slowest overall half marathon time in recent memory, I’m happy with the workout.

I should add the heat played a factor today.  I drank at all the aid stations except for the final.  I don’t usually drink at more than two of them for a half marathon.  I made a good call on wearing the single short sleeved t-shirt.  The breeze felt cool at times, but of course that was welcome relief.

The story on the picture above is this.  First, I don’t have any race photos yet.  That might take a few days.  The other thing is I discovered this drink today after the run.  Vuka setup shop next to the compost and I grabbed one of their aluminum bottles from a barrel they stocked with ice water.  I used it for a few minutes like an ice pack, cooling down my head and neck.  I loved this thing before I ever drank it.  I don’t know what good stuff it’s made from, you can read up on them if you click on the link.  But it’s a tasty beverage.  I only took a few sips of the complimentary beer because I liked this more.  I grabbed a stack of Vuka coupons before leaving.  Actually only four, it felt like more at the time but they are a bit thick.  I’ll leave them on my porch for anyone who stops by and wants to try it out with a $1 discount.

I didn’t hang around very long for the post-run festivities because I didn’t know anyone and it was hot.  I tossed my beer after a few sips and headed home slurping my Vuka.  I’m not overly concerned that I ran slower than my typical pace because I treated this like a workout.  I was happy to see my weight afterwards was 184.  I haven’t seen that number on a scale since 2010.  I’ll take that as my win today.