Race Report - Prairie Dog Half Marathon (April 13, 2014)

SUCCESS!  

Not only was this the first race of this distance since my knee surgery, but also the first time I have run 13.1 miles since my knee surgery in March 2013.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little anxiety as to how my legs would hold up.

I've been considering myself in "rehab" with various aches/pains I attribute to the imbalances caused by the injury and surgery; having spent more than 100 hours with more than a few practitioners.  The most recent of which has been Dr. Kevin Reichlin who is most known for his medical work with the Garmin-Sharp Pro Cycling Team.  I believe I was able to both make it through this race and maintain pace/cadence largely due to the work he's done helping me correct imbalances.

I also attribute my recent progress to:

1. The strength training regimen I have been following with teammate and coach Nicole Clark including some kick-ass TRX sessions
2. The self-control I've forced myself to adhere to with not pushing myself too hard, too fast
3. The bi-weekly sports massages with my friend Kat Hearty
4. Icing therapy with my Cryocup and HyperIce Knee Compression Wrap
5. "Foam Rolling" with my Trigger Point Quadballer

Now on to the race!  COLD!  At ~30 degrees with a combination of rain the night before, sleet, snow and wind--this race was not for the faint of heart!  In reality, I dressed for the occasion including a nice thick layer of Aquaphor on my face and neck to keep the needles from stinging and it was a refreshing, brisk couple hours!

The handful of footbridges were covered in ice and slush--thankful no one fell as far as I know.  Mostly uneventful otherwise, except for the mile around Tucker Lake.  Thick slushy mud.  Hard to get much footing and again thankful no one fell or hurt themselves as it would have been easy to roll an ankle or slip.

Coming up on the last mile, a woman I had not seen the entire race came charging up on me and asked if we were on track for a 2-hour half.  We kept pace and I held her hand high in the air congratulating her on hitting her target (and mine, for that matter!)

2 hrs - 46th place out 150 and more importantly, healthy, happy knees!  It's now time to pick the pace up as I continue preparing my body for IRONMAN Boulder on August 3rd, 2014.

Other successes:

• While my pace started out a bit too fast, as I tend to do, I maintained a slightly increased pace throughout the race averaging slightly above 9min miles for the first half and slightly below 9 min miles for the second half
• I maintained a cadence of 180 the entire race.  This has been a big area of focus for injury prevention in terms of consistently maintaining a fast turnover.
• Newton Motion IIIs have been a great training partner and worked well for this race.  Looking forward to more mileage on them and racing in my Newton Distance Elite later in the year. #hellobetter

Take a look at my data here.

http://tpks.ws/heZ8