Perfect day for a race. Cool, sunny and with gorgeous views. I had a great long run last weekend and a great taper. Too bad this race turned into a total train wreck for me. Yes I finished (whoohoo) my first half marathon since I ruptured my Achilles tendon last year, so I need to hang on to that.
Course Map
But I really struggled through most of the race. The interesting thing is that my legs and body were strong the entire race, but after mile 4-5 or so I started having trouble catching my breath. By the end I could not even take a full deep breath without pain and that continued for over an hour after the race was over. Did I go out too fast in the beginning with cooler air? I just can’t explain it. Oh well, I have another half marathon in 2 weeks, so I better figure out what went wrong!
My 10K time was 1:00, so that was a 9:39 pace and like I said.. my body felt strong. Considering my 11 mile long run last weekend I chatted the entire way and did that at a 9:50 pace I can’t explain today. I ended up finishing in 2:23, which is a 10:49 pace. Near the end all I could think of was to finish and I very nearly ended up stopping at one of the medical tents when I started coughing and could not stop.
Pace
As you can see here things started to go badly at about the 36 minute mark in the race. As the race continued you can see where I was forced to walk to catch my breath and eventually was run/walking toward the finish.
Update: I went and saw my doctor and he diagnosed me with activity induced asthma. He gave me an inhaler which I now take before my runs. It makes an amazing difference! If you go back over some of my running entries in the past you will see that I prophetically say a few times that I felt like an 80 year old asthmatic when it gets humid or the air is cold. Now I know that wasn’t normal bad air difficulty but a mild form of asthma.
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