Father of Six

I did it.

I ran the Platte River Half Marathon (http://www.platteriverhalf.com/) today. The time I recorded on my watch indicates that I finished in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 55 seconds. (The official time was something like 2:27:20.) My per mile pace was 11:13. My average heart rate was 155 bpm.

That was the farthest I’ve ever run.

I’m pretty proud of myself.

The race started in downtown Littleton at the light-rail station, wound its way along the Platte River Trail through Littleton, Sheridan, and Englewood, before finishing in Denver at the Buckhorn Exchange Restaurant (http://www.buckhorn.com/) at 10th and Osage.

I’ve seen some other running blogs where people vividly remember each and every mile, the sights and sounds they encountered, and how they were feeling.

Not me.

I was merely trying to endure. I wanted to run the entire 13.1 mile length, I wanted to keep my heart rate between 150 and 160 bpm, and in order to do those things, I need to distract myself from the effort being put forth. I needed to ignore the pain in my left hip that began sometime after mile 3. I needed to ignore a toenail on my third or fourth toe that was too long and kept clicking inside my right shoe. I needed to ignore the fact that I started to slow down after mile 7. I needed to ignore the way both of my feet began to hurt during mile 8. I needed to ignore the fact that both feet were really killing me during miles 10 and 11. I needed to ignore the big, unfortunate, and unfair hill/bridge over I-25 and the railroad in miles 12 and 13. I defiantly charged up and over that bridge. Then I stumbled a couple of times at the end mile 13. I was really pleased when I turned the corner at Osage and saw the finish line. I was really pleased to see Tami at the end of the finishing chute.

In order to ignore all of that, I wore my iPod for the first time in a race. I listened to a play-list of the 181 bpm “Velociraptor” podcast from Podrunner for about an hour, the Texas Blues Cafe Session #46 podcast for about an hour, the Random Acts of Funk 2007 Season Premier podcast for about 15 minutes, and Bare Essentials by the New Beat Society from the Garage Band.com Funk Top Tracks podcast for the last 7 minutes. These “tunes” helped me ignore the pain and the effort, and helped me develop a pace and a rhythm that I was relatively comfortable with. I wanted to blame the slower Texas Blues Cafe podcast on my slower per mile pace after mile 7, but I know that my level of fitness wouldn’t let me maintain a sub-11 minute mile pace for all 13 miles. I think my play-list was a good compilation for the event.

My numbers will bore some of you, but they are important to me, and I think tell a tale of relative consistency. I’m not very fast, in fact I’m pretty slow (tortoise, Clydesdale?) But I feel like a can run all day and at an even pace, and these numbers show that.

Mile 1 10:11 pace HR 147 bpm
Mile 2 10:28 pace HR 153 bpm
Mile 3 10:51 pace HR 153 bpm (hip started to hurt)
Mile 4 10:59 pace HR 154 bpm
Mile 5 10:58 pace HR 156 bpm
Mile 6 10:57 pace HR 156 bpm
Mile 7 10:53 pace HR 156 bpm
Mile 8 11:19 pace HR 155 bpm (feet started to hurt)
Mile 9 11:13 pace HR 157 bpm
Mile 10 11:49 pace HR 157 bpm (feet are killing me)
Mile 11 11:40 pace HR 157 bpm
Mile 12 12:03 pace HR 158 bpm (begin confounded bridge)
Mile 13 12:22 pace HR 159 bpm (end bridge)
Last.10 1 min, 4 sec HR 162 bpm

I did it.