Kept my Arizona win streak going. My parents are moving back to the East coast soon, so my frequent racing in AZ will probably subside a bit now.
The weather was decent considering we were expecting much worse. There was some rain in the early miles and a bit of a headwind, but the major storm forecast was greatly exaggerated. The heavy rain/wind actually came down later on Saturday evening... good timing! In some ways the overcast skies were nice (cooler... last year the marathon got really warm over the last 10 miles).
My plan was to run for the win and not worry too much about the time.
Jesse Armijo and I ran the first mile together, then he took the lead and put a small gap on me. For the first 7 miles, I was between 15-25 meters off his lead. It didn't seem like there was anyone putting pressure on from behind us. I kept thinking to myself "make a move at 10" like I did in the PF Chang's 1/2 last year. I started reeling him in during the 8th mile and sensed an opportunity to put in a surge and take the lead just before the 9 mile mark. I ran the 10th mile pretty hard to open up a gap, then I had a big enough lead to back off a little the rest of the way. Ten mile split was ~50:45 (~25:15/25:30). Last couple miles were slower, but I ended up winning by a comfortable 52 seconds. A quick look-back during the 11th mile told me I had the race won.
Andrea and my parents were out on the course in 5-6 different spots providing encouragement. They are awesome!
The time doesn't really reflect a big improvement since January, but I can tell I'm getting in shape now. The major positive "take home" was that around the halfway point, I knew I wasn't settling for second place this time. I was thinking about the best strategy for how to win the race, and knew I was going to win the race.
This is a really good event. Fast, certified, sanctioned courses. The half-marathon is probably the fastest trials-eligible course I know of. Race directors are awesome to work with, pay attention to small details, etc. And how about the race t-shirts? They were fitted, and actually fit! I'd like to come back and run here next year. Especially now that I know I can get a big chalice / trophy through airport security.
Early miles of the race.
10th mile... Dad pointing forward and yelling "the race is ahead of you!"
Achieving a life-long dream of talking to the guys at 94.5 KOOL FM. Here is their recap of the race. Luckily they truncate the seconds associated with "5 minute miles"
This represented how many muscle milks we drank after the race (Three-hundred and twelve)
One more with the KOOL 94.5 DJ (I think his name was Bryan Seacrest)
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