AM: 2 WU Shamrock Half Marathon (1:09:56) 1 CD
Although not a PR, it's been awhile since I've had a good race and I had a good race today. Great weather, great course. Happy with it. Didn't quite have the strength to keep in contact with Tom, who is in fine shape.
Going in I knew I'd probably race well but wasn't sure if I was in PR shape. Took it out conservatively with Greg and Tom with/behind a pack of 5-6 other guys. By mile 5 there were only two others with us, by mile 7 Greg made a move. I increased my speed as well (5:13) but was hesitant to be so reckless so early. Tom was not afraid and made a move. Then some guy who used to run at Georgetown surged by me at around mile 8 and caught up to Greg and Tom. Tom started to fall back while I maintainted. I made up some ground and pulled Tom in slowly but was not able to get him.
Take-away 1: my PR was 1:09:44 set three years ago when doing heavy marathon training, which included 21 mile progression runs and 100 MPW mileage. This gave me a little more strength to actually go sub 16:00 in the last 5K there. I was not as strong today because a half is the max range I've been training for with my longest long run being 16.
Take-away 2: I ran alone for the last 4-5 miles. In 2015 I had Doug there to work with and really get after the pace. We pushed incredibly hard. If I had someone working with my today I may have been able to squeeze 12 seconds out.
Take-away 3: Tom is in fine shape for Boston and I feel like he's ready to break 2:30. Out men's team was 1,3,4 today. Our conservative training approach works pretty well for the half.
This bodes well for my assault on my 10 mile and 10K PRs next month. Looking at my splits that slower 12th mile cost me a bit.
Splits from auto-lap GPS: 5:24,5:25,5:20,5:24,5:18,5:23,5:17,5:15,5:18,5:13,5:18,5:22,5:15, (4:51 pace for the last .15)
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