Phoenix Half Marathon

10th mile of the PHX Half Marathon

 I kept my Arizona win streak going by winning the Phoenix Half Marathon this weekend (1:07:00). Last year I won the marathon here. And on Thanksgiving I won the Mesa Turkey Trot 10K. Maybe I just need to always race in Arizona?

Fast Running Blog Recap

The weather was decent considering we were expecting much worse. There was some rain in the early miles and a bit of a noticeable headwind, but the major storm forecast was greatly exaggerated. The heavy rain actually came down later on Saturday evening... good timing! In some ways the overcast skies were nice (cooler!).

My plan was to run for the win and not worry too much about the time once we knew the weather forecast was looking a little crazy.

Jesse Armijo and I ran the first mile together, then he took the lead and put a small gap on me. For the first 7 miles, I was between 15-25 meters off his lead. It didn't seem like there was anyone putting pressure on from behind us. I kept thinking to myself "make a move at 10" like I did in the PF Chang's 1/2 last year. I started reeling him during the 8th mile and sensed an opportunity to put in a surge and take the lead just before the 9 mile mark. I ran the 10th mile pretty hard to open up a gap, then I had a big enough lead to back off a little the rest of the way. I ended up winning by a comfortable 52 seconds.

Andrea and my parents were out on the course in 5-6 different spots providing encouragement. They are awesome!

The time doesn't really reflect a big improvement since January, but I can tell I'm getting in shape now. The major positive "take home" was that around the halfway point of the race, I knew I wasn't settling for second place. I was thinking about the best strategy for how to win the race, and knew I was going to win the race.

The Phoenix Marathon is somewhat new to the scene, but it has already established itself as one of the best events in the Southwest. The marathon is a great course for Boston Qualifying, and they offer generous prize money to the elite runners in the marathon as well as a $500 bonus for sub 2:20/2:45. The half-marathon only has a few turns and has a slight net drop from start to finish, making it the fastest Olympic Trials qualifying eligible courses out there that I am aware of. Both courses are certified and sanctioned, so you know they are accurate (I've seen people make comments online that the course measured long - they just need to realize that Garmins aren't that accurate).

I've never felt the need to comment about a race t-shirt before, but I feel like I have to say something in this report. The shirt given out by the PHX Marathon this year is definitely the best I've ever gotten at a race. It's fitted and made of some sort of stretchy material that is really cool. That sort of attention to detail is what will help this race continue to grow. I know from speaking to the race directors on many occasions that they are always striving to improve and make the race experience as great as they can.

I'll circle this one on my race calendar for 2015. If I have the OTQ by then, I'd like to run this marathon again. If I don't, then it will be a great spot to go for the OT standard in the half-marathon. Especially since after this year's rainstorm, it is almost guaranteed that this race will have perfect weather for the next 20 years! I'd highly recommend this one as a great spring race destination.

Early miles of the race

Somewhere in the early miles on a rainy morning

With Jesse after the race

Awesome shirts!

Course Map

Phoenix Marathon (Race Report)

On the podium at the Phoenix Marathon

Arizona always treats me well. Six weeks after running 1:05:55 to take second place at the PF Chang's 1/2 Marathon, I came back down to the Valley of the Sun  for the Phoenix Marathon. If you've followed the blog or my training log over the last month, I've been a little banged up and I knew I wasn't ready for an "A+" performance. In the end, though, I was able to pull out the victory - running 2:23:55. I'd definitely highly recommend this race - very well organized and lots of attention to detail. A "runner's" race.

Article from the Arizona Republic:

Here's my race recap, copied and pasted from Fast Running Blog:

My blog has probably read like a whine-fest over the past month, but it hasn't been an exaggeration. I have been feeling "off" since the PF Chang's 1/2. Some minor injuries, consistent (very) elevated resting heart rate, so-so workouts, etc. Andrea (my guardian angel!) asked me a few weeks ago what this race was worth to me, and what I wanted to get out of it. The answer was simple, I wanted to win a marathon in front of my parents this year. Its just something on my running "bucket list" that was very important to me... and I knew this was probably going to be my only shot for a while, as there's a good chance this will be my only marathon this year. So we decided to throw time goals out the window (and I say "we" because this truly was a team effort) and focus on what was my best strategy to win the race and not blow up any of the little nagging injuries. The strategy was to go very conservative from the start, then evaluate at 16-18 miles and decide when to make a break for the tape. I ended up waiting until very late to make a move, but it made for an exciting finish and I was relieved and very happy to have won the race today!

