Trails half marathon in 1:12:54 a 5:34 avg at 13.11 miles Today we decided to reenact a race from 2007. The Trails half marathon from Gunlock to Ivans. In 2007 I ran a 1:14:33 to win the race on marathon pace effort. So the goal today was to run it faster than in 2007 but stay around MP effort and never go into the red lining half marathon push. So we measured out the course to straight up 13.1 miles, did 3 miles of warm up and then started the mock race. I had a drink sitting on the side of the road at mile 8. So I decided to go out fast enough to hit the times but EZ enough to feel controlled. The course is fairly tough as it rolls up and down basically the entire length. I figured today that it might be around 30 seconds to 1 min slower than the first half of STG. Anyways up to the drink and GU I felt really smooth and knew I had something to give going into the bigger, longer hills at the end. Hit the 10 mile mark at 55:50 or so. Then really only had to work on the last climb (over a mile long pull into Ivans). I was happy to see a big improvement from 2007 and felt like the effort was similar. Plus last night I was really sick and didn't get much sleep with a head cold, sore throat, and BAD runny nose. I was actually really surprised to run as good as I did today and am now home sick just like last night. It's like I had a little window to go run and the sickness is on both sides. And I don't feel an once of soreness. So I guess that's good too. 4 mile cool down with all the guys to hit 20 for the day. Everyone ran pretty good today and I'm excited to see some big PR's from guys like Mike and James. | 