Mine Is Shorter Than Yours

The Capital City River Run Half-Marathon Race Report

So, I had this little half-marathon on Sunday. It’s a local race but one I’ve never done before. I prefer to travel looong distances and spend lots of money on hotels, meals, and transportation making a $50 race a $1000 event. Apparently.

But with the triumvirate of Chicago-Disney-Boston races in my rear view mirror plus a non-race trip (*gasp* there is such a thing?), the wallet needed a rest. Local race it is! How was it? As the old saying goes, "once you go local, there’s no going back."

It was nice to wake up in my own bed. By “my own bed” I mean, of course, the floor of my living room on an air bed. No, Mrs. Nitmos didn’t finally get wise. My parents were down to watch my colt run the mile race. Me they couldn’t have given a shit about.

I had targeted 1:29 way back during my SOS2 goal setting in the spring. By the time this race came around, I felt like I could easily beat that and considered lowering my goal. Glad I didn’t. I’m used to races not measuring exactly to the hundredths of a mile. They might measure on a different line than you run. You might have to work side to side to pass people. There’s normal human (and machine? Say it ain’t so Garmin p.b.t.n.) error. Normally, however, I come in pretty close to the actual distance give or take a couple hundredths of a mile.

The Capital City River Run starts out in downtown Lansing, Michigan and then veers right to hook up with the river walk trails. It bobs and weaves like, well, you would expect a river to bob and weave all snake-like. I figured it was important to really run the tangents for this race due to all the twists and turns of the path. I was tangent cutting like a tangent cutting mofo. As I watched runners in front of me swerve side to side down a trail, I cut a straight line bringing myself to the edges of both sides of the trail as it twisted through the woods. I remember mentally patting myself on the back and thinking ‘You are one smooth tangent running Mr. Geometry. Other runners, take note! Don’t give me lip or I’ll drop a radius on your ass.’

Somewhere between mile 4 and 5 my Garmin chirps started coming in well before the mile markers. Garmin is infallible, we know that, and I’m Mr. Geometry, we know that now too, so, clearly, they screwed up on their measurement. I really didn’t pay it much attention. Sometimes all the mile markers don’t line up but seem to come pretty close by the time you get to the end of the race.

As usual, I failed to follow my pre-race plan to run two to three 7 minute miles to warm into some 6:40’s. Instead, I ran pretty consistent splits. Here they are in all their glory:

Mile 1 6:45
Mile 2 6:33
Mile 3 6:54
Mile 4 6:43
Mile 5 6:43
Mile 6 6:53
Mile 7 6:50
Mile 8 6:47
Mile 9 6:43
Mile 10 6:34
Mile 11 6:44
Mile 12 6:27 * Best mile!
Mile 13 6:55 * Followed by worst mile! Coincidence?
Last .21(!) 1:21 @ 6:24 pace

Not sure why I eased off so much in mile 13 except with the almost tragic belief that I had my goal in the bag. I remember looking at Garmin as I passed the 12 mile marker thinking ‘1:29 is done maybe I’ll see how close I can get to 1:28.’ Then we arrived back downtown. And took a left, And then a right. And then another left. Where’s the f*%&ing finish?? I’m over 1:28 already!! And then a final right.

There it is. Holy crap, I better pick it up to beat 1:29.

I crossed at 1:28:51 according to me and cooled down for a few minutes slightly confused. How did I end up so close to blowing my goal? Well, ole infallible Garmin tells me I ran 13.21 miles. Apparently my definition of a half-marathon doesn’t match CCRR’s definition of a half-marathon. Mine is shorter. For someone trying to hit a goal, a 1/10th of a mile is significant time suckage (i.e. 40 seconds or so). In fact, if not for the time it took to run the extra 1/10 mile, I would have (barely) negative splitted the race.

Then, to top it off, they recorded my finish at 1:28:53. Robbed of two additional seconds! Bastards!

In the end, it was a fun race. The course was a bit more challenging than I had anticipated considering I train on almost exclusively flat sidewalks. No big hills but plenty of slight up and down bumps. I feel like I should have done better but I'll settle for this result. For now.

This is my only half-marathon (besides the Goofy Challenge which I don’t count as a separate race) so automatic PR! And, in the end, I did beat my SOS2 goal…though just by the plaque on my teeth.

Numbers? Yes, numbers:

1:28:53 time (Garmin sez 1:28:51)
13.11 miles (Garmin sez 13.21 miles)
6:48 pace (Garmin sez 6:44 pace)

42nd of 1503 overall
11th of 98 in age group

Meanwhile, my colt took second in the kids’ mile race finishing behind the leader by two seconds!

Photos? Yes, photos: (Feel free to order me some. I'll provide the shipping address.)

Me doin' some bridgin'
Colt finishing the kids mile

Next up? The Detroit Marathon 5 person team relay...in which Nitmos = Two persons.

Happy trails.

P.S. Work still stucks.