my makeup may be flaking

Atlanta Half Marathon 1:19:54 for 23rd place. Last year I ran 1:22:01 for 27th. This continues the pattern of me getting faster but the races getting more competitive compared to last year.

Last year I went out too hard, running 37:30 for the first 10K and then fading badly the last couple of miles. So this year my plan was to go out pretty conservatively. At the start I saw Ty Ragen and Kenny Porterfield (gradually starting to learn Atl area runners). I ran ahead of those two for 3 miles at the Atl 10 miler but then both beat me. Therefore I decided that I should stay behind them until mile 8.

At the start Ty starts out ahead of Kenny so I decide to play it safe and stick with Kenny. We hit the mile in 6:07, right on my goal of 1:20 pace. A friend of Kenny's jumps in the race to pace him, anothe guy (I think Chadwick Hales) runs with us too so we have a pretty good pack.

We roll through the next couple of miles in 6:01 and 5:59 (slightly downhill) and I get a little bit concerned that we've gone out too fast. The fourth mile is downhill (6:00) and my legs are starting to burn. This is much faster than I'm used to running! Fortunately my breathing is under control. We catch up to a guy wearing Orange and now our group is 5 strong.

In the 5th mile we hit a pretty strong headwind and we lose a little bit of momentum as everyone fights to stay out of the wind. We pass two more guys and one of them latches on so we are now six strong. This is super helpful as we fight the wind. Unsurprisingly, mile 5 is the slowest of the race so far: 6:11. However, for now I'm still committed to staying with the group.

Mile 6 starts with a moderate climb and the rest of the group starts the flag a little. We lose two people and are back to the original 4. At the peak of the hill Kenny's friend dropped out and we were three. Descending into Piedmont, Kenny and I picked up the pace a little, passing one more guy. Mile 6 was 6:16!, I decide that enough is enough and it's time to drop the hammer. I surge and drop Kenny, passing 10K in 37:45, 15 seconds slower than last year.

At 10K here is the split

After surging I initially regret it, as I start to feel pretty bad. Legs were feeling pretty tense, so I decide to drop the historical present and that seemed to help. I hit mile 7 in 5:50, which made me feel better. The main issue was that Chris Nasser and Sven Henningson both pulled away, giving the impression that I had slowed down.

I caught Annie and John (a wheel chair athlete) with a 6:27 8th mile. This was actually a huge confidence booster as it is easily the most difficult mile of the course. I was at 48:55 though 8 miles, I was almost exactly on 1:20 pace so I knew I had to finish strong.

Mile 9 has a nice long straightaway so I got a solid glimpse of all the people up ahead of me. Unfortunately, the guys closest to me were pulling away. 6;04 for mile 9

I passed two guys in Mile 10. I'm not really sure what happened with these two guys. 6:14 for mile 10, including a pretty tough hill. 61:14 for 10 miles. I passed two more guys somewhere in here.

I started to think negative thoughts "I'm running pretty well, 1:20:xx is totally fine. My legs really hurt, I can't expect myself to run this fast." Ok, don't start to make excuses before you even fall off pace. 6:07 for mile 11, but I didn't pass anyone.

Mile 12 in 6:04 and now I could smell the sub 1:20. I finally caught up to Matthew Wilpers with about 800m to go and I had another 3-4 guys in the cross hairs but just ran out of room. 6:28 for last 1.1 (5:53 pace) 6:01 pace from mile 10 to the finish.

I probably was a little bit too conservative, but I'm quite happy with this race.

2014 1st half 37:30 (6:03 pace), 2nd half 44:31 (6:27 pace) passed 1, passed by 5

2015 1st half 37:47 (6:05 pace), 2nd half 42:07 (6:06 pace) passed 7, passed by zero