Guus Bosman

software engineering director


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Cannonball Half Marathon, Greensboro, NC

This morning I ran the Cannonball Half Marathon in Greensboro, NC. It was my first half marathon in 18 months, and given my lack of training while we were traveling earlier this year, I wasn't sure how this would go.

I'm so happy with the result! My time was 2:06, only a few minutes short of my P.R. and I felt great. I really should do this more often.

In fact, I only decided on Thursday to sign up for this race. I hadn't ran since last weekend -- lots of obligations this week made running in the evening impossible -- and I decided to take advantage of this unplanned tapering.

Early in Greensboro

Greensboro is an hour driving due west of Durham, and I got up at 5.00 am to make it to the start line. The race was well organized, and I liked the fact that they had mile markers on every mile. It was great weather for a run -- at the start it was 45 degrees, two hours later about 58 degrees. After the race there was a band playing Blues Brothers music.

Negative splits

I really tried to control my pacing this race. Usually, I start a little too fast in the first two miles, for which I'd pay the price later on. I set myself the goal to finish within 2:15, which is pretty much a 10 minutes per mile, but with the understanding that if I felt strong half-way the race I could speed up. It has been 18 months since my last race, so I didn't want to start too fast.

Theoretically, if I did 10:00 minutes per mile the first 7 miles, I could finish the race in 2:00 hours if I'd speed up to 8:12 minutes/mile in the second half. (Once, I want to be able to get under 2 hours for the half marathon).

The first miles I ran beautifully on schedule: 10 minutes per mile, and I passed the 4 mile marker exactly after 40 minutes. I did feel strong, and 8:12 minutes/mile is a little too ambitious for me (see past results), so I decided to speed up from the fourth mile marker. From the until the 10th mile marker I ran an average of 9:20 minutes/mile. Unfortunately, the last 2 miles were uphill, so I did slow down a little bit at the end. From the 10th mile marker to the finish I ran an average of 9:42 minutes/mile.

I'm quite happy with the result which is only 4 minutes slower than my P.R. from Raleigh's City of Oaks, two years ago. A next time, I can be more ambitious from the start. To break the magic two hour limit, I could for example start at 9:00 minutes/mile, slowing down to 9:20 after mile 7. I did like the negative splits though, perhaps I should switch them around. In any case, running 7 miles in 54 minutes will require quite some training...

The start area around 7.00 am.

The start.

Yours truly, when I just got home.

Comments

Jaap's picture

goed gedaan, gefeliciteerd

Gefeliciteerd!

Hartstikke knap! Gefeliciteerd!

You also look in good shape!!! Well done!!

PS: Also a nice haircut!!

Dank jullie wel! Behoorlijk spierpijn vandaag; we hebben net wandeling gemaakt om het allemaal weer los te laten komen.

Mooie tijd hoor!
Gefeliciteerd!
Je zit nu zo dicht bij de 2 uur grens, die ga je echt nog wel over (of onder :-) ).

Ik ga er voor :)

Hoe gaat het met jou lange afstand fietsen? Ik zag dat je een paar weken geleden een grote race gedaan had?

Die race was niet zo'n prestatie als die van jou, ik hou namelijk helemaal niet van hardlopen. :-)
Mijn doel van 2010 was de 120 km met 3900 hoogtemeters van de Salzkammergut Trophy in Oostenrijk. Ter illustratie: ik zit liever 8,5 uur op de fiets dan 2 uur hardlopen :-)

Haha, nou ik wil niet met je ruilen :)

"unplanned tapering" is niks mis mee :-)
Gefeliciteerd met je tijd, gelukkig is deze spontane actie goed afgelopen, dit in tegenstelling tot Erben Wennemars...
http://www.vimeo.com/15921759

Die zit er helemaal door heen! Mooi interview.

Ik wil graag ooit de marathon lopen, maar dan wel met een flinke voorbereiding.

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