Best Dam Race Half Marathon Report This race is right in my current hometown, so it's hard to pass up. Particularly when it takes 8 minutes to drive to. It's in the third year of existence, and this run would be my fifth overall half marathon. I feel they're long enough to where I feel like I've worked hard, but not so long as to where I want to cry from every cell in my body- looking at you, marathon... Ran mile 1 expecting someone to blow by me, so I could use as a pacer from afar, since I saw a 1:10 half marathoner registered as well as a couple 1:13-1:14 guys and I wanted to run a 1:16:00. However, at half a mile only a good runner, James O, was behind me. I know he is very quick and generally runs much better than me based on his times. At mile 1 I was still conservative at a 5:55 mile hoping to have at least him I could fall behind, but since no one wanted to go in front, I decided to settle into a pace, so I dropped down to 5:43 for the next 2 miles to get closer to the 5:46 pace I was hoping for. I don't usually wear a watch, so me "dropping down to and sticking to a pace" is akin to an infant getting all his food in his mouth- cute, but not gonna be messy. I wasn't excited to have to focus on a pace for that long. At the 3-mile turnaround I was surprised to see a gap already forming, and at the 10k mark I had a good 1:40 lead on James (second) and about 3 minutes on third. At the 6.5 turnaround, I must've had some body language, because James clearly gave a push to shorten the gap. Fortunately, I caught myself slowing in time, although, in hindsight, it was unintelligent to drop the pace to 5:30 for mile 6, as I felt cramps in my quads and hamstrings quickly. From there on out I tried to keep them at bay all the way until making it to mile 12 and decided I could probably run through them so close to the end. The only runner left in sight at mile 11 was James and he was about 3 minutes back, but having never led a half marathon I decided to push anyway. At the 13 mile marker right before the final turn I took a look at my watch and was elated to see it just cracking 1:15:00 along with my 5:35 mile pace for the last 2 miles, so a PR was in sight. Fortunately, I did end up with a 1:15:30, a pr in the end. I love being a newer runner- the pr never gets old. Next race is in 3 weeks, so I have a chance to leave it all out on the course and hopefully put in the work to do it again. | 