Rock 'n' Roll San Jose Half Marathon

 After 6-7 weeks of training in California including ramping up the mileage a bit, it was time to get in a longer race. I was definitely fit by this point, and a longer race would serve well as good fitness tester ahead of the final stretch of work pre marathon. With really limited competitive races in the Los Angeles area, this was a time I opted to head to the Bay Area for a race. This would be 2 of 3 trips I'd make this fall for Bay Area racing. 

The Giant 10K and the upcoming Berkeley Half are nothing special, but the competition at Rock 'n' Roll San Jose was excellent. I had long known of the rock n roll race series, but this was my first one. I think that's mainly because they don't have many (or any) events in the Northeast and there's already plenty of competitive alternative races in the area. In the West, there's a lot more Rock 'n' Roll events and a lot less alternative competitive races. That combined with getting a free entry despite being slightly slower than their standard made it an easy decision to go for this one. I hadn't run a half marathon since Pittsburgh and at this point had over 2 months of training under my belt, so it was a key race. That being said, while I knew I should be fit it was hard to known exactly where I'd be at. I set a range of 1:09:59-1:11:59 and would be happy with anything in there. Essentially going for A goal- sub 1:10, B goal- sub 1:11, C goal- sub 1:12. The course is very flat, around 200' elevation total but has quite a few turns. Overall still probably runs at least 30s faster, if not more than Philadelphia/Pittsburgh. I'd also have the advantage of racing in a full carbon fiber shoe for the first time, whereas I had been using the NB supercomp pacer (essentially a carbon fiber flat) for the past year. With a marathon coming up, it felt like a good time to get a better shoe. Goal wise, I thought if I was in phenomenal shape and executed the best race of my life then I could get the sub-1:10. I thought if I was in good shape but not quite there yet or felt a bit fatigued, then I could run just under sub-5:30 and that would be a pretty good result with 9-10 weeks until the marathon and not having tapered. Really a PR (1:11:18) would be a great run for me. I basically went in with the goal of breaking 1:12 but secretly wanting to run like 1:09:30. 

I actually felt very fatigued leading up into the race, getting heavy legs halfway into every run and feeling quite tired by the end. Just part of training harder, but I was surprised when it carried all the way to the day before the race and I just had to hope for the best. UPS totally dropped the ball delivering my new shoes, which had not come in on Friday, two days before the race. I ended up conducting a long internet search to see if any running stores had any carbon fiber shoes in stock in my size (basically none did). I ended up having to drive into Los Angeles and pick up from a New Balance. Got super lucky there. I tested out my new Supercomp Elite which felt kind of weird with the huge stack height. 

The day before, I made the drive North. Not terrible at 5 hours but not nothing either. That being said, this was much better than driving to LAX and flying, then taking public transit. I'm finding it's easier to drive in the big CA cities than East Coast, plus way more parking. Got in a 5 mile pre-meet at a very nice bike path in Morgan Hill. Ran 6:40 pace feeling effortless but still quite heavy unfortunately. Then took the VTA (San Jose light rail) into downtown. Really nice system, clean and free parking at all lots. Picked up my stuff quickly and headed back out. Stayed a pretty nice hotel in the Hilton Garden Inn Cupertino. Very nice city, and very reasonable hotel rate at around $130. Only complaint was getting woken up at 2am by the neighbors having very loud conversations. 

Always feels great to have an elite bib, even though I am quite far from elite

They've really scaled back, but likely I'll do at least one more next year

Up at 5AM for an 8AM start. In theory, the earlier starts should be getting harder for me as I wake up anywhere from 7-9am now with the night classes, but felt totally fine today. Typical pre race breakfast of oatmeal and a bar. Had to make it quick as I drove back to the public transit lot. My goal was to take the 6:45AM train which would get me to the start at 6:55AM having already warmed up. You never know what the lines are going to look like, so better to have extra time than not enough. I got to the lot at 6:15AM thinking I had plenty of time. Having run in the warm weather of SoCal, 55 degrees (perfect for racing) felt a bit chilly as I hadn't thought to bring a long sleeve. I ran dark loops around the parking lot, but felt great. The leg fatigue from the past week wasn't there and I felt ready to go. I was having to pee every few minutes from being well hydrated. Then suddenly I had to go No 2. Shuffled over to the port-a-potties on the other side of the lots which were locked up. Very nearly had a complete disaster (almost pooped pants) but was able to make it work. I'll spare the details because it was pretty gross. 

