Race Report – North Shore Half Marathon

This morning I ran the North Shore Half Marathon put on by RAM Racing in Highland Park IL.  It was a great race, and quite fun!  My overall time was 2:16:35, 10:26 min/mile.  I’m really happy with my performance.

The race itself was great.  It started in downtown Highland Park and wound through a few neighborhoods, a park area, a few more neighborhoods then into Fort Sheridan towards the end of the race.  The weather for the day was much better than expected.  The temps started in the 70′s, and climbed to the mid 80′s; however, the humidity was well above 80%.  When we started, there was a mist in the air, almost like a drizzle, just not falling on you.  I was expecting it to be a touch warmer, so I was very well prepared to handle the weather.

For this race I used my Bikila’s and they performed wonderfully!  I’m still really loving the this shoe.  No hotspots, blisters or anything; just a wonderfully designed VFF.

My initial plan was to use my normal long run setup with one handheld and a 3L Nathan pack.  I prefer to not use the pack in a race, but with the expected heat I was ready to do that.  Due to more favorable conditions I switched it up and went with two handhelds.  One containing my fuel fo choice for long runs  Hammer Perpetuem, and one loaded with water.  This worked out great!  Until I lose a little more weight and feel more comfortable with were a water belt sits, I think I’ll continue with the two handheld setup.

I lined up at the 11:00 min/mile marker thinking that this would be a good starting pace and that I would just pass folks later in the race when it thinned out a bit.  Somehow I don’t think that the folks in this section read the signs, you’ll see from my splits below that I did not once run an 11:00 min/mile, and I was being passed for the first 4 miles or so.  It didn’t bother me at all, I was going to run my own race and make sure that i felt good and managed my heart rate per my plan, start it up easy, take a mile or two to settle in and let it ride up to about 175 at the end.  You can see from the graph below, it turned out quite nicely!  Most of the little drop offs in HR occur at the mile marker, or at an aid station.  I find that as I hit the lap button and double check calibration of my s3 sensor, I tend to slow down a bit  I did open up a bit “harder” than planned, on a longer race this may cause some problems.

Splits and Commentary

1. 10:11 – I opened up a touch fast again.  My HR was well within the range I was looking for, but I think I need to work on starting out a bit slower to keep the rest of the run nice and strong.
2. 10:19 – Yeah, another fast opening mile.  Not really the 11:00 pace I was planning now was it?
3. 10:26 – At this point I was settling into the run, but my HR is about 5 beats per minute faster than I’d like.  I was at 160, I’d like to be at 155 here.
4. 10:28 – We started to climb some hills at this point, the race opened with a few downhill spurts that contributed to the opening speed.
5. 10:46 – A few more hills to climb, and I was having a nice chat about the Bikila’s on my feet  Hopefully we have another convert to minimal running on the way!
6. 10:18 – A bunch of up and down, up and down, and then a big ole’ downhill to the lake, getting ready for a the “big hill” at the start of mile seven.  This is the drop in my HR in between 1:02 and 1:23
7. 10:17 – I slowed down quite a bit at the start of this mile to climb up the hill, but it wasn’t to bad.  My HR got up to 170, so I backed off a touch and slowed down a bit more.  With 5 miles left, I wasn’t ready to break into the 170′s yet – it was just too early! This one ended with another nice move down a hill, providing speed and a somewhat lowering HR.
8. 10:42 – What goes up, must come down… I spent this mile taking it a bit easier, climbing up and down a bit while allowing my HR to regulate back down, average 164.
9. 10:31 – I really wanted to hold off the “push” until the last three miles. So I stopped to refill my water at the aid station here and enjoyed the run towards For Sheridan.
10. 10:24 – Finally, I was able to get things back under control a bit at averaged out at 161.  It helped that this was mostly flat or downhill.  A nice break, but just a teaser as we prep to climb for the last 5K of the race!
11. 10:10  - I turned it up here, and sure enough I was met with another bloody hill!  Little did I know that we’d be climbing until the end at this point. These aren’t huge hills by any stretch of the imagination, but for a guy that runs in the IL plains all the time, anything with 50 feet of vertical seems huge!
12. 10:32 – Grinding, up and down, up and down.  I held a fairly constant pace here.  I was really starting to feel the run in my hamstrings and glutes now… Ouch.
13. 9:47 – Hammer down and get this thing finished!  The last mile was up hill pretty much the whole way, and my legs were starting to feel it.  I had run hard enough that I couldn’t do my customary sprint into the finish.  I was able to pick up some speed and pace a few folks, it was a blast!

Well, there you go!  I don’t know what else I can say about this race.  It was great overall, and I’d love to do it again.