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Pasadena Half Marathon Race Report

I swear, this one is actually going to be relatively short.

I signed up for this half marathon knowing that I was not fully recovered from Wildflower and that I definitely wasn’t trained to set any speed records in a road half marathon. But since it had been over four years since I raced a half marathon, I wanted to see what I could do today and set a benchmark time for the near future.

I got out to Pasadena at about 5:15 for a 6:30 start. The morning was a little chaotic because, despite the fact that I’d paid extra for race-day packet pick-up, my packet wasn’t there. That meant I had to wait until right before the race to get a no-show’s bib and timing chip. It was a bit of a hassle, but the race director, Israel, and his staff, handled it well. I got my timing chip and bib at about 6:25, quickly put the chip on my shoe, decided I didn’t have time to pin my bib on and started weaving my way through the crowd to get close to front.

As I was making my way through the crowd, I ran into Kate Freeman, who told me that she was going for sub-1:30 (= running 6:50/mile or so). I figured I’d tag along with her for as long as I could, knowing that with her recent 3:11 at the LA Marathon, she might be dropping me before too long.

Running with Kate was great and we ticked off the miles, running pretty uneven splits, from low-6’s to high-6’s. The course has a couple “big-for-road-racing” climbs, but we cruised up each of them. Running through Pasadena makes for some nice scenery, but this time, instead of enjoying the sights, I pretty much kept my eyes on the road and concentrated on running. It started raining just after the race began and continued a steady drizzle/rain for the entire race. Except for making my shorts a little water-logged and heavy, the rain didn’t bother me at all. I ran in my K-Swiss K-Ruuz and they held up great, both for the distance and in the rain. They didn’t hold much water and never felt particularly heavy.

I felt strong through about 10 miles (the end of the last climb) but struggled to find my kick for the final 5k. The last 2 miles are a long, steady descent and even though I ran the final 5k in 20:14 (~6:31 pace), it could have been a time to really drop the hammer, which Kate did, finally dropping me to finish a bit ahead of me.

In the end, my official time was 1:29:05, good enough for 36th overall, 33rd man, 7th in my age group and most importantly, a 2:50 PR. It felt good to run hard and push the pace. I am excited to have gone sub-1:30 and am confident that this leaves me room for improvement! (It also gave me renewed appreciation for how hard it is to go sub-3 in a marathon. Running at that pace for another 13.1 seems crazy!)

As for my thoughts about the race itself, the course is fair, with some good climbs and descents and nice scenery. The online course profile makes it look like there’s a steady two mile climb from miles eight to ten. In reality, there was a steep, probably 1/2 mile climb starting around mile 8 and then only a slight grade for the next 1.5 miles. The final two miles are a fast descent. The race start and finish were smooth and well organized. My only complaint with the race was that the mile markers were a little inconsistent. I got used to not having them in trail races, but in a road race where splits really count, I was hoping for a conspicuous marker at every mile. I might have missed a couple, but I’d estimate they only had them about at 50% of the miles.

Official time: 1:29:05
Pace: 6:48/mile
Overall: 36/2,450
Men: 33/1,048
Age Group (35-39): 7/181