Ross Hauser, Oak Park, Illinois 5th Place In The Men’s 45-49 Age Group,
Disney Half Marathon
Ross A. Hauser
 
I am writing this in the Orlando Airport. Just two days ago, I crossed the finish line at the Disney Half Marathon, my watch saying that my net time was 1:29.52. I was ecstatic, but realistic as I waived to a volunteer to help hold me up to keep me from fainting. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the Disney Half Marathon is one of the top 10 largest half marathons in the United States. Even more shocking was that I finished 80th out of 13,000 people. I finished 5th place in the 45 to 49 men’s age group and would be getting an award! It was all just ‘surreal’ to me.

You see prior to this race the best I had ever finished in any ‘big’ race was the top third. There is a big difference from being in the top 33%, to the top 1%. Going over the race in my head, it shouldn’t have been a real surprise that I did that well. You see I was in corral A, first wave. In other words I was seated in the fastest corral. I started in the middle of the corral so maybe 400 people started ahead of me in the race. It only took me 30 or 40 seconds to cross the starting line when the gun went off. After about ¼ mile, because the pace was so slow because of bottle necking, I went onto the grass and started passing people. Besides two people who passed me, I remember passing people for the next 1 hour 20 minutes. So I must have passed 322 people!

You see I was very well prepared for this race. Just two months ago, I had a meltdown at the Miami Half Ironman. I had projected a sub-five hour finish, but ended up doing 6:03 in the race. In analyzing what went went wrong, my coach Pete Alfino of Mile High Multisports (www.milehighmultisport.com), put it succinctly to me, “Ross you didn’t follow the plan!”. I had basically overtrained by doing my running workouts too fast just prior to the race! He told me on email and over the phone that if I would just follow the plan, my next race, The Disney Half Marathon would be a success. For the next 10 to 11 weeks I did basically exactly what he said. Besides missing a few workouts two weeks before the race because of a cold, I followed the plan. If I followed the plan, my coach felt I would break 1:30 in the half marathon. This was my goal.

While I worked on physical preparation with Pete, I continued to see Gina Orlando, clinical hypnotherapist, to work on (the) my mental outlook.  She has been helping me with the mental side of sport and life.  While I initially was seeing her to help improve my sleep through hypnosis and positive self suggestions and other techniques, we were also working on having me mentally prepared to ‘train and race like a champion’.  She made (many) hypnosis cds for me to listen to and (had scripts) we created positive suggestions, phrases and cue words for me to repeat to myself.  Gina did an awesome job getting me ready mentally. (www.ginaorlando.com)  Even in my previous meltdown race, I was mentally positive and strong throughout it.  Besides sessions of hypnosis, I worked on envisioning me running strong.  When I would think about the race and getting a vision for it, one time kept coming up.  This time came up at least three times I remember.  The time was 1:29.52.  I kid you not!

Pete told me to write down my splits on my arm that I wanted to hit at miles 1,2,3,6,9, and 11. I did that. I wanted to be at 7:10 at one mile, 14:10 at two miles and 21:10 at three miles. To break 1:30 in the half marathon I had to run an average of 6:51 miles for 13.1 miles. So I would start out slower and then speed up.

I don’t use a heart rate monitor during races. In races I do best if I go by feel. I know what breathing difficulty I have to be at to run the race to the best of my ability. In training I often use a heart rate monitor. If my have average heart rate for a race pace workout keeps going down then this tells my coach Pete and I, that my fitness is improving. Honestly for those 10 or 11 weeks, Pete had me training eight to eleven hours. My maximum amount of miles running was 33 in a week. It didn’t seem like enough training to get me to break 1:30. But I kept with the program! Pete had me doing some race pace running, but speed work was minimized. The race pace runs were my speed work. Three weeks to race day, I recruited Arden Swanson to run a 9.5 miler at 6:50 pace. Arden is a spectacular runner who had won his age group in a couple of marathon races this year! I knew he was in the shape to run that pace. He told some Oak Park Runners Club buddies including Pete and Alona to run with us also. We had beautiful running weather that day, temperatures in the 40s. We covered the 9.5 miler in a little over 1:05. This run, gave me a lot of confidence going into Disney.

Let me just say as I write this, I am still in shock as to the outcome of this run. As I stated above, after I crossed the starting mat, the pace was too slow. I went on the grass and started passing people almost immediately but unfortunately, I hit the first mile marker in 8:10, a full one minute slower then my goal time. There just was no place to run. By mile three I was so far behind my goal pace, that I decided to stop looking at the clock. The only thing I could surmise was that the weather, which was mid 60’s but probably 96% humidity, was slowing me down. I was also frustrated that there wasn’t that much room to run and pass people, but after mile 3 it opened up somewhat.

