Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pacing at the ADTM ½ Marathon

Got asked to volunteer for the 2:15 pace group at the American Discovery Trail ½ Marathon (ADTM) this past Labor Day and had an awesome time doing it. I was a little hesitant at first because I have never paced for anybody, trying to help them achieve a specific finish time. Not really sure that I did a great job at it either; we came in a little bit faster than 2:15, more like 2:03. However, I thought about it and figured that if somebody sets a goal for a time, then they really want to beat it by a little bit. Maybe I was like the rabbit and the hounds were supposed to chase me to the finish. Sounds good in theory anyway; though actually I found it a lot harder to stay specifically on a slower pace than I am used to running than I thought it would be.
The ADTM runs along the Santa Fe Trail through the middle of Colorado Springs. For the ½ marathon, the race starts at America the Beautiful Park, runs northward to a point just past Garden of the Gods Road, and then turns around and heads back again; an out and back. The ½’s bigger brother (the full meal deal) is a point to point race, starting in Palmer Lake, CO and runs south to a finish in America the Beautiful Park as well. Both races start at 6:30 AM on Labor Day. Since I live just over a mile away from the park, it was a good warm-up for me to just run over to the start of the race.
At the park, I picked-up a flag with 2:15 on it and stuffed it into my running pack. At the packet pick-up the day before, I also received bib numbers with 2:15 and my name printed on them as well; one for the front and one for the back. There was no secret to who I was or what my finish time was supposed to be. At the starting line, a group gathered around me, figuring that was the finish time they were aiming for.
After the national anthem played over the loud speakers, we took off running, timed to the same start as the marathon up in Palmer Lake. I had bought a GPS watch the previous Friday in order to help me maintain a steady pace. For a couple of years I had held off on getting one, figuring that I always had a rough idea of how far I ran anyway, but it was cool to see what my actual speed was in minutes per mile. Only I found it a little hard to want to run at the exact pace I thought would bring me in at 2:15. So, as we took off up the Santa Fe Trail, I found myself running at somewhere between 9:15 and 9:45 per mile. My splits said I should have been running at somewhere closer to a 10:18. I wanted to build in a little cushion anyway, so it felt better to be running a little faster.
I think there was something like 4 aid stations on the way out to the turnaround point. Getting a little water to drink at each one, I didn’t stop to walk through any of the aid stations, preferring rather to just maintain a steady pace. Soon I had a small group gathered around me who was into the pace I was setting, and wanted to see if they could hang onto the finish. For one young girl in particular, it was her first half, and she breathlessly exclaimed that she couldn’t believe she was keeping up with me. That made me really glad I had come out to help, and I got excited about trying to keep the pace a little faster so she could reach a goal that would make her feel good about herself. I also passed a few spectators along the course that I recognized from other local runs and such, so it was awesome to greet them by name.
Since I have been running some longer distances lately, something like the length of a ½ marathon feels really good. Just by the time I am getting warmed up, it seems like the race is getting over with; it lasting only 2 hours instead of a full day or longer… So, the time we spent together as a pace group seemed to fly by, and it wasn’t long before we were rounding the final corner where we could see the finish line across the park. I tried to give out a little more encouragement, coaxing my group to pour it on if they had anything left in them, which I knew they did. Just before the chute leading to the finish line I stepped aside, since it was their race. Turning around, I glanced at my watch and headed back on the course shouting words of encouragement to each runner that I passed. Only one of them shouted back at me that I had run too fast. I hope they really weren’t angry with me. As I felt like I was approaching the point at which I had half the time left for a return back to the finish line to make 2:15, I turned around again, trying to herd one last group to meet the pace. Getting a little more effort out of some of the runners, we squeaked across the line in just over 2:14; perfect.
For a few moments I looked around the finish area trying to find some of the folks from my first group to congratulate them. However my wife walked up to greet me before I found anybody. We had kidded around that this was like the first race for when she knew exactly what time I was going to be done, so she wouldn’t have to be waiting around or risk missing me. Her timing was perfect too. Since there wasn’t much of a reason to hang around and I couldn’t find any of the folks I was looking for anyway, we hopped into her car and drove over to Mountain Shadows for a big breakfast; a great end to a fantastically fun morning.