Mercer Half Report

It's been a couple of weeks now, but I suppose I should jot down my Mercer Island 1/2 Marathon experience. The morning started off extremely early for me at 4 am. I had a tough time sleeping because Joy was home from California and we were up late, I had some race jitters, and the dog was annoying all night. I got up and made my typical cup of coffee and bowl of oatmeal for race morning. Took care of some e-mails, browsed the internet for some Wildflower Tri info, and then got my stuff ready. I gave Joy a kiss and hit the road to get to Mercer Island by 7:00 am. I realized the night before that I hadn't picked up my race packet, so I had to get there early for a race packet and a convenient parking spot. Rain was falling pretty steady all morning with temperatures dipping into what seemed to be the low "you gotta be kidding me" temperatures.

My hydration plan was pretty simple. Drink all you can until 1 hour before the race and then stop. Five minutes prior to race, rehydrate with a couple of sips. Everything went well until about 45 minutes before the race when I realized I was still drinking a cup of coffee and sipping my water. Oh, well, I figured that would be plenty of time to flush the bladder. I downed a powerbar 45 minutes before the race to get myself some additional reserve.

We did a quick warm up with the team that included a slow jaunt to near the start and then a few intervals to get the lungs opened up and the blood flowing into the legs. It felt good. Still raining. As I made my way to the start line and saw we had about 10 minutes, I figured I'd go empty the ol' bladder since it was feeling the need. The lines were ridiculous, so I opted out and figure it'd be fine. As the start got closer, the urge got greater, but I held my ground.

The gun went off and the crowd was anxious. Some really fast folks were right up front and they were gone in an instant. I held back to make sure an stick with my race strategy. The first half of the race would be at heart rate (HR) 160 and the second half I would allow things to go as fast as I felt I could maintain. I was doing well, but getting passed regularly by every shape, size, and breathing style you could imagine. I knew that I would meet some of the on the second half. I was drinking small sips of water with carbo pro and I found that my stomach was not agreeable to anything, so I stopped drinking anything at about mile 5 to avoid the cramping feeling. That worked well. I figured this would be ok given that the race was going to be over within an hour.

I got to mile 6 and figured that I'd kick things up a notch even though I wasn't quite to the half way point. Amazing what 12 bpm on the HR will get you on the second half. I was running at about 172 most of the time and started passing people pretty regularly. That continued until I started getting to the folks that were running close to my pace and I needed to pick things up a notch to pull anyone in. That was at about 11 miles. My legs were feeling pretty darn tired and I was having those questioning conversations in my head. I only need to hold on for another 15 minutes and then it was bananas and coffee baby.

The last hill before the straight away was where I slowed down knowing that I had a good straight shot to the finish. What I didn't know is that it was on a great downgrade that I would need to run all out to maintain my position. The absolute toughest finish ever. As I got closer to the finish I saw Michael and Stephen on the side and I started to coast to the finish - WAIT - that wasn't the finish, it was the corner before the finish. Ugh...I started to ramp things back up, but couldn't quite muster another sprint. The race was gorgeous and I was happy to have PR'd unexpecantly. I hadn't trained for this race and I expected to land in the upper 130s or lower 140s for this race. Instead, I finished in 1:31:54 and I didn't feel completely spent. Sure would be nice to shave off those other 2 minutes :) Maybe next year.

We've got a great team and everyone out there did a great solid effort for the race. JFT2 had a terrific showing and all of the PRs for the day indicate that Jill has us on the right track.

This website is dedicated to the sport of triathlon, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Jill Fry is a triathlon coach and an athlete who competes in triathlons ranging from Sprint Distance to Ironman. Jill and many of her athletes and friends have also formed a team, Team JFT². Information on Jill's coaching services can be found under Coaching Services & Info. On this site you will also find a large number of personal race reports, as well as event reports, with many event-specific photos.