Running Down the Dream: Clinton Historic Half

I registered for this June 15 race on June 13. I haven't been doing focused training but I've been running 60-70 mpw with mostly 16 mile long runs and a variety of workouts, so I am reasonably prepared to jump into any race shorter than a marathon at any time. I ran the Clinton Half previously in April 2021, then in 2022 it moved to June and I had far less interest in going back but I kept an eye on the winning times, which were 1:40-1:50 (I won in 1:24 in 2021, with 2nd running 1:25, and our times were far faster than years prior to that). I'm no longer capable of running the times I used to, but I was confident I could run in the 1:30s even in 80*, so I figured I'd give it a go and hope no one faster showed up.

But, I guess the years I run this race is when faster people show up . I saw a woman from the Kansas City Smoke team on the starting line, and although I finished a smidge ahead of her the last time we raced at the 2022 Plaza 10k and outkicked her barely in the 2017 Wash U Distance Carnival 10,000 m I am not at the same pace as I was then and figured she was probably at least as fast if not faster, being in her 20s. I also heard her talking to people on the starting line about running under 1:25, and in ideal weather I think 1:28-1:29 would be the best I'd do right now, so I knew I wouldn't win unless things went very poorly for her. The main thing this changed for me was how hard I was going to run the race. I'd have been happy doing the least I could to win if second was running 1:40+; after seeing her I knew I needed to race it all out just in case the heat really got to her.

But also I was tentative after how much the heat at Frisco got to me, though I've been feeling better every week in the heat and got in some serious heat and humidity training on our Gulf Shores vacation. I hoped that running based on effort would work for me in this race - it generally does but not always when it is hot. From the start, the woman I expected would be ahead of me went out fast, then there was another woman just ahead of me running with two men. I caught up to them between miles 1-2 and the pace they'd settled into felt about right to me, so I joined them. This is not a large race so having others to run with was nice and not something I took for granted! The woman dropped back by mile 4, and but I stayed with the two men for most of the race. They were 18 and 24 so I really felt like an old lady! They were pretty talkative and the miles flew by. The effort felt right and I hoped I could stay with them through the race.

Early group/I saw the photographer

Around mile 8 the course does an out-and-back on the Katy Trail. I checked my elapsed time when the first woman passed us going out on her way back and again when we hit the turn around. She had nearly a 5 minute lead on me, and soon after I learned that I also had about a 5 minute lead on the third woman, so it didn't seem like any places would be changing in the final 5 miles. I had no idea what pace I was running but I thought it was the right one, which may have very well been 7:30 in that weather, so when I later saw I'd been running high-6:50s to 7:0Xs I felt okay about it.

Part of the ~2 miles on the Katy Trail

Throughout the race, the two men I was running with gapped me on every hill we went up and then I'd gradually pull back up with them after it was over. Since having the flu in March my power on hills has been even worse than normal! In mile 10 they gapped me on a long incline and knowing what I knew about my position in the women's field I got wimpy for a couple of minutes and eased off (when I looked at my splits post-race I wasn't surprised to see a 7:15 for that one). But then I decided I needed to toughen up and got back to where I'd been for mile 11 (7:06). I could tell the gap between me and the men was staying about the same, though they were starting to slightly separate from each other.

During the last 2 miles I was closing the gap and felt like I was running well, but somehow mile 12 was 7:34. I don't know if I was overheating or what. My HR shot up during mile 11 but dropped back down with the slower mile 12 that didn't feel any slower. I pulled up with the closest man right around the mile 12 sign and encouraged him to come with me. He told me he was dying and I said, "It's okay, everyone is dying at this point!"

I then caught and passed the other man with about a half mile to go. I ended up running a 6:59 final mile, which surprised me when I looked at the splits because I wouldn't have expected that I could bring it back down to faster than my average after I fell off so much in mile 12, and because there was a lot of uphill towards the end. Some of the climbing might have been after the mile 13 split, but I messed up my split for the last bit because I put my warm up, race, and cool down all on one run and forgot to hit lap at the finish. I also didn't know my finishing time even approximately because the clock wasn't working when I crossed. I pulled up the race website to find it was 1:34:12. Strava told me I averaged 7:05 pace for a half marathon and per the (not certified) course I averaged 7:11. The first woman ran 1:28. I was a very comfortable 2nd overall female and 1st masters female. I was reminded that I handle the heat significantly better after I adapt, even though I run slower in it and certainly do not prefer it.

I really didn't have any time expectations for this one except for "in the 1:30s", but I think it went about as well as it could have based on my current state and that it was 85* when we finished. When I added this race to my list of lifetime half marathons, I saw I hadn't run 1:34+ since 2014, but I am getting better at not comparing myself to my previous self because it wasn't as depressing as it would have been last season. I have realized that age-related decline is pretty individualized. Some people my age seem to be running better than ever, and other people haven't PRed since their early 30s. I am trying to be thankful that I ran really well until about 41.5 instead of being upset that I'm not running nearly as well at 43.5. I do enjoy it all just as much - so there's something!

I hadn't raced a half since spring 2022 somehow (!!!), which may be the longest I've ever gone between them since my first in 2002. I've done several obscure distances (20k, 25k, 30k) and of course marathons and ultras during that time. The thing about the half is that you get plenty of runners high without as much wear and tear on the body. Now I can't wait to run another!