I went to get the remaining miles. Ran to the parking lot on the other side of the train tracks for some variety until some homeless guy was running around and screaming. I think I was shooting for 2.5 but at 2.2 I realized with the bathroom debacle, I didn't have all that much and I didn't have much stuff ready to go. I scrambled back to the car and tried to get all my stuff ready. I had 4 minutes or so to spare, but as the train was coming I realized I forgot my bodyglide and sprinted to the car and back to get it. Train was there when I got back. 

Much less stressful going into the actual race. Pleasantly surprised to get to downtown San Jose and see zero bathroom or bag check lines. I spent a while in the bathroom then just sat around a bit, feeling kind of cold in my short sleeves. With 20 minutes to go, I changed into race gear, checked my bag and went pee a final time (now short lines). I did a brief second warm-up with some strides and headed over to the start line. Now with less than 10 minutes to go, the bathroom lines were too long and I had to pee again. Oh well. Better to have to pee during race than to be dehydrated. Went into the elite corral which wasn't enforced at all and I think some non-elites snuck in, but fortunately easy to get into. Went close to the back and there were some fast runners here and I didn't want to go out too hard like Pittsburgh. 

A few race announcements and we were off. I truly eased off the line, which I did not do at Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. I ran with the people I started around for the first few turns, only to look at my watch and see 5:45 pace. Okay, that's not good. This pace felt very easy so it's a bit disappointing to have to get back on track so early. I slowly accelerated, passing a bunch of people until my watch read 5:20s. I ended up hitting the mile in 5:19 (5:15 on the clock) so I may have overdone it. Ran with the lead women for a brief bit before passing her. The race was kind of a blur through 4 miles. While I picked it up to get back in the 5:20/just under range, it felt quite smooth and comfortable. I pretty much never workout at this pace as it just feels too intense to hit, so it's always interesting how much easier things are with super shoes and resting up a little bit. Unlike many other big city downtowns, San Jose is pretty unremarkable and boring. There's no huge skyscrapers, iconic sites or historic buildings, it's just kind of a grid. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing as I was able to just focus on racing, but at the same time there were no cool moments like in Philadelphia going through downtown or past historic sites. I ended up passing a handful of people due to my slow start but eventually settled. My only real discomfort was that I had to pee, although this went away soon enough. Mile 2-4 splits via GPS: 5:17, 5:13, 5:12. Okay, so pretty quick and no conservative strategy here. I hadn't intended to get into the low 5:10s but was feeling great at this effort. It was a little scary because I was entering uncharted territory and the wheels could come off at any moment. 5K in 16:23 and 4 Miles right around 21:05-21:10 which funny enough is marginally slower than my PR. I probably had similar if not faster splits at Pittsburgh but totally fell apart and felt awful right after 5K. Philadelphia I paced well but probably 20s slower through 5K. 

Just as I wondering when the pace would fall off, my legs got fairly heavy and I started to struggle a little bit during Mile 5. This is probably where my first signs of fatigue pop up in a half marathon, but this was more concerning given I had gone out hard. Every time I checked my watch I would see 5:20s and think I was fading a bit. But still went through Mile 5 in a 5:15 and in the 26:30s. I was chasing some stragglers falling off their respective packs. I guess that had just been a brief rough patch as I was feeling great again Mile 6. But still a long way to go. Around 5.5 I passed black singlet guy who I'd go back and forth with the rest of the race. The race has a 10K option and I was thinking that would be great to finish up for 10K as I'd have a huge PR coming and not have to worry about struggling the last 7 miles. 

Just before 10K, I went under a tunnel and my GPS was showing 4:40 pace so I knew this mile split would be a little off- 5:06. There was a small bump of a hill that I surged up and past another guy. I took my gel and tried to take it slowly. Went down pretty well but by holding an open gel I got some on my fingers so my hands were sticky. We ran past where the San Jose Sharks play, but I didn't notice as this was where the water stop was. The rest of the race was a lollipop using the Alameda- a divided 6 lane road with a short loop to turnaround. I looked at my watch at the 10K split and saw 32:57- a full 40s faster than that split at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, plus an outright 26 second PR for the distance. I knew I was on track for a great run, but with 7 miles to go I didn't want to get cocky. 

I felt strong for the rest of the Alameda before turning into some quieter neighborhood roads. I noted a rough halfway split of 34:30, putting me right on 69:00 pace. I knew there was probably going to be some kind of fade, but if I held on enough this could be the sub-70 half. 5:16, 5:19 for miles 7 & 8. Just after 8 we went up a slight incline and all of sudden my legs got super heavy and I was running a lot closer to 5:30 pace. I had a few moments like this earlier on, so I tried to ignore it. Saw CJ Albertson run the opposite direction, he eventually would win the race. We turned onto a busier street and I was passed by a few guys and felt I was totally blowing up. Hit Mile 9 in 5:28, the first sign of decline. I tried to press through as best as I could but my legs were really holding me back. I also started to notice my watch was pretty far ahead of the actual course markers. I was hoping this wouldn't happen, but this would mean extra time I hadn't counted on. Mile 10 in 5:25 which wasn't too bad. I hit the Mile 10 marker in 53:35 which felt good in the fact that I've never run sub-54 for 10 miles before (and 50s or so faster than philly), but the problem was I was fading fast. I had mentally calculated that I would need a 53:20 to be on pace for sub-1:10 and this confirmed that wasn't happening. 

