Can You Pace a Swamp Stomp?
Yes, you can. And I did. Although I didn't intend to.
After not registering for the half marathon in conjunction with the White Rock Marathon, I drove to Lake Charles, Louisiana earlier today for the Swamp Stomp Half Marathon, hosted by the Lake Area Runners Club.
One of the reasons why I petered out at the 30K last Sunday is because I tried to maintain close to a 10K pace for too long and crashed after about 15 miles. So the objective today was to be between 2:17 (my next target in the half) and 2:21:19 (my PR); however, I wanted to slow my start a little bit. (Yes, Joan O'Connor, I'm listening loud and clear.)
Somewhere between mile 2 and 3, I came up upon side a female runner and got a little bit of a conversation started and noticed that she was also running a comfortable pace. As we passed mile 3, she had told me that she was running her first half marathon today and that her longest race before was a 15K. I soon found out that Diane Ryan, a 51-year-old female, was also a member of the Fort Worth Running Club who is a dietician at the Tarrant County Hospital District. But she didn't make the drive from Fort Worth. The US Government had helped her to Fort Polk, Louisiana as part of the US Army Reserves to replace troops who had been deployed to Iraq.
Not sure exactly when and where, but I made a decision that I would help pace her. She didn't officially ask and I didn't officially offer but after running alongside of her for a little bit (and relaying why I was trying to run slower), I just didn't feel like it was sportsmanship-like to take off on my own pace (although I had every right to).
Long story short ... Diane did great. She ran 11 3/4 miles before stopping to walk (other than walking out of the water stops, which weren't that many). We took off again at mile 12.1 and then ran the last mile in finishing in 2:31:12. Of course, I let her cross the line first. She had done an incredible job and deserved it. In fact, even though she was 99th of 101 runners, she was second in her age group behind the venerable Billie-Kay Melanson of Orange (who finished 7th among females overall). (When I asked Diane early on what her goal for the day was, she said 13 minutes/mile. I told her, "Well, I can feel that you are doing better than that now.")
We were at 1:04 or 1:05 at mile 6 and then 1:40 at mile 9. Around 10-10:30 a.m., the heat and humidity cleared off the cool morning temperature and the, at times, stiff southerly winds therefore slowing us down.
The 2:31:12 came out to be 11:33/mile. Sitting here at home late this Sunday evening, my legs haven't felt like they've taken the beating as before. The lesson that I learned is that if I can maintain an 11 minute per mile pace on January 16th, I can be staring at a 4:48 marathon!
After not registering for the half marathon in conjunction with the White Rock Marathon, I drove to Lake Charles, Louisiana earlier today for the Swamp Stomp Half Marathon, hosted by the Lake Area Runners Club.
One of the reasons why I petered out at the 30K last Sunday is because I tried to maintain close to a 10K pace for too long and crashed after about 15 miles. So the objective today was to be between 2:17 (my next target in the half) and 2:21:19 (my PR); however, I wanted to slow my start a little bit. (Yes, Joan O'Connor, I'm listening loud and clear.)
Somewhere between mile 2 and 3, I came up upon side a female runner and got a little bit of a conversation started and noticed that she was also running a comfortable pace. As we passed mile 3, she had told me that she was running her first half marathon today and that her longest race before was a 15K. I soon found out that Diane Ryan, a 51-year-old female, was also a member of the Fort Worth Running Club who is a dietician at the Tarrant County Hospital District. But she didn't make the drive from Fort Worth. The US Government had helped her to Fort Polk, Louisiana as part of the US Army Reserves to replace troops who had been deployed to Iraq.
Not sure exactly when and where, but I made a decision that I would help pace her. She didn't officially ask and I didn't officially offer but after running alongside of her for a little bit (and relaying why I was trying to run slower), I just didn't feel like it was sportsmanship-like to take off on my own pace (although I had every right to).
Long story short ... Diane did great. She ran 11 3/4 miles before stopping to walk (other than walking out of the water stops, which weren't that many). We took off again at mile 12.1 and then ran the last mile in finishing in 2:31:12. Of course, I let her cross the line first. She had done an incredible job and deserved it. In fact, even though she was 99th of 101 runners, she was second in her age group behind the venerable Billie-Kay Melanson of Orange (who finished 7th among females overall). (When I asked Diane early on what her goal for the day was, she said 13 minutes/mile. I told her, "Well, I can feel that you are doing better than that now.")
We were at 1:04 or 1:05 at mile 6 and then 1:40 at mile 9. Around 10-10:30 a.m., the heat and humidity cleared off the cool morning temperature and the, at times, stiff southerly winds therefore slowing us down.
The 2:31:12 came out to be 11:33/mile. Sitting here at home late this Sunday evening, my legs haven't felt like they've taken the beating as before. The lesson that I learned is that if I can maintain an 11 minute per mile pace on January 16th, I can be staring at a 4:48 marathon!
posted by WalkSports.com | 9:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home