Early miles of the PHX Marathon

The race started nice and slow as we ran down from Usery Park in the dark. A guy in green took the lead after the first mile, but we caught him by mile 2 and it was pretty clear that it was a 3 man race (Riley Cook, Peter Omae, and me). In the first half of the race we basically ran side by side by side, at what I'd consider a comfortable effort. My achilles didn't bother me at all, which was a huge relief.

Dad handing me some Gatorade

Andrea and my Dad were out on the course and they were the best support team ever. My Mom was running the half marathon (my Dad was planning to as well, but he jacked up his hamstring a couple weeks ago). Every 3-4 miles they would hand me a drink bottle and a cold sponge. I'd take a few sips of my drink, then hand the bottle to Peter, who would hand the bottle to Riley. Then we'd pass around the sponge as well. Great way to share germs, but it kept everyone hydrated and cool.

The splits for the first half were: 5:39, 5:19, 5:26, 5:22, 5:45, 5:44, 5:08, 5:24, 5:20, 5:21, 5:25, 5:18, 5:21 and we came through in 1:11:20.

Miles 14-16 were 5:22, 5:24, 5:26. Nothing really changed. Then (if I remember correctly) Riley started to drop back a bit around 16.5 miles, so I tried to increase the pace just a bit when I noticed his shadow slipping away. My right hamstring was feeling weaker than my left, but not as bad as at TOU last fall. Miles 17-18 were 5:22, 5:26 and I got the sense it was down to two. Once Riley fell back, Peter got right in my slipstream and ran a stride behind me for the next 9 miles. I slowed down from 19-20 (5:37, 5:40) to see if he would take the lead, and he didn't take the bait...

Late in the race, around 22.5 miles

Now it was decision time. Normally this is when I would want to throw it down and make it a 10K race / long suffer-fest. But for some reason I wasn't feeling confident in my ability to push it from that far out. If Riley had still been in the mix, with his closing speed, I think I would have had no choice but to lay the hammer down from 5-6 miles out. But against Peter, who seemed to be breathing harder than me, I felt like I might have a stronger kick, so I just kept running around 5:40 pace and waiting to see if he would make a move. Miles 21-25 were 5:39, 5:39, 5:45, 5:41, 5:42. He made a mini-surge at 24.5 but I covered it easily. That being said, these miles were nerve-wracking... I'm not a kicker, and I was starting to worry that I had shot myself in the foot by waiting too long.

Even when we hit mile 25, we just kept running the same pace. I was thinking that it was going to come down to the last couple hundred meters. Then, at ~25.5 miles, Andrea appeared and told me to GO. So that's when I finally picked it up, and I was surprised at how quickly I opened up a huge gap. It was over... 5:18 for the 26th mile and 69 seconds for the last 0.2 with my Dad sprinting along (and nearly keeping up) for a hundred yards! I ended up winning by 45 seconds, which is a lot of time considering we were still locked together at 25.5. My Mom was right there at the finish line (she ran great!) and Andrea/Dad appeared shortly after... I'm so lucky to have them there for me!

Final time was 2:23:55. Peter was second, then Riley and Dave took 3rd-4th. Our Utah crew dominated the race!

Not necessarily the most impressive time, but I'm OK with that. My body held up, and I won the race... accomplishing my 2 primary goals, so no complaints here! I should also add that I was well aware that I had lost 6 races in a row (all 2nd place finishes) since the TOU Marathon, and was very pleased to break that streak.

I'm going to take this upcoming recovery period a lot more seriously than I have in the past. My two big races this spring/summer will be the USA 25K and Half-Marathon Championships in May/June. I have plenty of time to get in really good shape for those races, but I need to "re-build" some of my broken parts first.

With Mom at the finish

My support team!

Top 3 Guys

Peter and I

Utah guys

2013 PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon

I opened up my 2013 campaign running 1:05:55 for a second place finish at the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon yesterday. This was a very good start to the year for me, and a nice indicator that things are right on track, as I'm 6 weeks out from my spring marathon. I only did a slight taper for this race (100 miles this week) and still felt like my legs had some good "pop" - so with another mini-cycle of marathon training and a real taper, I'm feeling very confident about what I can do in March. Here's the press release from Competitor. And he's my race recap, cross-posted from Fast Running Blog...

Pre-Race
My parents dropped me off at the PF Chang's restaurant on Mill Ave in Tempe around 6:30am (that was the staging area for the elite race). Warmed up 3.5 miles including a half-mile at 5:15 pace and some shorter accelerations.

Course
This is a loop course that starts and finishes on the ASU campus, with most of the race up in Scottsdale. The first 10 miles have a gradual uphill gradient, and then you come back down in to Tempe in the last 5K. A very fair course and deceptive due to the gradual elevation gains. I told Andrea beforehand that my ideal pacing would be to hit 10 miles in ~50:30 and then run 15:15 for the last 5K, so I was determined not to go out too fast.