Mile 11 was somewhat back on track in 5:18, but then the return to the Alameda was mentally tough. Physically hurting quite a bit at this point but also having the stress that I had to give it my all to the finish to ensure a PR. Without any turns the road felt endless and the slight uphill of Mile 12 really hurt. I though if I ran close to 5:30 to the finish, I'd be just over 1:10. I was thinking maybe I could dig really deep and try to run 5:10 or faster the last mile to get under. Mile 12 was my slowest at 5:36. The last mile was a slight downhill and I absolutely hammered but could not run any faster than 5:20s at this point with the cumulative fatigue. I was just trying to get to the finish line in one piece. The last mile really went in slow motion as I was suffering. Got to the final few turns and realized my watch was way over the distance. I hit 13 miles on my watch at 1:09:30 or so but wouldn't get to the official marker for another 45 seconds. Only one turn left, except now I'm not sure I'll even break 1:11. Mustered what I had left to get to the line while starting at the finish clock. Went past a guy who totally packed it in and didn't even try to fight me to the line and crossed in just under 1:11. 5:28 final mile. Even the last .2 on my watch I couldn't run any faster than 5:20 pace. 

I was actually a little disappointed to cross the line because I thought I had a chance at sub 1:10 for much of the race and then barely broke 1:11. I ran 8 excellent miles, well ahead of where I was running for my PR at Philly last year, then struggled home the last 5 and added a lot of time. 1:10:51 official, so it still got me a 27 second PR and beat both the B and C goal so I'm still pretty happy with it. But shot for the moon and came up a bit short. I was about 45 seconds ahead of Philly at 10M, but only beat Philly by 27s. So giving up 18s in that last 5K right there. I finished 35th place, so this was a deep field. Full results here. Technically I ran 1:10:48 on chip time but unfortunately only the gun time is listed so I don't have any proof. Frustrating but it's only a few seconds. I know this was the time because my watch had me at 1:10:49, I know I lined up pretty far back from the start and the photos page show my time as 1:10:48. 

Here are some split comparisons below between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Jose (some splits estimated):

Given I had a full training block under my belt and full taper at Philadelphia, I think this does demonstrate superior and improving fitness. I had a C goal of sub 1:12 because I didn't necessarily know where my fitness was but I'm very far ahead of October 1, 2022. I literally ran a 1:15:10 in October 2022. I think given the hills of Philadelphia and the fact that my shoes are a little better now, that Philadelphia was probably a slightly better run. I just happened to pace Philadelphia really well for where my fitness was and I went out a touch too hard here which ended up hurting me. 

Overall though this was a good, maybe even great run. I think sub-1:10 is right around the corner especially if I give it a full taper/block. I think I could run this same race again in late November with a taper in around 1:09:30. I probably won't see that time until next year though as my next half will be quite hilly. 

Watch distance ended up being 13.3 so I got a ton of extra distance. I almost certainly was not on pace for 1:09:00 at half, but estimated the half way point to be earlier than it was. That's a lot of extra distance/time as my watch calculated my half marathon to be just under 1:10. Of course running extra distance is just part of road racing, but .2 miles is a frustratingly high amount. Only way to avoid this I guess is specifically picking courses with few turns. 

I was destroyed after this race. I think with my previous halfs for Detroit I packed it in a bit, and then Philadelphia/Pittsburgh I had the advantage of a full taper. San Jose I truly went to the well and pushed probably a lot harder through a blow up and it really messed up my legs as I was sore for the entire week. 

As for the event, I really liked this one. Basically no lines and quite easy to get around race morning. The entire set up was quite professional, and the field was absolutely loaded for an event that isn't super well known. Generally going back to each major half, I can pick out a major problem with each one and that's not the case here. Possibly the best overall organized half marathon I've done. And I got free entry, despite only placing 35th. Free entry into a large and competitive half is a nice treat, but especially so when I'm nowhere near the top 10. This was a good fitness check and race before a long training block, and definitely looking to race some more Rock n Roll races while I'm on the West Coast for another year. Likely looking at Las Vegas next February for the next one.