Hobble Creek Half Marathon. Good race placed 14th overall and set a new PR. Was really excited to start the race and felt really good this morning, partly because it was my birthday. Anyway, was a little disappointed in how long it took the organizers to get people to the starting line and actually get the race going. I managed to get out at a decent pace and was really focusing on pushing the first half and seeing how long I could hold a faster pace, I guess that is a little different race strategy than I usually use. I usually tend to be more conservative in the beginning then pick it up toward the end. 1-5:30 feeling good 2-5:30 (11:00) still feeling good and surprised at the pace 3-5:32-(16:33) really happy that I have been right on the same pace for 3 miles. 4-5:10-(21:44) might have been a bit short, but I also do remember putting in a little surge on this mile 5-5:55-(27:39) running close to Steve Olsen and Andy 6-5:28-(33:07) continue to push the pace and closing in on Steve Olsen, put a little distance on Andy and an older runner. Come through the 10K at 34:15 which really surprised me. Fastest 10K I have ran since college. 7-6:04 (39:12) still feeling pretty good I have now caught Steve and have passed him 8-5:32 (44:45) focus on surging again and pushing the pace 9-5:59 (50:44) 10-6:28 (57:12) a little hill and slowing down, mentally not racing just going through the motions, the overall second place woman Paula Morrison comes up on my side and we run together for a while 11-5:48 (1:03:00) I wake up again and remember to keep pushing. I also pass a younger guy wearing blue and glance back and see Steve Olsen on my tail. Somewhere around 11.5 Steve and I start running side by side, closely following Paula, it was at this point we can see some runners ahead running from a different directions. Steve gets my attention and says "I think we took a wrong turn" I was like great, actually I was really, really upset in fact I am still ticked about it. Anyway we arrive at mile marker 12 in 4:48-(1:07:49) Very upset I completely shut down mentally and just coast it in to the finish very mad at myself, really put no effort into a kick and finish about 11 seconds behind Steve Olsen with a time of 1:15:00. Later we talked with the race directors and figured we might have gained at the most a minute, so they added a minute to our time, plus a 30 second penalty. Steve and I were fine with that since we finished 4th and 5th in our age division and hadn't passed anybody or gotten passed by anybody, actually two guys passed me at the end, but that was more due to my lack of effort than anything else. So officially I ran 1:16:29 still a two minute PR, but the actual distance I cut short was .18 of a mile, so figure my time was really right around 1:16:00. I guess more important than anything was the fact I was able to run at a faster pace and I really feel like things are coming along for me. I am feeling more and more confident with my goal of running under 2:50 for St. George. It has just been an enjoyable year so far, getting back into shape and seeing the improvement from a 1:37 half marathon back in January to where I'm at now. I think a lot of it has been the support of the St. George Running Club, those guys have really been great and have helped me a lot, it was fun running with them this weekend. Clyde ran really strong as expected, but both Steve and Bill really surprised me. Steve hasn't raced since March and he came out and ran great and Bill had a new PR I believe while running with a sore calf. I am looking forward to the team getting in another good month of training and then all of us having successful races at St. George. I have also really enjoyed having this blog, to record my workouts and get feedback and encouragement, this has been much better than the old runner's journal I had trouble writing in. | 