A short race report from P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half Marathon
January 17, 2012
I lined up on Sunday in Tempe for my first race in a long time. I was excited to go out and see where my fitness was at after 8 solid weeks of training from mid November til now.
It was a lonely, but solid effort as I ended up winning the race in 1:02:39, with second place almost 6 minutes behind. Going into the event I wasn’t aware of who my competition might be on race day. It turns out it was a race against the clock. I set out at a pace that I felt was aggressive, yet reasonable. I went through the first mile in 4:49. I never looked back but didn’t hear any foot steps behind me so figured I’d just put the head down and try to keep an eye on my mile splits. I was able to maintain between 4:45-4:50 for the first 10 miles. The pace wasn’t super comfortable. I definitely had to stay focused and keep pushing. But, I was able to keep things going. From ~5-9.5 miles the course gained about ~130ft in elevation. I definitely felt that gradual incline. But, it was accompanied by a nice downhill section from 9.5-12 miles. I split a couple 4:38-4:40 miles during that section and tried to run really hard the last mile as I knew I was on for a good time. Turns out I only managed a 4:55 from 12-13miles. Despite that little blip I was happy with the result.
Writing this a few days later my body is still feeling a little tired. But luckily nothing in particular is very tight or sore. Just some general muscle fatigue.
Here are a couple short articles about my race: The first is an written by the event organizers competitor.com and the second is from Canadian Running Magazine.
As the articles indicate I will be racing the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon on Sunday March 4th.
Here is a funny picture of me after crossing the finish line on Sunday (Courtesy of Mario Fraioli of competitor.com)
Looking a little haggard and pondering something
Comments
9 Responses to “A short race report from P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half Marathon”
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Congrats Dylan!
Nicely done Dylan! I like the way all the volunteers are looking at you but then again there aren’t any other runners in sight to look at. What is with the sedate demeanour when crossing the finish line? I want to see that CIM finish line fist pump and yell!
Hey Dylan,
Great solo effort! Can’t wait for you to nail the standard in Japan!
Dylan – nice to see you are still pushing it. I am hopeful for great things on March 4. Always pulling for you! Keep up the effort, it’s coming!
Why the distraught look? You must feel like you embarrassed the field.
If I’m not mistaken I think it’s the look of;
“Game On”
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[...] it is. I was prepared to run alone. I wanted to run hard. I really got up for this race.” Wykes Race Report – race report from P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half [...]
Dylan – great race. March 4 is going to be a good one. Best of luck.