The blossoming cherry trees of Old Mission PeninsulaAnd the race reports just keep on coming! After we ran the Hustle Up the Hancock this February (see here), my Honorable Uncle Tom proposed that we come up to Traverse City for Memorial Day Weekend and join him for the Bayshore Half Marathon. Well you don't have to ask me twice to go to Traverse, and to run a race up there... the whole thing sounded perfect.
Growing up my family would drive from Iowa to Traverse City every summer to meet up with my mother's family there. My aunt and uncle had lived there for all of my life, and my grandparents built a house next door to my aunt and uncle's place when I was very young. It was (is) a great summer town, and a wonderful place to escape to for a weekend.
So low and behold, three months later, Melissa and I leave one shore of Lake Michigan for another. We arrived around 11 pm local time at my aunt and uncles, just in time for a quick nap. My alarm went off at 5:10 AM so we could leave the house for TC Central High at 5:50.
The Traverse City Track Club has put on the Bayshore Marathon for 26 years now. The Half-Marathon is relatively new (three years), but a very popular event. They both filled up pretty quickly. I believe they capped the races at 1700 apiece.
The course is about as nice as you could put together. It runs along the east shore of the Old Mission Peninsula just North of downtown Traverse City. It is very flat and has some stunning views. The run the half-marathon as a point to point, busing us out to the start 13.1 miles up the peninsula. The marathon starts near the high school (the finish line), and is an out an back. The fun part (for the half runners), is they start at the same time! Thus you start seeing the marathon runners about half way through your race, and give you the further incentive to run hard as you don't want to get beat by a marathon runner.
As I put my racing schedule together this year, I did pick this as an "A" race, a race where I am looking to get a personal record (PR). I was hoping to run this race under 1 hour 45 minutes, which translates to an 8 minute per mile 13.1 miles. My fastest 1/2 marathon thus far was in Nashville last year for the Country Music Half Marathon. I ran a 1:46:36 there (and was very pleased with that run at the time).
We arrived at the high school around 6, quickly picked up my packet and headed to the bus. The trip was short, but I enjoyed my conversation with some runners from the area. Once off the bus we walked to a starting area complete with a tent and plenty of port-0-potties. The weather was cool, in the 40s, but in the sun it actually felt ok.
I stripped the pants and long sleeves off, I decided I didn't need the gloves so I checked them as well. Once I checked my stuff, I realized I had lost my uncle, and that I needed to make one more stop at the john before I hit the road. Despite the fact it was 5 minutes before the race start time of 7 AM, I convinced myself it was ok because it was a chip race and the race was pretty small.
I actually made it to the start line to hear the gun go off, but I was well to the back of the race. So I spent the first mile somewhat concerned about my pace and trying to pass people as quickly as possible.
Another thing this race does well was post mile markers. Since the marathon was an out and back, and due to the location of the start and the turn around, their mile markers were about a .1 of a mile before ours. This was a good little "heads up" for me to know where I was. While that first mile was a lot more crowded than I expected, I finished the first mile in 7:45. I decided I would try to keep every mile under 8 minutes, that way I would have some cushion in time should I hit a wall at the end of the race.
And then there was the course...
Near Mile 5 on Bluff Rd
I had planned on taking my camera on this race so I could be more like my blogging mentor Donald and have cool race reports, but Melissa convinced me that would be dumb as I was trying for a PR. Of course she is right. Donald is running ultras and stopping to take a few photos won't mess up his time as much as it would mine.
Speaking of times, here are my mile splits:
Mile 1: 7:45
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:57
Mile 4: 7:54
Mile 5: 7:58
Mile 6: 8:17
Mile 6 was kind of annoying, and proved Melissa's point about stopping messing up the times. My shoe lace came undone that mile, so I stopped to tie it and there was a knot that in my labored state could not undo. I guess I lost 15 seconds there just tying my shoe. I was very upset that I had a mile over 8 minutes.
Mile 7: 7:57
Mile 8: 7:59
Mile 9: 8:06
Mile 9 I did not tie my shoe, was just getting tired. In talking with my cousin's husband after the race, that was also the tough mile for him. I knew I would see Melissa at my aunt and uncle's house at the end of the mile, but I did struggle a bit getting there.
Once I reached my aunt and uncle's house, I was surprised that Melissa wasn't there at all. I have to say, I was more than a little bummed out. Then I hear, "Hey Babe!" Turns out my aunt and uncle's neighbor was throwing a party for the race and my cousin had come over and got Melissa for it. Thus two houses later I saw Meliss and my cousin (and maybe 10 other people). I was glad to see Melissa was taken care of, and as always when ever I see someone I know on the side of the road it left me feeling a little refreshed.
Mile 10: 7:58
There are a lot of mind game I use in a races, and I think that is true of all endurance athletes. When I ran marathons I started to break up races into the "pace-yourself" section and the "leave-it-on-the-course" section. This is a pretty natural thing to do in the marathon due to it's "mental half-way point." Half-way in a marathon is of course 13.1 miles, but mentally half-way point is 20 miles. There is a lot of talk about how the marathon is two races, the first 20 miles when you try to pace yourself, and the last 10k when you try to survive.
Since my marathons, I have taken that approach to breaking the race up to my other distances. In the half-marathon, I used to think of it as 10 mile and a 5k (because I really like the 10 mile distance), but for this race I decided to take a different approach. I thought I would keep it under 8 minute miles (on pace) for 11, and then see what we had left in the tank after that. This approach seemed to work.
Another mind game I play when I race is I think of a phrase to motivate myself. Something simple that I can focus on while I run. For the Bayshore I decided I would focus on something Kevin had texted me the night before, "dig deep."
Thus, combining my two little mind tricks, I kept telling myself that if I could just hit the 8 minute mark, I would be fine AND not to go all the way to think about "digging deep" until I needed it late in the race. Once I hit that 10 mile mark, I decided I would make it to the end if I picked up the pace a little and started focusing on "digging deep" and leaving what I had left on the course. I didn't really want to be able to sprint to the end of this one.
Mile 11: 7:39
Mile 12: 7:53 (running out of gas)
Mile 13.1: 8:20 (with the extra .1 mile)
Total time, 1:43:40 on watch, 1:43:37 on chip. Under my goal of 1:45 (and another thing off The List), 3 minutes faster than my previous PR, and I felt pretty good. My uncle ran a great race (see him finishing above in the blue on the left). And my cousin's husband Than just came in behind me despite not sleeping for the last few months with a new born and not really training!
Post race Melissa and I went the farmers market in TC, then a little wine tasting tour on the peninsula. Traverse City is known as the "Cherry Capital of the World," but I couldn't help but notice many of the cherry farms were new vineyards.
Regardless, I had a great weekend. My hats off to the people of Traverse City Track Club. I highly recommend running in the Bayshore races, but don't tell anyone about it as the size of the race is part of it's charm.
Notes:
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