Rochester Half Marathon Recap

I ran the Rochester Half Marathon last weekend - my second Half Marathon of the year. When I ran the Shoreline Half Marathon in Hamlin, NY in July, I wasn't really adequately trained to "race" it, so I used it like a long training run, with convenient water and refueling stops along the way. My time was 2:27.

But going into the Rochester Half Marathon I felt great. I had been training well and my legs were fresh. I mapped out a strategy to finish around 2:10 (a stretch goal), with a more conservative goal of beating 2:15. The course is relatively flat, but there are some hills in the early miles. I charted out my goal pace for each mile, allowing a little more time for the uphill portions, and a little less time for the downhill and flatter sections.



I started off too fast. It's easy to get swept up in the adrenaline of the start and there's a strong urge to keep up with the runners around you. It's important to avoid this temptation, because burning too much energy early will leave you depleted at the finish. I was prepared for it, but after a couple of miles I was already a couple of minutes faster than I wanted to be. I still felt great, and the weather conditions were perfect for a distance race - temps around 50 and overcast skies. Heading into mile three my notes called for me to back off until mile five-and-a-half. That represented the biggest hill we'd face, and after that it was pretty level the rest of the way. I managed to slow down a little going up the hill but was still a couple of minutes ahead of my 2:10 goal pace. I kept pretty close to pace for the next several miles and felt great so I decided at mile 8 to try to pick up the pace a bit for a half-mile and see how I felt. Before I knew it, miles 9 and 10 had flown by, I was still feeling pretty strong, and I had managed to pass the official 2:10 race pace runner (despite a crowded group around him on the Canal Trail). I pushed hard the last three miles and ended up at 2:06:49 - taking more than 20 minutes off my previous mark.

It was important to me to get as good a time as possible, because the RunDisney people will use that time to figure out where I should start in the Dopey Challenge. They divide runners up into 10-12 different "corrals" with the fastest runners up front and the slower ones in the back. Each corral starts 5 minutes after the one before it. So starting up front means starting earlier and giving me a better chance to finish within the allotted time. It also means when I come up to characters and other on-course entertainment I'll be facing shorter lines.

This was my last "race" effort until the Dopey Challenge. I have the Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Walt Disney World in November, and I'll be taking in all of the entertainment along the way and running an easy pace. Between now and Dopey, it's just a matter of building up my weekly mileage at a slow, steady, injury-free pace.