This last week has been crazy and I really had serious doubts about this race. It is the first year for this half marathon and I felt that there was a chance I could win (I'm good at cherry picking races). Not feeling like I could perform my best had me a little extra worried. I wanted to finish between 1:25 and 1:27 and hoped it would be good enough for a win. Drove to the rec center and warmed up 1 mile. Everything felt good and I was ready to roll. Just over 100 participants in the 1/2 and only a couple of fast looking runners. Horn went off and I immediately took the lead. Fell into a groove and just went with it. A heavy breather was right behind me and I knew he wouldn't be there long. Cruised through the first mile in 6:01. Oops! Not sure how that happened. It is a slight downhill but there is no way it should have been that fast. This has become a bad habit. I used to be so good about starting out in control. Backed off the pace and another runner came along side of me. We ran together through mile 2 (having just missed the train) in 6:30. That is more like it. This is still an aggressive pace but it felt good. Something strange happened in the 3rd mile. I was passed by a female runner and 2 more guys and I found myself in 5th place. I think I kind of gave up at that point as evident by a 6:44 split. After seeing that I told myself to snap out of it and that I am better than this. The female runner and one of the guys had a pretty good gap on me and 2 guys had me by 15 seconds. I decided to surge until I caught up to them so that my legs and mind would wake up. Caught up to them and could tell they would be dropping back. The quicker pace felt better so I stayed with it. Settled into 3rd place while running mile 4 in 6:30. First and second maintained a decent lead so I felt 3rd place was all that I could hold onto (yes it was killing me that I was going to be chicked). The slight elevation loss was now over and we moved into the flat section on the LPT. Mile 5 was 6:33 and mile 6 was 6:41. I started to get low again during the 7th mile so I took a GU hoping it would provide some energy. Mile 7 was 6:45 which included a couple of seconds stop to wash the GU down with some water. It also included the tunnel which may have impacted the distance on my Garmin. Suddenly felt some energy so I dropped the pace again to see if 1st and 2nd place would start coming back to me. It was slow but the gap was closing. Hit the big overpass and I was closing fast on the female runner. Caught her at 8.5 and kept pressing so she wouldn't try to stay with me. Mile 8 was 6:32 and I realized that first place was coming back too. I was surprised because he looked like he was moving well. Caught and passed him during the 9th mile (6:33) and he did not respond. Kept pressing because I wanted to have a decent cushion before we hit the uphill during the last 3 miles. 6:32 10th mile which included the aid station manned by the running club. They really provided a much needed shot of adrenaline. Focused on maintaining a good effort during the slight uphill. Was glad to see a 6:38 for the 11th mile. That is a good effort for that section. Peeked behind me and couldn't see anybody. Was not going to allow myself to relax so I tried to keep pushing. 6:45 for mile 12 which was a solid effort. Made the turn onto Main street and looked down Pages and nobody was in sight. There wasn't enough distance for anybody to catch me and I started feeling the win. Mile 13 was 6:40 and I was starting to hurt. Made the last turn and ran the last 0.1 at a 5:33 pace. Crossed the line in 1:26:17 and on overall win. Met both goals and felt great. I am really happy with the result. Now I can focus on some serious training for the next couple of weeks.
| 