Well, I really didn't know what to expect from this race. I haven't been training much since the marathon in October. I really struggled for about 4 weeks after the marathon just trying to recover. I was having trouble walking and evening sleeping at night. The hip problems I had all summer, got even worse with the marathon and my recovery has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. Anyway, I did start training again last week on a more consistent basis, but only got in 18 miles. This week has been better, but I still didn't feel ready for a race, let alone a half, but Steve got me into the race, so I figured I better show-up and at least give it some effort. My goal going in was just to try to break 1:30 and use it as a longer training run. I told myself not to worry too much about time or place, in fact I didn't even want to wear my racing singlet, because I felt like I wasn't ready to race. However, I did wear my racing singlet and even flats. After riding the bus up to the start, I got out a did maybe .5 mile warm-up. I also did some stretching and figured I would take the first few miles easy. 1-5:23 Very steep downhill, I was really trying to hold back. Their was the usual amount of people that sprinted out from the starting line. I figured I was in about 20th place after the first mile. 2-5:40 Another steep downhill mile, Running much faster that I had planned. 3-6:26 At this point, I've passed about 10 guys so I'm back in the top 10 and things are starting to spread out. 4-7:08- Clyde passes me heading back the other way on the trail, we are supposed to turn around on. He was flying, but something told me things weren't right. Turns out, people on the course told him to turn back way before he was supposed to. Anyway, I feel bad about that. The funny thing, they still said he won the race in 42:00 something and called his name to come up and get his overall male award. 5-7:15-Slow going climbing a slight hill on a dirt road. 6-7:11- I get to the turn around and count 9 guys ahead of me. But I figure I should be able to pick off a few of them the second half.
7-6:33- Get two guys on this mile 8-6:26- Get another guy on this mile, and I'm actually feeling pretty good. 9-6:53-Not really trying to push it
10-6:26 Running alone 11-6:40-Relaxed 12-6:38 Just taking it easy 13-6:36 Nice and easy to the finish. .1 48 Overall 1:26:10 6:34 average and no major hip pain! Asics Speedstar- 54
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