Ok, so I ran the half-marathon this morning and as far as first impressions go on how I did their are some mixed reviews, although the overall prognosis is pretty good. I am pleased that I ran a decent race time wise on a course that was hillier than I realized, and I am happy that I won. I am also happy that I was able to work through the issues that were bugging me prior to and at the beginning of the race, and that they did not affect me too much (I was having some stomach issues prior to the race, and during the first few miles my shins were tight in an almost shin-splint type fasion). However, I really thought that I could break 1:10:00 for the course, and I was a minute off that mark. I also was hoping that I would be able to maintain a faster pace on some of the middle and later miles of the race, (especially considering that we had a slow start) and it just wasn't in me today. So, I am happy but I am not content. I guess that it is the story of my life. I am never completely happy with how I run, because I always want to be faster than I am and I want to keep improving. I guess I am kind of like the rich man who is never happy with how much money he has, and who continues to want more and more despite the fact that he is already rich. Anyhow, here are my splits for the race: 1. 5:40 - slow start, which is ok. We didn't want to push too much 2. 5:35, 11:15 - more of the same. There is a big pack of us who are running together
3. 5:20, 16:35 - downhill mile. About the same effort as the previous two 4. 5:20, 21:55 - starting to work a little harder. Mostly flat 5. 5:36, 27:31 - rolling hills, with a few short but steep uphill sections. Five of us are still together including myself, Paul, Hayden, Dave, and Sasha. Sasha drops back during this mile
6. 5:15, 32:46 - still some rolling hills this mile, but we are mostly heading down. Hayden falls near the end of this mile and Paul and I put a gap on him and Dave.
7. 5:21, 38:07 - feeling pretty good now. I started to chat with Paul for a bit. Not pushing it too hard. 8. Missed the marker, but still not pushing it too hard 9. 10:54, 49:01 - 2 mile splits average at 5:27. The second mile was probably faster than the first. I started to push hard during this mile and I began to slowly pull away from Paul 10. 5:17, 54:18 - rolling hills during this mile. Pushing it harder to try and create a gap 11. 5:23, 59:41 - still rolling hills, but it felt like there was a decent amount of uphill 12. Missed the marker again because I started to zone out a bit. Caught an approximate split at 20k which I believe was between 1:07:20-1:07:24 Finish. 1:10:59 - during the last few hundred meters there is a sharp 180 degree turn. I slowed down a lot making the turn. During this mile I was hurting some and I had a decent lead, so I didn't push it too hard to the finish. I averaged a 5:22 pace from 11 miles to the finish, which wasn't bad considering the 180 and a few other sharp turns, plus what I believe was a net uphill from 11 miles to the finish. So, all in all it was a good race. I went back with Sasha to pace Mary Ann to the finish and she was just about done anyhow, so we didn't run much with her. After that I went out and ran a little less than 5 miles out on the race course to finish up with 20 miles for the day.
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