A Bad Run

Have you ever had that run where you suddenly realize (or finally accept) that, despite all your training, you might not be able to keep the pace you wanted for your goal race? It sucks. Big time.

So I’m three weeks away from the Valley Harvest Half Marathon (Wolfville, Nova Scotia). This is my season finale – the big one – the one I’ve been aiming at since recovering from my disappointing performance at the Ottawa Marathon in May. My season has been okay, but not great – this half was supposed to make it all better.

Perhaps my goal was unrealistic; it’s so hard to tell with goals. I mean, I did really well at Valley last year: ran a big PB with a 1:19:30 and came second. This time around, though, I wanted to run all my miles at 6:00 (for a 1:18:40), which is only 4 seconds faster per mile than last year. That seemed reasonable enough to me, but things don’t seem to be going quite right.

What makes me say this is my run last Sunday: a 26km long run with some race pace work near the beginning. Normally, I love doing pace work for the half – there’s just something about that comfortably quick pace that suits me. It’s hard, but it’s not “Ah! I want to die!” hard like 10k pace. Anyway, the thing about this run was that I was doing it in Hubbards (where my wife and I stay some weekends in the family getaway – a trailer on a hill overlooking the cove). In Hubbards, I mostly run on the rails-to-trails path, a lovely little gravel path, flat and car-less. But this time I decided to run on Highway 3 between Hubbards and East River because this is the leg of the Rum Runners Relay I’ll be running next Saturday (more on that crazy and wonderful race another day). What I quickly found out is 1) the route is hilly and 2) I struggle with 6 minute miles on hilly terrain. What was supposed to be a threshold run quickly turned into an “Ah! I want to die!” run. I did 2.5miles at just under 6:00 – took 5 minutes to recover – and then did 3miles, but couldn’t make the pace until the last mile, which was this really long downhill that allowed me to run a 5:49 to make up for the time lost in the previous two miles.

What was frustrating was that there was no way I could have done 13miles at 6:00/mile – no way at all. If the Valley Harvest Half were flat, then this run may not have worried me so much, but Valley is not flat – it’s not as hilly as the Hubbards-East River route, but it’s got some gut squeezers, especially in the final 8k or so. Not good.

So what do you do when you have a run like this? Part of me wants simply to write it off as a bad run, nothing more – but part of me suspects that I’m not ready for a 6:00/mile (3:44/km) half. I remember how comfortable the 6:05s were last year when I was training for Valley, even on the rolling terrain of the Waverly road (my favourite threshold route). I knew I was ready last year – this year I don’t know where I am.

Perhaps this uncertainty is a good thing. I dunno. I know myself, though – I know exactly what I’ll be tempted to do at Valley. I’ll want to go for those 6:00 miles, knowing full well that I’ll probably pay for it dearly over the last 5 miles. I guess it comes down to a choice between running a smart race from start to finish, which could involve writing off a PB from the start or running a gutsy race and going for the PB whether it’s there or not. The latter is more risky because the race could easily devolve into misery and slowness – like it did for me at the Ottawa Marathon, where I swore to the running gods as I was suffering through the final 12k that I would pace smart from that point forward. But if you run “smart” and potentially undersell your training, you won’t even have a shot at improving your time. The whole thing is dicey – and that’s what makes it exciting for me.

I’m still not sure how to interpret my Sunday run – but in my mind, at least it adds a bit of drama to Valley. I can hardly wait to see what I convince myself is the right strategy.