Monumental Effort

Four weeks ago I ran the Half at Fort Ben in 1:53. Yesterday, I ran the Monumental Half-Marathon in 1:39. Let's see, that's a 14 minute improvement in 4 weeks. Not bad! Strava called my effort "historic" based on heart rate. I call it "monumental." I'm happy. It was not my personal best half-marathon, but it was a solid race from start to finish. I had to keep pushing at the end just to maintain pace...and I did. At Fort Ben I faded. The main difference between the two races? Weather. Warm and humid at Fort Ben, cool and crisp at Monumental. I dislike the heat.

Since my wife couldn't travel with me (sick pet at home), I treated this race as more of a business trip than a fun vacation. I was here to race. Nothing more. Drive to Indy and check-in at hotel, walk to race expo, dinner, back to hotel. Sleep. Wake, warm-up, race, shower, check-out, drive home. No shopping, fancy meals, or tourist attractions. 

My hotel was only about 2 blocks from the starting line so I stayed in my room doing light dynamic stretching until about 10 minutes before the start. No reason to get cold standing in my coral (temps were around 36F). After a short jog to the starting area I nudged my way into the back of coral A as the race began. Lots of people ahead of me, including the 1:40 pace group I planned to follow for the first half of the race. Like last year, I was dodging runners, jumping up and down curbs and sidewalks, and trying to avoid any potholes for the first mile. Too many slow runners in this first coral. I managed to maintain a reasonable pace and caught the 1:40 pace group. I stayed with the group, sometimes ahead, sometimes just behind, up to mile 10. At that point the group passed me and I couldn't respond. I pushed harder, but still fell about 100 yards behind them. Negative thoughts bounced around my head. Last year, this was my time to shine. I crushed the last 3 miles! I also started very slow last year--this year was better pacing from the beginning. But I was tiring. I needed to dig deeper and push harder. Time for loud music. I kept hitting 'next song' on my iPod, and finally, AC/DC 's "Highway to Hell" started to play. Adrenaline surged, my heart raced, and I ran faster. Caught the pace group in about 2 minutes. Continued past them and held them off to the finish. I was done. Business was taken care of and it was time to clock out and head home. Mission accomplished. 

Official finish time: 1:39:02

Overall place: 660/7408 

Age group place: 25/298 

Heart rate avg: 161 (177 max)  <= same average HR as Fort Ben Half