RACE RECAP FOR THE INAUGURAL BATH

The first significant race of my 2014 was the Track Half: 52.5 laps around a 440-yard track, equaling 13.125 miles (about 5-6 seconds longer than a true half marathon). Unlike a road race, I'm going to say the so called “short course prevention factor” of 1/1000^th the race distance – 21.1 meters in the case of a half – really doesn’t apply on the track. The track we used (Duniway) has even been wheeled to confirm it’s a true 440 yards/1320 feet. Because the impetus for this event was a number of mis-measured and mis-managed local half's in recent years that resulted in inaccurate courses and whacky times, the name that stuck was the "Bill Aronson Track Half To Insure Mileage Exactness" - or B.A.T.H. T.I.M.E. (although I think 'insure' should technically be 'ensure', shouldn't it? oh well, it's as good as we could do). Some people said, “Yeah, but not all ideas are good ideas”, which, although true, was not my opinion on this one.

After the injury last summer, and my subsequent lack of base leading into Berlin and the XC season, I ran a road half barely under 6:00 pace in November '13 as a benchmark (78:10). This told me I had a long way to go to shave off over 4 minutes for the sub-74 I thought I was capable of (I'd run low-74's twice on the roads in 2013). There was a lot of work to do.

So I trained my butt off, doing half-specific-training for 7 weeks, with 2 workouts per week, for a total of 58 miles at-or-near HMP, and mileage at 85-90 mpw. I've attached a summary of that training, per chance others might find it useful (I have to say, the track 12k was a KEY workout). I'm self-coached and there's not a lot of science nor complexity behind my workouts, but at my age and general ability, I thought the best approach would be just practicing the goal pace, basically doing a lot of tempo runs at HMP, both while fresh (early week workouts, mostly on the track) and while tired (the final miles of weekend road long runs).

My training went well, including a proper taper, and on race morning I was able to work with others to hit mile splits that ranged from 5:34 to 5:43, with the majority right at 5:36 and 5:37 (74:00 is 5:38.7 pace). I finished in 73:44.8 (about 73:40 if adjusted), which equates to 84.28 per lap and 5:37.1 per mile. I doubt I could have hit my goal running solo. Josh, Tony, and I worked it together through at least 11 miles, trading off every two laps, with each of us only leading 2 laps out of every 6. The laps really went by quickly this way.

In the closing laps, I faded slightly while Tony and Josh upped the tempo off an already strong pace. Tony surged ahead for the win with a strong kick, with Josh on his heels just 5 seconds back. Several others behind us also turned in solid performances, making the inaugural running of this event a great success!

-by Bill Aronson, race organizer