Brass Tap Half Marathon, Ozona, FL Race Report
Course/weather: 2 loop course with lots of turns and I would say that it's a short course. 4 bridge repeats. Two 180s. Muggy/wet day in Florida, but the temperature wasn't bad- 70s and little sun.
Prep: No preparation for this race, just low mileage this week. This is my third half marathon in 14 days with 3 high effort workouts mixed into that.
Goal: 1:15:30. Actual time: 1:14:29
Race: Start line- Two old school/prominent local names joined me in the race today- James O. and Josh R. who have been winning races since before I ran my first mile ever, so it was cool to line up next to them at such a tiny race in the middle of nowhere. Figured we'd start out together and team up.
Miles 1-8: were slow and uneventful- 5:44 average but my splits were all over the place. Only Josh and James decided to stay within a minute of me and neither decided to challenge, which wasn't ideal- I could've used the help to zone out for a bit. Plus it's nice to have someone there.
Miles 9-finish: I did the math at the mile 9 marker as I was slogging up the last bridge and figured Josh wouldn't be able to catch me even if I had a catastrophic meltdown, however, James was ~58 seconds back and running about 5:40 pace with some swagger. I figured I'd drop to 5:40 averages and be pragmatically mindful of his gains as he's the last guy you want to give confidence too. He is a stud racer. I determined he'd pretty much have to close with 5:28/mile pace if I stuck to 5:40 to have a chance to get me so I liked my plan. So, I just decided to hold it. And hold it I did- 5:40 average the rest of the way.
James never really tried to gain so I held even for the last two miles just for my overall confidence. I definitely pushed at the end but never felt as if I was out of control. Breathing switch from 3/2 down to 2/2 and that coincided with a cadence drop from 182 to 179 which doesn't seem like much but we all know that means I was gassing.
Place Name Gun Time Chip Time Pace
1 Me 1:14:29.7 1:14:29.7 5:41/M
2 James 1:15:52.4 1:15:52.4 5:47/M
3 Josh 1:19:55.9 1:19:55.9 6:06/M
Fun race and got to meet another member of the blog afterward! Mark was gracious enough to say hello to me at the race and hang out with a couple of the other friends I made/had there. I appreciated that. Fifth overall for Mark.
| 