my makeup may be flaking

Not to be overly dramatic but I almost cried both during and after this race. I have fallen apart in every half marathon I have done this year. Sometimes it was more extreme than others.

Anyway, this race was my first half marathon in 2008. I ran 1:19:12 and it hurt like hell. I DID stop twice to go the bathroom, though.

I went right to the front at the start. My plan was to do some damage to the field in the first 4 miles (which are upupupup) as I was confident that I could hold it together ok on the downhill.

Jon Gauthier had other ideas though as he stayed right on me through the first two miles. I kept trying to shake him, but he would have none of it. Right before we started to climb little mountain proper he bolted ahead and started to surge up the hill. I couldn't decide if this was an incredibly savvy move or a dumb move. It started to look smarter and smarter as he moved away from me up the hill.

I had a major advantage in that I knew when the hill was ending and as the hill was coming to a finish I kicked up my intensity. I could tell that I was going to be able to catch him and I let the gap remain at about 15m for about a minute. He glanced back to see how much distance he'd put on me and saw me still right there. That gave me some confidence.

We crested the hill and I immediately closed the gap and passed him. He latched on to me and we flew down the next mile. I had a 4:46 on my watch. I asked some other people at the end what they got and no one had an anomaly quite like that, so I figured it was legit. I think it probably came from my ability to rapidly accelerate after the hill when most were catching their breath. It's XC racing 101!

Anyway Jon stuck with me through most of that mile but dropped hard right after that. I was actually concerned that he had passed out on the side of the road because I looked back and he was GONE. He later said that he had taken a wrong turn! I mean that sucks and all, but I don't know what he was thinking. He apparently went up Burr's lane, which he should have recognized from the freedom half. Oh well. If he lost that much ground to me that fast, he was truly spent and wasn't going to be a threat.

With Jon gone I settled into a rhythm down the canyon. I actually felt a bit nauseous (too much downhill) but it didn't really affect me. I kept clicking off solid miles but I definitely fatigued toward the end. This race is a good highlight of my strengths and weaknesses. I don't necessarily hold my pace well on long downhill stretches, but I can run very fast with very little effort for short downhills. Hopefully this is something I can work on though and try to get stronger.

Splits 6:22,6:40,6:20,6:42,4:47,5:13,5:22,5:21,5:24,5:31,5:29,5:31,5:51(1.2)