Flying Pirate ½ Marathon Race Recap 4.18.10

On Friday evening, I headed out to the Outer Banks for the Flying Pirate Half Marathon which was doubling as the USAT&F NC ½ marathon championships.

I have to give major kudos to the race organizers. They have been putting on great races during the fall for the last few years and they have added another great race to their schedule in the spring.

On Saturday I picked up my packet and returned to our house. Enjoyed the beach for a few hours and watched some TV. Many of the other elite runners arrived late in the afternoon.

Always, it is nice to hang out in other runners and swap stores.

Race morning, we left the house around 6 AM.

Arriving at the starting line, most of us hung out in the van until 7AM.

I changed into my racing flats, packed my stuff in my drop bag, and dropped it off at the UPS Truck.

Grabbing a few miles of warm up, my legs felt pretty good.

The race started promptly at 7:30AM.

John Crew and Devin Swann took off immediately. John Piggott jumped out on me by about 30 meters. Maybe a mile and half into the race I finally caught up to John P. Then for the next 3 miles John kept throwing surge after surge at me. My body was giving everything it had just to stay with him. John would surge out about 5 or 6 meters on me. I would then have to claw my way back.

This went on through mile 4. Then, either John let up or something, because I pulled ahead of him for about a ½ mile. He then went back by and started with the surges again through about 6 miles. In all honesty, John had me on the ropes for those 6 miles. The right surge at the right point, he was have broken me.

At this point, he stopped. And, I just set on his shoulder through the next 4 miles.

My strategy going into the race was to hang on to John through 10 miles and then see what happens.

But after all of those surges in the early miles, I wasn't sure what my legs had left in them.

But my gut check moment was happening at the 10 mile point. The last 5k runs on a dirt road with some trail running at the end. Waiting any longer leaves me trying to get away over the trail section. I didn't a race settled on the trail section so I made my move.

My legs were tried and hurting, but I started churning my arms. Suddenly, I had a break from John. I could no longer hear him behind me and focused on running the tangents and hard on the hills.

By the time, I started the trail section and peeked over my shoulder, John was no longer insight which gave me a good feeling.

The trail was the toughest section on the entire course. There was a thick cushion of pine needles which made running very hard. Racing flats just don't work all that well on thick bed of pine needles – very slippery. And the undulating terrain added to the difficulty. The last .1 of mile was covered in mulch. From a distance it looked smooth but it was kind of choppy with dips and bumps.

Crossing the finish line I looked back and John was just topping the hill. I had put about 30 second on him over the last 5k.

I had finished 3^rd overall and ran 1:16:46. This was a real solid effort which garnered me my 2^nd Master's Championship in 2 weeks. Last week I took home the 10 mile championship and this week the ½ marathon championship. That is a lot of hard running in just 8 days.

I saw John C and Devin in the finish area and spoke with John P for a few minutes.

The house was only a few miles from the finish so I headed back for a shower and change clothes before returning to the finish area for the awards ceremony.

Finished of the day with a walk on the beach, some time in the hot tub before heading out on the long drive home.

 

On a side note, I took my average pace at 10 miles and used it to predict my time for the full half. Clearly, it is not exact, but it helps me see what I might have run if we had stayed on the paved roads i.e. 1:14:30.

 

I will post my Garmin Connect recording from the race either later today or tomorrow.

 

Race recap by the Cool Down Runner