After taking a break from racing through the winter, it was nice to get back to it and kick off another year of racing with the Rock CF Half Marathon. This year the race fell on March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day. I had been aware of that but wasn’t thinking about it when I planned what to wear for the race. Plenty of other people DID think about it, so there were some festive outfits to appreciate.

This is the fourth time I’ve run the course and I’ve gotten into a pretty good routine. Each time I’ve run this race I’ve also been in prep mode for the Boston Marathon. It’s a great way to test my fitness a month before the big race. It also means I typically add some extra miles to my day because a long run at this point in my training plan is usually around 16-18 miles. To allow time for some pre-race mileage, I usually arrive almost an hour and a half before the 8am start time.

Part of that early arrival ensures that I will be able to park at the high school and make a 5-minute trek over to the middle school for a bathroom stop, packet pickup, and to drop warm clothes for after the race, then head back to my car.

I was aiming to run three miles before the race and set out with my headlamp and LED vest since it was still dark. The pre-race run helped me feel more secure with my clothing choices for the race since it was in the mid-30s and I was debating between shorts or tights. I warmed up enough after a couple miles to stick with shorts, although a few snow flurries made that seem a little questionable!

I finished warming up 15 minutes before the start of the race and headed to the starting corral where I lined up by the 1:40 pacer. It can be hard to gauge what pace to aim for in a half marathon when I haven’t been training for that pace. I’ve run some faster workouts at my 5K pace and I’ve done some longer runs at marathon pace, but nothing in between. Last year I ran 1:47 in this race when I was battling some tweaky spots and had missed several weeks of long runs. Training has gone smoothly this time around and I’ve felt good about my fitness. 1:40 seemed to be a time I could reasonably aim for since I’ve run a number of past half marathons in that time. I’d start with that goal and see how it played out!

I stuck by the pace group for a mile or so before I fell back a few steps because I didn’t want to go too fast. A slight downhill stretch helped me regain momentum and I found myself back with the pack through around four miles.

The race starts on the east side of the island which provides some nice scenery as the sun rises over the Detroit River.

Snow flurries returned in full force when I was about three miles into the race. Nothing accumulated but flakes blew right toward my face for several minutes. I thought about how I was glad that the bill of my hat provided a little protection and wondered about a couple of guys who chose to wear their hats backwards. Right as that thought crossed my mind, one of them must have had the realization that flipping it around would keep some of the flakes out of his face. When people wonder what I think about since I don’t run with music, these are the kinds of thoughts that run through my mind and keep me occupied!

We spent about a mile cutting from the east side of the island to the west side. There was some wind but fortunately not enough to bother me very much. I got a little impatient grinding through the four miles that seemed to drag on while I was on the west side though. The distance between me and the pace group began to grow by 10-20 seconds. That left me running mostly on my own and thinking about the gap that had formed. To run a 1:40 I figured I should run around a 7:35 pace, and it seemed like I was mostly right around that. I thought maybe the group could be going a little fast and maybe I’d have a burst of speed at the end and catch up. Maybe I’d be a little slower and just accept that I would run whatever I was capable of that day.

As the miles dragged on I kept looking forward to the tenth mile when I knew we’d get to run by the airport. As we approached it I was excited to see that we’d run through the hangar – something we did in the past but not during last year’s race.

It’s a fun and unique experience getting to run past planes in a hangar.

I think the combination of people cheering along the runway plus watching runners going in the opposite direction for an out and back stretch gave me some extra energy. My pace picked up a little bit and that segment ended up being my fastest mile of the race.

From there I knew I “just” had to get through another 5K. I was working hard but was still maintaining a pace somewhere around 7:35. My attempts at doing math told me that I might still be on track to run 1:40.

The course is relatively flat but even minor hills are very apparent when I’m trying to run fast. I knew one of those hills would come near the end which wouldn’t make things any easier, yet I was pushing hard enough that it didn’t make me fall off of my pace and I finished strong.

When I glanced at my watch a minute later I saw 1:39:59. I knew very well that the official time could be different if I hadn’t hit my watch right as I crossed the timing mat at the start or finish. ONE second under 1:40? I hoped that would hold! I actually didn’t confirm that until much later when I was about to leave the gym. I saw an awards table and realized I hadn’t even checked my results yet. No award for me, but 1:39:59 was official!

As is often the case, I ran a little long (a tenth of a mile long) so even though my watch told me I was running an average pace around 7:35, it worked out to be slightly slower for my official time.

I was pretty satisfied when I examined my splits and saw how consistent I had been. In the past I’ve often taken the approach of starting slower and I speed up gradually as I go. I usually end up feeling strong at the end of those races. Sometimes I speed up SO much I wonder if I should have pushed more earlier. Trying to consistently hold a fast pace the entire race usually feels a whole lot harder, yet that’s when I’ve run my fastest races.

Even when I was trailing behind, following the pace group helped me stay steady and resulted in my third sub-1:40 half marathon and third fastest time. I ran my PR on this course in 2022 and was only about a minute off that time. I was definitely happy with these results.

I collected my medal, a bottle of water, and posed for a photo, then headed out for a cool down run. Coming to a sudden stop after such a hard effort often causes me to cough, yet if I start running again, it calms me down. I’m not sure how that makes sense but it works! I ran back out to the road along the river and added an extra mile of distance to reach a total of 17 miles for the day. It was a leisurely run with a number of stops for photos.

I went into the gym to get some post-race treats and saw my friend Lisa right away. We had been hoping to catch up and chatted for quite a while as I enjoyed a cookie and a cinnamon crunch bagel from Panera – yum!

Eventually we parted ways, agreeing to try to meet up again in a couple weeks to catch up more.

It was my fourth time enjoying the Rock CF race experience which is why I continue to sign up for it each year as soon as registration opens. Although it was pretty cold last year and we got a few minutes of snow flurries this year, the race is typically the first post-winter half marathon road race around the area so I always see plenty of friends who are also anxious to get back to longer races. I always seem to question how I intend to run a fast half marathon pace when I haven’t been doing it in training, yet it all seems to come together successfully. The race falls right between my two hardest weeks of Boston training and it’s clear that the high mileage has gotten me in shape. I still need to keep up the hard work and stay healthy for a few more weeks. The results of this race have me feeling confident that I could have a solid race ahead of me in Boston.

– Janet

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