Races officially added

In the last week, I've registered for two more races, cementing them into my plans and calendar:

April 3, Caesar Rodney half-marathon. I've done this race three times (2012, 1:37:47; 2014, 1:34:46; 2015, 1:39:36). It's not what I'd call an easy course course due to the grueling elevation gain between miles 7 to 9, but the front 10K is pretty flat and the last 5K has a lot of downhill (though the finish is up a not-insignificant slope) so it's not terribly awful either. The weather can be pretty iffy. The last couple years, I've faced damp, chilly (40s), and windy. Standing at the starting line, waiting for Senator Carper to finish up his speechifying, is a little rough. Maybe the slightly later date this year will lead to slightly better conditions. Last year, I didn't force the pace as I wasn't feeling as strong as I had in 2014, and was not especially pleased with my time; it was a difficult training season and I just wasn't as fast. In my mind, 1:40 is the absolute upper limit of acceptable; I always want to be as far under 1:40 as possible. Right now it looks like this will be my first race of the year, a little more than two full months into my training schedule. The last couple years, this has been only a month out from my target race and I had been able to put in a lot of pace work to that point; I won't be as far along this year. It will be a good first test.

May 8, Delaware Marathon Running Festival half-marathon. I was a little hesitant to sign up for this one, as it is only three weeks out from my target marathon at the end of May, but I think it will be good to get a faster-than-race-pace effort done in that time frame and will significantly put into perspective where I am, fitness-wise, for the longer race. The half is one loop of the marathon course and has similarities to the Caesar Rodney course, overlapping in some spots, but with the long hill in the middle truncated somewhat -- only a mile-ish in this race. I've been on the course twice. I did the marathon in 2011, and the half in 2012. That year, it wasn't even a whole month after I thoroughly wrecked myself at the super-hot Boston. It was a disaster all around. Mentally, I was not into it, still nursing psychological wounds over setting a PW (personal worst) at the exceedingly disappointing Boston; I only showed up at the start line because I didn't want to have thrown away the expensive entry fee. Physiologically, I had not fully recovered either, so my legs were in no condition to be racing. To top it all off, I forgot my Garmin and had to run the race pace-blind. I could use this as a warning against relying too much on technology to pace a race, but because my legs were in such bad shape, I wasn't able to judge how fast I was running based on how I felt, either. It was a miserable morning; I didn't do the smart thing and back off when it became clear that this was just not going to be my day and kept trying to race. I certainly felt like I was working very hard, but when I saw a clock around mile ten I felt like weeping because my effort was way out of whack with how fast I was(n't) running. I finished in a personal worst of 1:44. Looking back with several years of hindsight, I am not too upset about it anymore; considering how ruined my legs were, I am glad I still managed to go under 1:45. I probably shouldn't have been running much at all, let alone trying to race a half marathon. I don't know what I was thinking when I registered for it when it was still winter. I have no idea what led me to believe I would be ready to run a half-marathon only a few weeks after racing the full distance even had the Boston race gone well. I suppose I thought something along the lines of still being in top form after all that marathon training. Having never tried to do anything hard again in the weeks after the other three marathons I'd run, I simply must have underestimated now long it actually takes for the damage of the long race to repair itself. All of it led to a terrible experience I hope to supplant by running much faster this year!

While I very much enjoy traveling to new cities and new courses, I like doing "hometown" races (I put it in quotes because I don't actually live in Wilmington). Not only are the logistics easier because I don't have to travel, there is something that feels good about supporting local events. Also, I enjoy tallying up repeat years of results to compare and more distant races are usually more difficult to run year over year.

Scouting for shorter races to run in the meantime ...