Rambling About the Citizen-Times Half Marathon – September 18, 2010 – Asheville, NC
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Tomorrow morning at 7:30 sharp 1,500 or so runners will squeeze together on O’Henry Street to begin shuffling along until the crowd spreads and the real running begins. I’ve started to think about my strategy to achieve two goals: enjoy myself and finish with a time I’ll be happy with.
This will be my 17th half marathon and my 5th Citizen-Times half marathon. I ran my first (the Citizen-Times) in 2005. Before that, I was an on and off occasional runner doing no more than three or four 5k races per year. I started many years ago when I was in the Army, running along in military formation on the streets of Fort Bragg, singing cadence …
C-130 rolling down the strip
Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip
Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door
Jump right out and count to fourIf my main don’t open wide
I’ve got another one by my side
If that one should fail me too
Look out below I’m a coming through
I had never considered running a half marathon until I picked up a brochure for the ACT in 2005 and brought it home. My sister-in-law saw the brochure and asked me if I ever considered running a half marathon. No way! The seed was planted and I started running some distance in August 2005 and signed up for the race.
My goal then was to finish and enjoy myself. I did both, in 2:05. I ran the Bethel half marathon that same year and finished in 1:59. The following spring I ran the Charlottesville, Virginia half marathon with my son and finished in 2:02. Coincidentally, I didn’t know him at the time but Aaron Saft, co-owner and “shuru” at FootRx Asheville was the winner of the Charlottesville half marathon that year.
September 2006 rolled around and it was time for me to get ready for my 2nd ACT half marathon. I had no formal training plan but had been consistently running 15 or so miles per week. The Saturday before the ACT I ran 14 miles on the rural roads near my home and proclaimed myself ready. My goal was a 9 minute pace and a finishing time of about 1:57.
Race day rolled along and I just ran at a pace I found comfortable. I felt great and didn’t look at my watch until I passed the 7 mile sign on the shore of Beaver Lake.
56 minutes. Hmmm. 8 minute pace.
1:57 looked like a “gimme” at this point and I just kept going. I finished with a 1:48 and was thrilled. I enjoyed myself, ran my own race without trying to watch mile by mile pace and finished with a time I was very happy with.
That’s my philosophy for tomorrow. Run my own race and don’t look at any early mile by mile times. I’m going out easy. The first two miles are mostly flat. Cherokee is the first challenging (but short) hill. It’s OK to walk for 10 or 15 yards here because the extra exertion won’t do much good. I’ll use the flat and downhill sections (such as Canterbury, just after Cherokee) to make good time (rather than just recover from working too hard going uphill). I’ll use the downhill stretch on Kimberly to Beaverdam the same way, along with the downhill section on Windsor and Wembley after cresting the mean hill on Inglenook at the golf course. There’s another nice downhill stretch toward the river on Weaverville Road before starting the winding ascent up Lookout Road. The last long glide is from Barnard to Edgewood to University Heights down to W.T. Weaver Boulevard Trail.
All that remains is Broadway and the final downtown bits. Broadway is more psychologically than physically tough. It’s long and straight, boring, sunny and warm. Lexington Avenue is welcome after crossing under 240 and the last tough little hill is Walnut – an 11th hour slap in the face before the home stretch on Haywood and O’Henry.
I’ll run my race. Good luck to all. Have fun.
Good luck to all of you running in Asheville tomorrow. Im very excited about running my 31st Half Marathon since Oct 26 2007. But although this will be my 31st in 35 months, its my first as a Pace Setter.. so im a bit more excited than usual and actually a tad bit anxious as well… Its the “Ryder Cup Pressure Syndrome” I suppose….. Seems running for yourself is one thing but having others looking to you for leadership and guidance adds a whole new dimension to this normally solitary contest. But often a slight change in the otherwise predictable… can be a very good ignition to an even greater passion! Run well my friends and love the hills, for its on them you feel the pain you learn to love…… Like an Adidas advertisement I saw once that stuck with me…… It shows a runner struggling hard running on one of those very steep seemingly unending hills…and the caption reads as if the runner is asking the question we all ask everytime we run…..why do I put myself through this????.. “BECAUSE I’M LOVING EVERY WONDERFUL HORRIBLE MINUTE OF THIS!” 🙂
Good luck Drew!
Thanks Dennis… I didnt do too bad.. 1:35:20 GunTime 57th overall out of over 1800 runners. I saw you finished at 1:55:32.. how does that time stack up against your other halfs? That race course is easily in the top 3 of the toughest Ive done out of 31… I ran Knoxville TN Covenant 13.1 back in March and although it was extremely hilly and tough… this new Asheville course is just as tough… The hills today were never ending…. we were going up and down the entire race… I think the finish and start lines were the ONLY level surface we had… lol Anyway you are my age exactly..lol so I know if you are like me… Im in dire need of using tomorrow as lazy recovery day ALL DAY! My quads and calfs are shreaded and ive been icing all evening and will continue all day tomorrow… Good luck and SeeYa at the next race soon im sure.. 🙂
My time was a bit more than a minute better than last year. In 2006 and 2007 I did 1:48 ad 1:49 on this race (the old course) but I was running a little faster then. My Half Marathon PR is 1:41 (Dowd Half Marathon in Charlotte – 2006). Taking it a little easy today, I have some arthritis in a toe on my right foot and that makes me a little sore for a few days after a long run – especially one with hills (it’s the downhill that gets me). I’d love to meet you at one of these races. Congratulations on a great finish!
That’s a lifetime of half’s in two years. Impressive.
Actually a little crazy. Five of those in 2006 were in the fall in a period just less than 90 days.
In five years you’ve run sixteen half-marathons, and tomorrow will be seventeen. Wow. That seems like a lot! Dennis, good luck tomorrow. I am going to spend some time on the A C-T website right now just to see if there’s something that I missed.
I got a little carried away in 2006 and 2007. I did 2 in 2005, 6 in 2006 (5 of those in the fall), 5 in 2007, 2 in 2009 and 1 so far in 2010 (the DuPont).
That sounds much like my strategy for the 5. I’ll be envious of you guys (a gender neutral term) that can run the half. Someday…
I’m dreading the Walnut hill. And, I’m obsessing about in which pace group I should begin, to avoid being slowed too much at the start. Plenty of time to be running too slow later on.
All that said, I, too, plan on running my race. And, a second on the good luck and have fun sentiments. It should be great weather for a race.