Another nice morning for a race. Cool temps, actually a bit cold at the start, little to no wind. This was another very low key (30-40 finishers) race to use as a marathon workout. It was reasonably priced and advertised as a really hilly course. I'd say it lived up to it's description. I hit my goal of running +/- 10 sec. of my goal marathon pace, so I'm really happy about that. I think I should recover quickly from this one. I finished feeling strong and basically negative split the race. I also took 1st for the 1st time in a 1/2 marathon. A couple of the miles were more difficult than I was hoping for. Mile 3 had a climb that went up 117 ft in less than a 1/2 mile and miles 8-10 where all up hill. I could have lived without those climbs, but hopefully they'll make me stronger ;-) The rest of the course wasn't all that easy either. Most of the hills were long gradual hills that would be considered large hills on most 1/2 marathon courses, there was also a combination of short/medium steeps ones that made the legs scream. It was hard to keep a steady pace with so many hills, plus I was running on my own in the lead, so it took a lot of concentration to keep the effort steady. Good thing I kept my concentration because 2nd was only about 2 minutes behind me. The legs felt flat, but that's probably due to the jump in mileage. I also had some GI issues miles 8-13, they were actually really more of an issue after the race. I only managed a run walk cool-down of .66 miles because I kept getting waves of nausea. Hopefully, I'll get the issue figured out before TC. Something I thought was kind of funny. A guy running barefoot led out the 1/2 marathon. He had to be running the 1/2 because the 10K and 5K started at different times. He ran for a couple of strides in front of me until the 1/2 mile point. When we made a turn at about 1.5 miles and I took a quick look to my right to see if that guy was still going. I never saw him, so either I missed him or he dropped out. I didn't see him finish, so I'm guessing he realized that the feet weren't going to make it a 1/2 marathon. I just had to shake my head at that one :-) The splits were up and down with the hills, but I managed a 6:10 avg, I'm shooting for 5:55-6:00 pace for the TC marathon. Mile 1 - 6:22 (lots of uphill) Mile 2 = 6:30 (lots of uphill) Mile 3 = 6:44 (117 ft climb, lots of steep uphill, but the music 1/2 way up motivated me to stay under 7 min pace) Mile 4 = 6:09 (steep rolling) Mile 5 = 6:11 (light rolling) Mile 6 = 6:09 (moderate rolling) Mile 7 = 5:52 (finally got some downhill) Mile 8 = 6:10 (flat) Mile 9 = 6:30 (lots of uphill) Mile 10 = 6:18 (lots of uphill) Mile 11 = 5:59 (steep rolling, and a back down the 117 ft steep downhill) Mile 12 = 5:44 (short steep uphill, then all light to steep downhill) Mile 13 = 5:50 (pancake flat) I think the course was a little short based on my Garmin, but better short than long considering all the hills we ran. Garmin says it was 13.03. | 