Last Sunday I ran the Timberline Trail Half Marathon, which actually turned out to be a 14 mile race around Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. The day before I told my wife that I actually regretted signing up for this race. I’m really training for the Portland Marathon right now, and while coach gave me the go-ahead to do the race, as it got closer I started getting the feeling that I might need to hold back and not actually “race” the race, due to needing to hold back for the marathon. Fortunately coach told me to race it. “Warm up gradually during the 1st mile or so” he said, “and then press on the gas and push the effort steadily throughout.” Still, in some ways I regretted signing up, if only because I can drive up to Timothy Lake any time I want and run around it, without paying someone $50 for the pleasure.

Saturday night as I was preparing for the race I took a look at last year’s results. The winning time for the men was 1:18:28. The winner of the 30-34 age group ran a 1:22:40. I figured I should be shooting for 1:50, but if I was on a really good day, and the terrain wasn’t overly technical, maybe I could push towards that 1:40 mark. Whatever the case, I knew I’d be driving home without any new hardware.

Sunday morning I was up at 5am and cooking breakfast. Due to some recently discovered food sensitivities my diet has changed a lot over the past few weeks (that is for another post) so breakfast was three eggs scrambled and cooked in EVOO, and a Hammer Bar. I don’t know if the Hammer Bar was completely necessary, but I felt it was wise to “top off my glycogen stores.” I think I might actually be allergic to something in the Hammer Bars. Then again, it seems I’m allergic to almost everything! Anyway, with breakfast taken care of I got my running gear on, checked that I had all my gear for about the fifth time, and headed out.

I arrived at the race start right before 8am. This was a full 90 minutes before the race started. Parking for this race is along a road – so get there early or face a mile or two round trip between your car and the start/packet pickup. I just hung out in my car, reading some magazines until it was time to get ready. I went through the usual debate about what to wear – it was pretty cold, but expected to warm up, and I planned on a tank top. I saw others walking around with their numbers pinned on long sleeved shirts. I started to worry that they had done this before and knew something I didn’t. In the end I convinced myself that as soon as the sun made it over the trees it would warm up quickly. It was the right decision.

After a last porto stop I tried to get out and warm up a bit, only to realize I was going to miss the pre-race briefing. I made it back to catch the important parts, like how to navigate the course and how it was marked, and where the aid stations were. And with that I lined up for the time trial start. I crossed the timing mats around 7 minutes after the first runner left.

My plan was to follow my coach’s instructions: start out easy to warm up, slowly ramp up the pace, and overall try to run the second half of the race faster than the first. I took off pretty easy, although harder than I would start a normal run. There were people in front of me, and I figured I should just stay behind them for a while. A few people came flying past within about the first half mile breathing very hard. I figured I’d see them again later, and I did. I had my GPS set to take splits every mile. Between monitoring my HR and how fast I covered each mile I could get a good idea of my intensity, and knowing how much distance I had covered allowed me to know when to bring the pace up.

The first four miles were pretty steady. I ran them in 8:46, 8:25, 8:23, and 8:18. After four miles I definitely still felt great, and began increasing the intensity/pace a bit. Miles 5, 6, and 7 were at 7:40, 7:46, and 7:26. I definitely wasn’t in any hurry to ramp the pace up. I played it very conservatively so I could save my energy for the final few miles. While my heart rate continued to climb as I continued, my pace more or less flattened out at this point. Miles 8, 9, and 10 were at 7:30, 7:27, and 7:38. Mile 11 was a bit slower. This seemed to be one of the more technical sections of the course – a lot of up and back down, and a lot of rocks to watch out for. I ran this in 8:03.

At this point I was still able to do math, and knew that since I had covered 11 miles, there was only 2.1 left in the half marathon. Time to really ramp the pace up and finish strong! I covered mile 12 in 7:35 – right around the fastest pace I’d been able to run so far, and quite a bit faster than the last mile. Mile 13 brought some obstacles though – the trail went down steeply through a very rocky area, requiring me to more or less slow to a walk. And then it went straight back up the other side. And then there was another steep drop down with a steep climb back up. This time the uphill was a real struggle to get up, and slowed me down a lot. Mile 13 was done in 8:02.

Once at the top of the climb I started running really hard. The race was almost done! Of course, it turned out that this half marathon had 14 miles. I kept running hard, and kept not seeing any sign of the finish. I began to worry that I missed a turn, but was confident that I was on the same trail we used to get to the lake. After covering another mile, in 7:13, I finally arrived at the finish! The run took me 1:50:28 all together. Compared to the winning times from last year, it seemed I had no hope of placing. They were already preparing to hand out the awards to the overall winners shortly after I came in.

I got some water and went back to my car to stretch and get cleaned up. After that I figured I would take my homemade granola with rice milk up to the finish and watch some of the other racers come in. As I’m standing there eating the announcer states that they will be mailing the age group awards out. So, I thought, even if I managed to place, I won’t get my award today. Then the announcer asks if Anthony McCray is in the crowd. Hey, I’m Anthony McCray! I raise my hand and make my way over to him and hear him say something about the overall winner. Then he handed me this:

I asked him if he was kidding. Did I really win this, or did they make a mistake? And where were all the fast runners? Last years winning time was 1:18, and this year I won with a 1:50? Something didn’t make sense. I decided I had to verify that I really won before I headed home with the award. I found where the results were posted and there it was, my name at the top of the list. A little while later I heard the explanation: the out and back we ran this year wasn’t part of last year’s course. So, it turns out, this years course was close to three miles longer than last years, depending on who’s GPS you believe. That makes a pretty big difference!

What a day this turned out to be. I went from wishing I hadn’t registered on Saturday to winning the race on Sunday. Looking back at the results, this was about the closest I have come to executing the perfect race. I did negative split (the first 7 miles took 51.4% of my total time). My HR increased almost linearly throughout the race. I started out very easy and patient, and had plenty left in the tank to really crank it up in the end. And with that approach the result took care of itself. This experience really makes me realize what it means to be patient in the beginning of a race, and what is possible when you actually do start slow and have energy left to finish strong.  I never though I’d win a running race! And on I day when I had no expectations of my performance and no pressure, that is exactly what I did.

Here is the race course:


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