Race Report: Peterborough 1/2 Marathon 2016

El disastro.

Tuesday before the race - did a tempo run, average pace 4:49/km, average heart rate 162bpm.

That felt great, comfortable.  I didn't adjust my goal - still figured I'd go out 5:00/km and see what things felt like.

Rest of the week ... I felt odd.  Not sure if I'm fighting something, but just lethargic and soupy headed. Unusual.  I rested up, figured pushing a workout in there would just cause more grief.

Race morning... back to feeling normal.  Sun was shining, warm temperatures (+9C in Feb, are you kidding me?).  I was optimistic again!  Shorts on, ready to fly.

Race ... disaster.  I could see it right from the start - felt OK but my heart rate was through the roof, high 170's / low 180's at anything under 5:00/km pace.  Backing off didn't help, just couldn't get it down much.  1:45 bunny passed me (~5:00/km), I didn't even try much to stay with him.  By the halfway point I was up at 5:06/km and fighting through it, but the writing was on the wall.

Second half the wind was in our face and life just got miserable.  Averaged 5:39/km (!) the back half.  That's like LSD pace for me... but still, heart rate stubbornly in the high 170's and low 180's.  (which is more like my finishing kick or 5k heart rate!)

Post-mortem

I don't know what the hell happened.  I've had bad races before, it happens, but usually I can pinpoint why.  This one has me stumped - I can only guess that I was fighting off some illness or something.

Original flat course:
2007- 2:07:06
2008- 1:53:55
2009- 1:49:17
2010 - 1:45:26

New hilly course:
2011 - 1:38:54 
2013 - 1:43:18 (119/400, 23/40 M35-39, 97/223 Men)
2014 - 1:42:38 (94/335, 12/28 M35-39, 79/192 Men)
2016 - 1:53:33

Not much I can really take from this - I know I'm faster than this race showed, so as a test it wasn't that useful.  Might have to try another 1/2 before marathon day to find out how I'm doing?  Not sure.

Ah well, onward and upward!