Going Loco

I did something crazy this weekend: I ran the Loco Running Indoor Half-Marathon. Yep, on an indoor track. It was a strange distance - 317 meters per lap - making it about 5 laps to a mile, making the whole event 66 1/2 laps.

My plan was to start conservatively, get into a rhythm and run consistently, and then run so hard at the end that I tank by the last lap or so. It almost worked out. The first few miles felt easy, the middle miles clicked away lap by lap (75 seconds per lap for awhile, then 74s), and the end got a little bungled. At exactly one hour, everyone turned around and ran the opposite direction on the track (thankfully, an electronic chip kept track of the laps and timing). This was supposed to even out our poor ankles/knees/hips after leaning leftward around the curves of the track for an hour straight. I knew I had about 20 minutes to go, but I didn't remember how many laps I'd done (my watch only held 50 lap splits and then the memory was full) or how many I had to go. I kept running consistent 74s and 73s, hoping the end was near. The men's winner finished, and I tried to pick up the pace a little but seemed to be stuck in the same 73-second-per-lap gear. I was hoping I'd get a 2 or 3-lap warning, but it never came. Finally, the announcer said I had one lap to go, so I mustered a quicker pace - not a sprint, so perhaps this is the tanking I was hoping for - and finished in 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 22 seconds. This is just one second slower than my all-time half-marathon best, so I am happy with my race.

Next race up is the big one: Boston is in 35 days.