I feel young even though I’m moving up an age group this year. So what the heck, yes, I am a comeback kid.
At the San Dieguito Half Marathon this past Sunday, I completed my first running race of 2011 exactly eight weeks since my injury successfully making my comeback to racing. I really enjoyed my first time doing this race. Both the atmosphere and the course were fun and fantastic. The course starts at San Dieguito Park near the Del Mar Fairgrounds and winds through the rolling hills of Rancho Santa Fe and loops back to the park.
As prescribed by my physical therapist, I completed a pre-(race) workout warm-up with some stretching. My right hip and glute are especially prone to tightness, so I’ve been fairly fanatical about my warm-up routine. I planned to run just under the 2-hour mark (a little less than 9:09/mile) with my CSUSM MBA friend, Daniel Rio. We even lined up in the back with all the “slower” people. {Big shout out to my good friend, Craig Durham, who completed his first half marathon.}
As it turns out, I ran most of the race faster than I expected. Daniel kept up with me for about 10K. We were running well under 9:00/mile, most of the time at about 8:30/mile. I typically slowed down to about 9:00/mile when going uphill. My legs felt great throughout, no pain or tightness.
After the halfway point, I started to get a little bored. And since I was feeling so good, I thought I would just kick it up a notch for the second 10K of the race. Somewhere up a long incline, I dropped Daniel. Of the last six or so miles of the race, I ran four miles at a sub-7:30/mile pace. Although there were still a few hills here and there, the back half of this course seemed like an overall slight decline. I knew I would get a great negative split for this race.
Finishing Strong at the San Dieguito Half Marathon
My final time was 1:47:54 (thanks to Race Central for correcting my time – a lot of times were screwed up, even with the digital timing chip we used). I’m very happy with the result. It’s not a PR by about 12 minutes, but with only a handful of short training runs under my belt in 2011, I think this time was pretty awesome for a comeback race.
I credit my comeback to the regular, intense strength training with the physical therapist. And because of the obvious results, I’ve committed three hours of strength training to my weekly regimen as well as daily stretching and foam rolling. It’s been tough training on some days with two or three workouts in one day on top of working at a full-time career. Some days I am just physically tired. Most other days I feel like I am on top of the world, dripping with sweat chasing a gym workout with a 4000-meter swim, run, or a bike ride.
So yea, not only am I the comeback kid, but I’m also a badass.
Silver Strand Half Marathon, November 14, 2010:
I don’t normally dream about racing, especially the night before a race. Typically, it’s very difficult for me to fall asleep and the night before the AFC Half Marathon was no exception. After getting all my stuff ready (translation: after procrastinating packing for the race), I finally lay down to sleep at 9:00 PM (though I wanted to be in bed by 7 PM). I seriously can’t remember if I slept at all. I slept so lightly that I felt like I stayed up all night.