The race to this point was in the pitch black. As I passed mile 3, I made the decision to just stay positive and do the best I could. I figured at this point 1:30 was an impossibility because I was at least 1 minute 10 seconds down to my pace goals, and from mile 6 to 11 I was to run 6:40, so for me to make up time I would even have to run faster than that. I figured because of the high humidity, it just wasn’t going to happen. But again, I stayed relaxed and decided to just have the best race I could for this day. So from miles 3 to 11 I just ran as best I could. I took some fluids at miles 6 and 10, actually walking a little to make sure the fluids went down. As I ran past mile marker 10, I kept repeating the mantra ‘nice and easy’ to stay relaxed.

While preparing for this race I had to do some treadmill running at race pace, because the weather outside made running outside impossible. What I noticed on the treadmill was that when I set the pace on the treadmill to race pace 6:50/mile, my heart rate would speed up from 162 to 167 if I thought about running fast. When I would think about running ‘nice and easy’ or ‘taking a break’ my heart rate would slow down. It would often go from 162 to 158 or so.

The Disney Half Marathon and Marathon starts at 6:00 a.m. So miles 3 to 11, were ran in the dark. During this time, I concentrated on slow deep breathing as Gina had taught me, as well as the thinking to myself ‘nice and easy’. When I felt overwhelmed or that my heart rate was too fast (my breathing getting too fast also), I thought about the next day when I would be running with my Marion which would be a relaxed pace for me. I then could feel my breathing and heart rate slow down.

When I hit mile 11, there was enough light where I could easily see my watch and it said 1:16.20. I was shocked! I assumed I was headed for a 1:32 or 1:33 half marathon. This would have still been a PR for me. I was stuck on 1:35, as I had done my last four half marathons in this time. When I saw 1:16.20, I quickly did the math and realized that breaking 1:30 was still a possibility! I basically needed to do something like 6:20 to 6:30 pace for the next 2.1 miles! Gina had taught me to think about training and racing with the tenacity of a pack of Pit Bulls. This thought entered my mind and the after burners turned on. The only thing that mattered for me for the next 13 minutes and 40 seconds was running. I just simply ran as hard as I could!

I honestly don’t remember much about passing mile marker 12, I just know that I kept passing people. Specifically there was a fellow runner that from miles 7 to 11 had gone ahead of me and I made it my goal to catch him. In imagined that if I caught him I would break 1:30. I caught him in the middle of mile 12! I then made it my goal to catch the next person. I don’t know how many more people I passed, but it was probably around 10, but when I hit mile 13, the official race time said 1:30 exactly! I knew it took me thirty or forty seconds to reach the starting mat at the beginning of the race. The race for me then was like a 100 meter dash. I just pumped my arms and sprinted as fast as I could. When I crossed the mat I hit my stop watch and to my utter shock it read 1:29.52! Are you kidding! Oh my God! I had done it! I broke 1:30. I felt winded and light headed so I had a volunteer assist me. Wow what a race!

On Sunday night after the Disney Marathon, yes I did assist my wife to set a 24 minute PR in the Disney Marathon for her,where we both crossed at 5:11, I accepted my award for fifth in my age group! The announcer said, now for 5th place in the men’s 45 to 49 age group, from Oak Park, Illinois, with a time of 1:29.53, Ross Hauser. What a shock!

You see when I started exercising six and a half years ago, to loose some body fat I didn’t expect anything but that. What exercise has brought me besides great fitness, is a more positive attitude and a belief that what the Bible says “All things are possible for him who believes” is indeed true! While my main motivation comes from faith in God through Jesus Christ, I realize that the help of coaches (Pete, whose advice needs to be followed), other health care providers (Gina, helping me realize that my thoughts do influence my actions), friends (my Team Gauntlet training buddies, and friends like Arden who help you out in a crunch), and my wife (wow, what an effort she put forth in the Disney Marathon despite tremendous nausea!), all play a role in achieving my goals. My next goal, “breaking 5 hours in the California Half Ironman March 29th”. Like this race, I won’t have much time to prepare. I won’t start training again for two weeks. So I will have only 7 to 8 weeks to get into half ironman shape! Can I do it? Well, with the help of all the above and sticking to the program ‘all things are possible for him who believes?’ Perhaps, some of unbelievers will start to believe that ‘doc he’s pretty fast!’.

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