Heatbreaker Indoor Half Marathon
you can’t ask for much more of a race when the course is pancake flat, plus guaranteed perfect weather conditions, with water roughly every quarter mile and even porta-potties every eighth of a mile. (…and no…i didn’t need to stop.)
the Heatbreaker Indoor Half Marathon is hosted at the Pettit National Ice Center on a two lane 443 meter track that is just outside of the speedskating oval. to cover 13.1 miles here, you get to run a little more than 47 laps. your laps are counted with an electronic chip around your ankle and you can even get an update by looking at a large screen as you pass each lap.
the event hosted four heats (7AM, 10AM, 1PM & 4PM) and offered the truly ummm…”dedicated” runners the opportunity to participate in multiple heats as an added challenge. i opted for the 1PM heat so i could spend the morning on the couch, drinking coffee and watching the Olympics. (hat-tip to my friend Mary for running all four of the heats. 52.4 miles. legendary.)
having perfect conditions, and being in decent shape, i decided to take a shot at my personal best time for the half marathon that was set more than ten years ago. doing some calculations ahead of time suggested that if i were able roll each lap in around 1:47 that i’d be well under my best outdoor half marathon time.
the race started and i motored along at my intended pace for the first eight miles. however, ever so gradually i began to slow through the ninth and tenth miles. my friend dana joined me for the last 5K at which point i was simply holding on and trying to minimize how much i slowed. as we approached other runners who were on the inside lane, dana was kind enough to announce “track” and they would slide to the right allowing us to pass.
with a mile to go, i got a last bit of encouragement as “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe was the song being played through the loudspeakers at the facility. while i couldn’t muster much of an improvement in my pace, it was at least mentally emboldening for me to stay determined until i was done. i did give a little bit of extra effort on the last lap and was able to pass the finish line in 1:27:14.
after finishing, i was completely spent and slowly walked around the track in the outermost lane. i shuffled through a painfully slow couple of laps as a cool down with my friend bill and then called it a day. also, before i forget, two additional pluses for this event were the technical t-shirt and finisher’s medal.
running a half marathon indoors versus outdoors is sort of like comparing an apple to an orange. honestly, it is much easier to cover 13.1 miles indoors than outdoors although i’m not sure how much easier. regardless, since i came up a bit short of my best outdoor half i don’t have to think about whether or not it would “count” as my best if i had. (although i did pass 20K about twenty seconds faster than my outdoor best…set in 1996.)
anyway, my best half marathon remains at 1:26:37 from the 2002 Trailbreaker. i also ran a 1:27:03 at the 2007 Trailbreaker. both efforts were a few weeks before running the Boston Marathon.
what’s encouraging for me is that i was within seconds of these times in the middle of the summer, before taking on the additional training to prep for a marathon. while i haven’t figured out where i’ll race this fall, if i can stay injury-free and get in the miles, i should be able to drop a solid effort.
Time: 1:27:14
Overall – 9th/100
M40-44 – 2nd/9
recent training
July 16 – 7 miles
July 17 – off
July 18 – 7 miles
July 19 – 8.75 miles
July 20 – off
July 21 – 7 miles
July 22 – 10 miles
July 23 – 7 miles
July 24 – 5 miles
July 25 – 5 miles
July 26 – 7 miles
July 27 – 5 miles
July 28 – 1.6 mile w/u, 13.1 miles in 1:27:14, .8 mile c/d
July 29 – 5 miles <- - rolled thirty four thousand on my odometer
MTD - 158.5 miles (26/29 days)
YTD - 1275 miles (183/211 days)
Odometer - 34,000 miles