Not quite the race I had hoped for but it was a great course, perfect weather, well organized and fun. Leading up to this race had felt good about my training until a couple of weeks out when I was sick for about 5 days. On the upswing although I knew I wasn't back 100% but was going to hope for the best and went ahead and signed up almost last minute.
Last year I had done a similar training plan but couldn't travel due to baby on its way so did my own half marathon looping in my neighborhood on a morning that was in the low 70's - not ideal racing weather but survivable, did about 1:38:30 and felt I could do better this year with the nice 50ish degree weather, point to point with some downhill.
This was first time going to Rochester, MN (grew up in Rochester, NY). Hilton Garden Inn right behind the finish line and bus pickup to the start was just a few blocks away. Got to the start line about 6:30 and ran some warmup. Heart rate quickly shot up but not too terrible.
Lined up near the 1:35 pacer, getting off to a good start at about 7:15 pace for first half mile, then backed it off, finishing first mile in 7:31 and letting 1:35 group get ahead of me.
There was a slight wind at this point, backed it off a little more with second mile 7:49, then 7:56. Not feeling great at all, decided I needed to at least do the first 4 miles under 8:00, then see how it goes. Had visions of just jogging it in.
Mile 5 was 8:09, had done my 4 miles under 8:00 and was just going to hang on.
But, next came some very nice downhill, so mile 6 started out feeling like mile 5, but second half of that mile got faster, came in under 8:00 (7:58), then more downhill running 7:33 and 7:40 for miles 7 and 8. Those miles felt easy.
Mile 9 was going good but then lost some time at and aid station taking a gel, so that was 8:12, and then next mile 8:08,
Then miles 11 and 12 back to just hanging on as the course flattened out with some small rolling bumps through park trails and neighborhoods. There was this one really tall guy that had gotten in front of me about mile 5 and I remember the soles of his shoes coming up really high. About mile 11 point something he was by the side of the road stretching.
There was a lady that I was trading leads with for a couple of miles, but once I hit the start of the last mile, picked it back up and did mile 13 in 7:52.
The 1:45 pace group came in about 1:44 so they were ahead of me. The lady that I thought I had beaten was 1 second ahead of me chip time as she must have lined up in a more sensible position (which would've been sensible if I had run 1:35-1:36 range).
Had a nice block party atmosphere at the end with a band and free drinks, so hung out for a bit watching people finish the half, the full, and the 20 mile race (don't see too many of those).
I'd definitely come back here again sometime and see what I could do.
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