Ran the decker challenge marathon on Dec 08, 2013. This race is considered the most hilly race in Austin with first half consisting of rolling hills, a long steep hill at mile 8 and the decker mountain challenge 0.5 hill at mile 9 with 8-10% gradient. This is then followed by mostly flat unto mile 12 and moderate uphill (2-3% gradient) one mile to finish line.
On the day of the are we had below freezing temperature of 30F no wind and it remained that way through the end. I wore a long sleeve compression top and a second layer of wicking long sleeve t-shirt, full length compression pants outer and inner of compression layer shorts, running gloves and a thin beanie to cover head and ears. Overall for the race I felt comfortable and probably should have gone with 3/4 compression pants and half sleeve second layer.
I had been running all through 2013 including summer and had completed the run for the water 10 mile race in october for which I had trained with AMD group for 10 weeks. So while I was in good shape I was not sure what to target for the toughest race in Austin !
I did some thing different, I planned for a sub 2-hour time the previous night and made a solid running plan and broke it into parts.
My run plan was to run the first 10K below 55, reach the first big hill at mile 8 by 1:10 and start the decker challenge climb by 1:30. The thought was if I finished the hill challenge at 1:35, i would have to finish the remaining 2.5 miles in 25 mins to finish under two hours.
To stick to my plan I ran with the 1:50 pace group and ran throughout the race with the group of runners in that group. I found a willing pacer who kept pace with me and we kept each other pushing till the end. I found that having a) solid run plan, b) running with a slightly faster pace group, and c) running with runners your pace and keeping them in sight, helped me achieve my goal !
I ended up hitting 10K in 54:14, finished the decker mountain in 1:31, and ended up finishing the race two mins under 2 hours !
On the day of the are we had below freezing temperature of 30F no wind and it remained that way through the end. I wore a long sleeve compression top and a second layer of wicking long sleeve t-shirt, full length compression pants outer and inner of compression layer shorts, running gloves and a thin beanie to cover head and ears. Overall for the race I felt comfortable and probably should have gone with 3/4 compression pants and half sleeve second layer.
I had been running all through 2013 including summer and had completed the run for the water 10 mile race in october for which I had trained with AMD group for 10 weeks. So while I was in good shape I was not sure what to target for the toughest race in Austin !
I did some thing different, I planned for a sub 2-hour time the previous night and made a solid running plan and broke it into parts.
My run plan was to run the first 10K below 55, reach the first big hill at mile 8 by 1:10 and start the decker challenge climb by 1:30. The thought was if I finished the hill challenge at 1:35, i would have to finish the remaining 2.5 miles in 25 mins to finish under two hours.
To stick to my plan I ran with the 1:50 pace group and ran throughout the race with the group of runners in that group. I found a willing pacer who kept pace with me and we kept each other pushing till the end. I found that having a) solid run plan, b) running with a slightly faster pace group, and c) running with runners your pace and keeping them in sight, helped me achieve my goal !
I ended up hitting 10K in 54:14, finished the decker mountain in 1:31, and ended up finishing the race two mins under 2 hours !
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