After completing Derby 50k, just last weekend. I was feeling great, still a little bit tired, but ready for this last event for this year. In the morning, I the usual latte with hot cereal and ate a banana about 35 minutes before the start. I like this event location since it is close to home and a very flat course at the American Tobacco Trail. There I met with a few friends from previous events, like Skinny Turkey, the City of Oaks Marathon, and the InsaneRunning group. It was great to get connected once again with friends and other runners.

For today’s event warm-up, I decided to do a 1-mile warm-up with Jay and Kaleel. We jogged at a really good pace, close to the 9:00-minute mile. We walked just behind the 2:15 pacers at the start line, and after a few announcements, the National Anthem, off we went.

Mile 1-6: Very uneventful initial miles; temperatures were awesome. The clouds offered very nice coverage, and there was a very nice breeze that, from time to time, helped me cool off. The first few miles, I was feeling great, but I made the mistake of moving way too fast compared to what I needed to be at. About 45-70 seconds faster than I originally thought it would be a good steady pace. The course was very flat after mile 2, with only a few long rolling hills. Nothing challenging or anything requiring much effort. I decided to continue, not realizing much about the mistake of the early miles. I ran by feel and effort rather than looking at the splits. My legs were tired but doing ok. I started at the back, and slowly I was figuring out who was ahead and slowly passing them. I passed the 2:15 pacers within a couple of miles into the half. Close to mile 5, I saw the 2:00 hour pacer group and decided to get close and then press on.

Miles 7-12:  After the turnaround, I continued to press the effort at a steady pace. But between miles 8-9, I started to see and feel my heart rate stay in the red zone for too long. That forced me to slow down a bit. I want it to get back into the orange zone or at least feel better so I can increase the pace. After that, I saw the finish under 2:00 hours target disappear for today’s event. I continued as I wanted to finish close to the target. Once in a while, I would sing along to some Christmas songs to make a few runners smile and bring a smile to a few that were struggling at the event.

Mile 13 to finish: The final stretch is mostly all downhill. I pressed a bit more and finished just 2 minutes or so past the 2:00 hour mark. I was very happy to finish again and see so many friends at the event.

I hang around for a bit at the finish line area. I completed a cool-down mile that took me back to meet Kaleel, who was helping pace another awesome runner.

After the cool-down, I talked to a few of the runners and friends, but the rain at that time started to come down, so many of the people at the event were heading back to their vehicles.

Pretty ok with today’s performance, it was slower than last year’s under 2-hour performance, but I take it. As for my sugars, they held ok, almost within range, for the most part, a tad on the high side. In the past three events of this fall running season, I had issues at the start of the events being on the high side and then getting higher. Today I was a little bit more aware and made adjustments earlier than I normally would have done them.

Month/Year	Event	Location	Type	Time
Dec-22	Race13.1 Durham Half	NC	Half	2:02:17

Event Highlights

Course: Great ample trail/greenway right of the start, long rolling hills. With the ample road, there is no problem starting and finding a comfortable pace.

Venue: At a parking lot area near a Big Shopping Center, with plenty of bathrooms and food for before and after the event.

Expo: No Expo.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with some sprinkles, 50º with 87% humidity.

T1D: Sugars within running range on the high side and stable throughout the event.

Fueling:

Pre-Race: 1 serving of Hot Cereal, latte, and banana.

Race: Tailwind I carried on my hand bottle and water at the stations.

Post: Protein Shake within an hour of the event.

Learning Points:

• The warm-up 1-mile run was fantastic. Setting an easily sustainable pace that I considered using for the event.
• Not following what you know about setting an initial pace. Not even applying the learnings from the warm-up run can make for an off-target pace in the later part of the event.