Fifth year participating in The Bull City Race Fest Half Marathon. Once again, although training has been better than last year and I have been able to be more consistent with Strength training and speed work, there are no plans for PR. Maybe push the pace a little bit and run by effort. For the City of Oaks Marathon, I am pacing so I can really destroy my legs in this event. Some runners from our Insane Running group are joining today, as we were starting the training for Umstead a couple of weeks back. For the morning routine, the usual hot cereal, coffee, some water, and this time I am testing KetoneIQ, which was recommended by one of our veteran Ultrarunners, so I want to give it a try. Sugars were just a tad over the high side, but nothing to worry about.

After an easy 2-mile warm up job, to give the legs a chance to get loose before the start of the event.

It was great to see many of the friends from the training group, as well as others we normally see each other passing by during the training runs.

Miles 1-3

As I started way in the back, like last year, it was a slow-going pace to get used to running close to 10:00. For the next couple of miles, I was able to find a good decent running pace to sustain around 10:00 for the first mile and closer to 9:30 for the next 2. This year, there was a change in the course that had runners going through a greenway. It was ok, too narrow for how many runners, I found myself not able to find a steady pace. Since I started mid-way in the back, for faster runners, I bet this was frustrating as we all got stuck.

Miles 4-7

The next few miles, I felt like I was able to loosen up more. Since I was carrying my energy fuel, I decided to skip the 1st couple of water stations. The rolling hills continue, making it a constant change of pace due to the ups and downs. But I was surprised to see that I was still holding on to that ~9:45 pace pretty well. Since I was definitely going at a more easy pace than the 1st couple of years, energy-wise, I was feeling just okay; my sugars were fine, just a tad on the high side, but good, still within range. I was still slowly passing a few runners as they were slowing down due to the hills.

My leg started to feel a little bit heavy, and my quads are hurting on the downhill. Even though the temperatures are still lower than 72, I am still feeling like I’m overheating. Even feeling like that, I was pleased to still have very controlled HR and cadence.

Miles 8-11

In the last few miles, I was tackling the up hills with ease at the same pace or increasing the cadence a little bit. But at this time, I was not feeling it, so I started to walk up a few of the hills. It was only when there was a cooling breeze that I was able to keep running. After reaching the crest of the hill, I concentrated on the beat of my music and continued to have controlled breathing. I started to feel better, but not enough to press the pace. Some of the water stations were set up on the outer side of the sharp turns, making it really inconvenient and out of the way to be able to grab any kind of fluids.

Miles 12-Finish

These last two miles are mostly downhill. I took advantage and pressed the pace a bit more; I took advantage of the water station and grabbed a couple of cups of water and poured them over my head. I was really feeling very warm.

At the finish area, I was able to catch up with a few other friends, get some water, and exchange a few of the learnings and experiences from the event. Given that I slowed down this year for the last fdew file, I decided not to do a cool down.

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Month/Year	Event	Location	Type	Time
Oct-25	Bull City Half	NC	Half	2:14:11

Highlights:

Course: Great ample road right from the start. Great scenery as you basically stroll the city streets and greenways of Durham. There are hills and more hills, some rolling, others just a tad steeper. You will need to constantly manage your pace and effort, as you do not want to run out of steam in the later parts of the event because you tackled the hill too aggressively.

Venue: At the finish, it was good, simple but effective. A few vendors and food trucks.

Expo: No Expo

Weather: Good weather with very few clouds until the finish. 63º with just 79% humidity.

T1D: Sugars were good at the start and held pretty well in range throughout the event.

Fueling:

Pre-Race: 1 serving of Hot Cereal and Latte.

Race: Gu caffeinated gel at mile 7 and an energy drink I was carrying with me.

Post: Protein shake and lots of water.