RRCA National Half Marathon Championships

Article courtesy of Jason Pyles Blog: http://runpyles.blogspot.com/

The RRCA National Half Marathon Championships in Parkersburg, WV turned out to be one of the better races I have been too! The excitement level at this race had the feel of a "BIG" out of state national race. With the RRCA title on the line there was 50 elite runners listed in the pre-race newspaper program. As flipping through the insert the night before Marian and I got a huge laugh and surprise when we read this:

"Looking for a West Virginia runner who can place near the top? Try Jason Pyles of Huntington, who has a 1:09 to his credit."

After reading that I was pumped to roll the next morning no matter what the conditions turned out to be like. We tried to relax the entire night after the pasta party and while watching some Olympic Track and Swimming on NBA. We rose the next morning around 4am to fresh brewed coffee(yes we took our own grinder and coffee pot for comfort). I had my pre-race breakfast with the coffee of Oatmeal Square and 32oz. Powerade. We both were very relaxed and excited to run the race so the morning flew by, before we knew it we were loading the elite bus that took us from the hotel to the race start around 7am. We quickly got our race chips and walked right into my dad who had drove up that morning. We sat around and talked until starting our warm up about 40minutes before race start. The 15minute warm ups and stretch followed by the prayer and national anthem went by in a flash and we lined up for the race start at about 7:55.

The start line was very crowded and for fear of getting out too quick I actually took a 2nd row starting spot(I won't get into the numerous 1:20 Master runners on the front line..lol). The 2nd row was really a relaxing thing to know it would force me out behind people I should be behind(Kenyans). The weather at the start was Excellent, nice and cool with humidity not a factor whatsoever!

The actual race started right on time at 8am sharp with the sound of the gun. I was out instantly with the elite woman but within 2minutes of running I had moved into the lead group of about 15 or so runners that consisted mainly of Africans and 5 American men counting myself. The 1st mile was slow for most parts but right where I wanted to be at 5:21 and it was mentally encouraging to have the Africans still right there as they jogged a 5:17 mile. At about 1.5 miles in they started running and it was at this point I watched closely to what the top American men would do. One was gone with the leaders while the other 3 laid back from the move. Over the next 5 miles it was rolling hills with mile 4 actually having a lot of downhill which helped change up what felt like consistent steady up hill running.

The 2nd 5 miles of the race I started to move from 5:20 miles(exception the 5:04 4th mile) into mid 5:15's average while hitting the rolling 10mile mark at 52:54. During that stretch I followed about 5 seconds back of the 4th American Josh Ordway(2:15 Marathon PR) who has been battling back from a injury. The 2nd/3rd American and the $750/$500 bonus where about 20-25 seconds up as well. So I was right in the hunt and feeling good. During the 11th mile I actually started moving up during what was a tough mile and passed a fading Ethiopian and coming to almost Ordways back shoulder at the peak of a bridge crossing with 2nd/3rd Americans coming back into the picture(10 or so seconds). But from the downhill of the bridge into the start of the 11th mile I started for the 1st time to not so much suffer but just start to run out of fuel. I had took a GU(Berry Blast Flavor) at mile 5 and looking back could have used another to kick in around this point. At 11.5 miles into the race with Ordway still right in front of me in striking distance we made a turn and hit the MAJOR HILL of the race. I don't know how long the thing was but it felt like it was half a mile(probably closer to 400 in reality) and I seriously was almost forced to a walk on the steepness of the climb at that point of the race.

The thing was the Americans in front of me were struggling up the hill as well(I'm sure everyone in the race including Kenyans struggled on this hill) but the breaking point of the race for me was when I crested the hill they had started rolling down the backside and I was unable to change gears at that point for the entire downhill into a long flat section. It took about 3minutes before I started to feel my legs make a surprising comeback. But the small gap had now turned into 2nd-4th Americans up 30 or so seconds on me which shows how bad that 3minute breakdown stretch had affected me. But as I hit the 12mile my legs were coming back enough to try and finish strong, in the past mentally if I was broke like that I mailed it in and felt every bit of pain and coasted in, but not today. I started moving again, the problem was 2 of the 3 Americans started moving as well as they were racing each other as well as a couple more Africans that were coming back to all of us. My move during the last mile got me to within 7 seconds of the 4th American and about 20-30 seconds back of 2nd/3rd American and the bonus money. There was a couple struggling Kenyans around that gap in front of me too so I know I was having a good race.

My finishing time of 1:09.53 felt like a effort of about 2 minutes or more faster than when I tempo ran the Huntington Half in the fall at 1:09.28. The most exciting part was as I was finishing to a 3 deep crowded finish line in the last 100m they announced here comes the top WV finisher from Huntington JASON PYLES and I swear the crowd started going crazy...I would give anything for that on tape so I could show others what WV pride is all about!!

Course wise there is not comparison with this thing to Huntington Half it's rolling and hard and even with the cooler day the sun was bright and had me squinting most of the out of town miles. For some comparisons Josh Ordway told me he always comes out of this race able to double his parkersburg half time and add about 2minutes to know what type of flat full marathon shape he is in, I turst a 2:15-17 Marathon on what he says. The 4th american who was 7 seconds up on me was a just graduated NAIA multiple All-American that has ran 1:07 low for a flat half. Then Jaron Hawkins who I always enjoy talking too and ran a AWESOME race to finish 2nd American looks ready to roll under 2:22 at the Marine Corps Marathon in October.

I went into the race wanting to see if my Marathon build was on tract and I came out thinking I'm a head of where I wanted to be. My goal was 1:08 in the race but that was before I ran the course and found out the toughness of it, I'm thinking hard about what the fall plan is now. Akron is from everything I hear from runners too freaking hard to run fast on and now I want to go after something fast. Money is a issue with that, and Akron was going to be entirely free to do, so some serious thinking is got to happen quickly.

I have had many Good Jobs emailed or texted and I want to say Thank You very much to everyone that pass along a word of encouragement to me. Now it's time to Nubound to a quick recovery and get back into 6-8 weeks of hard training before taking a crack at a full Marathon!