Columbia Gorge Half Marathon - Post Race Report
Nice race, with decent result, I think. (The F310XT failed during the run, and results have not been posted yet on the race website).
My plan was to run the first 10 KM at 6:10 pace, which I expected would keep my HR at around 75% - 80%. What I did not expect was how much the hills would impact my start. The course profile does not indicate much of an incline the first 5 KM's, but it was definitely uphill from the start, and my HR shot up to 85% almost immediately. The weather turned out to be much warmer than anticipated and the sun was out from the beginning. It was at least 18 degrees, and getting warmer, so with the harder than advertised hill, I was really sweating early in the race! Also, the F310XT stopped working almost as soon as I hit the on button, so even though the time and HR seemed to be ok, the distance and pace were completely jacked up. I went with a pace that was comfortable, and was able to check progress as I passed mile markers on the course. I was slightly ahead of plan at the 5 KM mark (30:00 mins vs 30:50 plan), and then took advantage of the significant downhill from 5 KM to 8 KM.
8 KM to 13 KM was all uphill. I struggled, but from the sound of the people around me, I was doing better than most. Lots of huffing and puffing, grumbling and groaning. One lady behind me had a lot worse problems. At the 10 KM mark she called out to the aid station, "where are the toilets???" When they said there were none at that point, and that she would have to wait to the next station (15 KM), she cried out, "does anyone have a tampon!"
13 KM to 20 was almost all downhill! This was great! I tried to push as hard as I could, and really enjoyed the almost effortless speed. For some reason the F310XT stopped registering distance at 14 KM, but I didn't care, and just tried "more harder"!
The last KM was flat, and my goal was to keep up with the guy in front of me. He had a strong finish, and even though I lost a little ground, I felt good all the way to the end.
At the finish line, the F310XT registered only14 KM's, but it seemed to have an accurate time of 2:03:57. We'll know more when the official results are posted. This is a little faster than I expected, and a good confidence boost for winter training and races!
Nice race, with decent result, I think. (The F310XT failed during the run, and results have not been posted yet on the race website).
My plan was to run the first 10 KM at 6:10 pace, which I expected would keep my HR at around 75% - 80%. What I did not expect was how much the hills would impact my start. The course profile does not indicate much of an incline the first 5 KM's, but it was definitely uphill from the start, and my HR shot up to 85% almost immediately. The weather turned out to be much warmer than anticipated and the sun was out from the beginning. It was at least 18 degrees, and getting warmer, so with the harder than advertised hill, I was really sweating early in the race! Also, the F310XT stopped working almost as soon as I hit the on button, so even though the time and HR seemed to be ok, the distance and pace were completely jacked up. I went with a pace that was comfortable, and was able to check progress as I passed mile markers on the course. I was slightly ahead of plan at the 5 KM mark (30:00 mins vs 30:50 plan), and then took advantage of the significant downhill from 5 KM to 8 KM.
8 KM to 13 KM was all uphill. I struggled, but from the sound of the people around me, I was doing better than most. Lots of huffing and puffing, grumbling and groaning. One lady behind me had a lot worse problems. At the 10 KM mark she called out to the aid station, "where are the toilets???" When they said there were none at that point, and that she would have to wait to the next station (15 KM), she cried out, "does anyone have a tampon!"
13 KM to 20 was almost all downhill! This was great! I tried to push as hard as I could, and really enjoyed the almost effortless speed. For some reason the F310XT stopped registering distance at 14 KM, but I didn't care, and just tried "more harder"!
The last KM was flat, and my goal was to keep up with the guy in front of me. He had a strong finish, and even though I lost a little ground, I felt good all the way to the end.
At the finish line, the F310XT registered only14 KM's, but it seemed to have an accurate time of 2:03:57. We'll know more when the official results are posted. This is a little faster than I expected, and a good confidence boost for winter training and races!
Fantastic! It seem to work with Google Chrome! Some comments:
SvaraRadera1. I hope you will now send your F310 for repair / swap - please confirm!
2. Great that you have one race now. I think its really good for the winter training. As you know - Szalkais program says that you should be able to run 10km 6 months before a race. Now you did 21km 9 months before the big event. So good base for the winter training. Please let us know your winter training plans! Distance goals? Tempo run plans? Long run plans! Any other race before the big race?
Another comment! You have to give some feedback to the race organizers! What a joke! Still no result on their web page! Is this 1990? Honestly - this is the worst I have ever seen. Almost all races in Sweden have DIRECT result reports. This? A total disaster. Please let them know this. Could you even have a SMS subscription?
SvaraRadera1) Just loaded Google Chrome on my PC. Blogger works like a charm now!
SvaraRadera2) Wrote to Garmin Customer Support. Will see if they have any additional advice, but may end up sending in for repair / swap. Maybe a 910XT in exchange?
3) Columbia Gorge was a "starter" race. More like a fast long run. My winter goals are to maintain a minimum of 130 KM's a month, but will try to start ramping up to 200 a month by next spring. I plan to add a few shorter races in the mix as well (5 and 10 K's). If all goes well, I'll look for a marathon to run in April.
4) You guys are spoiled by the high level of result reporting on your races in Sweden. I agree that a lag in publishing results is unacceptable in today's technology driven world, especially when using chip timing, but I have seen worse than this in some of the smaller races I have participated in. As for SMS subscription, that is fairly rare here. I have seen it in the big races, but not so much in these local events.
5) El Maco, have you decided on Wintermarathon yet?
Congratulations Mr USC, it's so nice receive race-reports like this. I have once experienced the same thing as you told about, that the F310 stopped registering km,s after exactly 14km. So strange....
SvaraRadera