Born in West Virginia, oh no

Update:  Race video from local TV station HERE

I raced my first half marathon yesterday in Parkersburg, WV and I have to say that I like the distance.  I ran 63:46 to finish second over the hilly course and I’m already looking forward to running a 1/2 on a fast course.  The temperature started off at 22C (27C with humidex) and it got up to 24.5C  (30C with humidex, 86F for you Yankees) by the time I finished.

There were a ton of Kenyan and Ethiopians on the start line including 5 guys who have PB’s under 63 minutes.  As the gun went off Gillis and I settled into the top 10 and cruised through the first mile in 4:37.  And then we started to climb a looong hill but no one wanted to press the pace so early in the race and it felt easier than the first mile.  I passed three miles in 14:14 and I was right behind Kogo and Reta with a gap to Gillis and a few other guys.  From mile 3 to 4 there is a decent downhill and the two guys put a gap on me even though I covered that mile in 4:22!

Kogo and Reta were working together and I thought that this was going to be a long day at the office until Reta fell off Kogo on an uphill around the 5th mile.  Going into the race I really wanted to beat Alene Reta and once i saw he was vulnerable I focused on catching him.  As I approached him I put in a surge to drop him but he stayed with me.  We went through 10km in 29:27.  He was running the downhills fast and I was pushing the uphills so it was good to work with him for the next 4 miles.  At the 10 mile mark (48:07) I pushed up a hill and dropped him however, by that point Kogo (the leader) was wayyy out of sight.  Once I got to the bottom of the toughest hill on the course (around 11.5 miles) I had a good cushion on Reda and jogged up the hill.  That was my slowest mile (5:18) of the race and the only one over 5 minutes (or maybe there was one just over?).  After the hill I cruised it in fairly comfortably although my left shin started to bother me in the last two miles.

When I run hard downhills my tibialis anterior muscle gets wrecked from the dorsi flexion (I have to remember not to over-stride on downhills!) and then the muscle becomes too messed up to work properly and that puts too much stress on my tibialis anterior tendon.  After the race I wasn’t able to do the cool-down I planned and the injury felt very similar to what I had done to my right tendon a few months ago (couldn’t run for 6 weeks).  This morning my left tendon feels like it should come around in the next day or two.  At this point I will err on the side of caution and hit the bike for a couple of days.  With 5 weeks to go and feeling pretty fit a couple of days on the bike won’t hurt me a bit.

Place   No.   Name                  Age S City               St Co 10kmSplit   Net Time   Time       Pace  

    1     55 Julius Kogo            25 M Chapel Hill        NC US   28:57 1:02:17.81 1:02:08.78  4:45

    2      37 Reid Coolsact        31 M Guelph                CA   29:27 1:03:46.66 1:03:46.78  4:52

    3       1 Alene Reta               28 M                              ET   29:27 1:04:21.09 1:04:20.92  4:55
 
    4      46 Girma Tolla            34 M                             ET   30:01 1:04:31.76 1:04:31.60  4:56

    5      54 Samuel Ndereba         33 M                       KE   30:01 1:04:42.43 1:04:38.54  4:56

    6     36 Eric Gillis                  30 M Guelph                CA   29:57 1:05:48.09 1:05:48.00  5:02

    7     7 Jeffrey Eggleston      25 M Flagstaff          AZ US   30:36 1:06:09.08 1:06:06.39  5:03

    8     27 Benjamin Meto          35 M                       KE   30:43 1:06:17.95 1:06:18.14  5:04

    9     58 Geoffrey Kiprotich     32 M                       KE   31:31 1:06:59.25 1:06:59.44  5:07

   10    59 Daniel Kipoech         24 M                       KE   29:58 1:07:24.80 1:07:25.31  5:09

   11    41 Edward Tabut           27 M                       KE   30:56 1:07:28.39 1:07:26.80  5:09

   12    60 George Towett          26 M                       KE   30:19 1:07:56.41 1:07:56.26  5:11

   13    8 James Boitt            31 M                                 KE   31:29 1:08:05.03 1:08:06.02  5:12

   14   38 Lazarus Nyakeraka      35 M                    MX   31:24 1:08:27.96 1:08:27.82  5:14

   15    32 Luke Watson            30 M State College      PA US   31:56 1:08:41.13 1:08:40.95  5:15

Start ’em young!

There were two Timmy’s in Parkersburg, WV.  They have Banana, and Chocolate Banana Timbits in the States.  Think of Banana Bread in Timbit form, mmmmm.

Can you hear the Banjos?