Race
We started right on time at 7:50am. I tried to stay out of trouble as we ran about 150 meters and then made a sharp left turn on to University Ave. I saw my parents around a half-mile into the race and I was in 8th place at that point. I felt like I was jogging at marathon pace yet still hit the first mile in 4:54.





Some guys went out too fast as I suspected, and even though I purposely backed off the pace over the next two miles (4:59, 5:02) I moved up to 5th place by the time we hit 5K (15:27). Glenn Randall was just up ahead but the top three guys were considerably further up. I saw my friends Derek and Allison just as I was passing Glenn around mile #4 (4:58) and then set my sights on the next guy, and caught him by the 5 mile mark (5:10 - noticeably uphill, but it was a good opportunity to move up to 3rd place). Now I knew I was on the podium, but the two guys ahead of me (Scott MacPherson and Danny Mercado) had a big gap. Mile #6 was 4:57 (very encouraging!) and I hit 10K in 31:13 (I love a good palindrome split).

I was down 25 seconds to Danny at this point. He seemed really far off but I just kept telling myself - keep it consistent until 10, and then you never know what might happen. So I just plugged along the gradual uphill for the next 4 miles (5:12, 5:05, 5:05, 5:06) and I could tell that Danny was slowly coming back to me. I felt like I could have thrown in a surge ~9 miles and caught him, but I wanted to wait until mile 10 as planned to make my move. I split 10 miles in 50:33 (although the clock on the road said 50:20, so I thought I had a PR in the bag because of that). Then I made a move on the downhill. I was 8 seconds back from second place at 10 miles, and made up that gap in the next 2 minutes. By 10.5 miles I felt like I already had good gap on Danny. Mile #11 was 4:53. Then I went into "finish this d@mn race and no miles over 5:00!" mode and ran 4:59, 4:55, :34 to close it out in 2nd place, 1:05:55. My last 5K was 15:22. At 12.5 we merged w/ the "mini marathon" (walkers) which made the final stretch a bit of a fiasco. Otherwise, the course was well marked, turns were obvious, and having a bike alongside me for the last ~5 miles was very helpful. Amidst all the people, I did hear my parents yelling for me close to the finish.

Post Race
The first priority after finishing was to find my parents and get them some wristbands for the VIP area, so they could chill out and take advantage of the breakfast buffet while I went out for a cool down. Then we had some breakfast / lunch... lots of free food :-)

Eventually it was time for awards, which RnR makes a big deal. Frank Shorter was there to hand them out!





Most of the athletes on the stage had extensive NCAA All-American / Olympic Trials biographies, so they had no idea what to say about me... the announcer had no clue who I was. That actually made me happy - I beat some very established runners with impressive resumes and credentials that (for now) far exceed mine. I was seeded 8th, so this makes me very confident that I'm on the right track. Fast times are good, but racing well against competition is important too. Its nice when you can do both. I ran a smart race today - I stuck to my plan and almost hit my first 10 mile/ last 5K goal splits right on. Not a PR, but close... anytime you break 1:06 on an honest course you chalk that up as a good day, because its not an easy thing to do.



I always race well down here in Phoenix, and I also tend to race well when my parents are in attendance. So I'm hoping that streak continues in 6 weeks for the marathon!

Top 10 Results (the second place female is 42 years old!)

Arizona Christmas #2 - Peralta Trail Hike

A couple days after Christmas, before my sister headed back to NYC, my family went on a hike to the Fremont Saddle on the Peralta Trail. I've done this hike w/ my parents before, and its one of my favorites in the Phoenix area. A lot of bang for your buck on a 5 mile hike!

Arizona Christmas #1

Christmas morning

Andrea went to Tennessee for the holidays, while I went to Arizona. It couldn't have been a better choice for me, because in addition to spending lots of great time w/ my family, I'm also in the midst of a really hard microcycle of training... so while 90% of the rest of the country is stuck in bad weather, I'm running in perfect conditions every day.

I'll get to my training in part #2 of this post (in a couple days), but first I thought I'd share some photos. In addition to running 20-25 miles per day, somehow there is still time for shooting, hiking, golfing, meat eating, and opening presents. Its been a fun vacation so far and luckily I still have 4+ days left before I go back up to the frozen world in Utah...

Chandler Tumbleweed Tree

Hanging outside by the grill. In December. Yeah!

Sporting clay shooting at the Ben Avery Range

Outdoor X-Mas Eve services

X-Mas day hike at San Tan Mountain Park

My sister's iPad doodle

All the basic food groups: Bison, Boar, Elk, Venison...

...and ice cream!

A little golf