Winning Back What I Lost

T/M; I'm winding down the mileage in preparation for the Sun Valley 1/2 on Saturday; quick run building my pace from 8:57 to 7:47 from 2.5 miles to end; my legs felt very strong for a change and the soreness on the tops of my feet is almost gone.

T/M: Quick run; continuing the reverse taper in preparation for Saturday's 1/2 marathon; felt really good after having visited the chiropractor in the morning; seems my left hip was turned out and causing some pressure to my IT band muscles and lower knee; worked up to a 7:47 pace for the last 1.5 miles; 8:12 overall pace

T/M: Final run before the race on Saturday; visited chiro again today for another adjustment to my hip; he gave me a foam roller to help stretch my IT band and recommended some good stretching exercises; short run gradually increasing incline to 4.0 over 2 miles; 8:57 overall pace; my diet has been horrible the past week; gained a couple of pounds; hope to lose them before Saturday so I can be at my best; looks like the weather could be horrible (chance of thunderstorms and wind).

My first half marathon experience was quite eventful.  Rain, hail, no porta potties, steep hill climb at the start, only 4 water/gatorade stations (2 of which were in the first 2 miles); 6200 ft of altitude; lots of rollers and an uphill to the finish line made sure that I finished well below my 1:45 goal time.  Even with all of that, and a bad post race stomach ache from holding it the whole race, the experience was a net positive.  I tried to go out slow, at least what I thought was slow, on the 1 mile hill climb at the start (8:54).  I made up the time right away w/ some sub 8 min miles through mile 5.  I was in good shape to hit my goal but the altitude, lack of water between miles 2 and 7 caught up to me and I was hurting.  I tried to pick it up but another hill between mile 8 and 9 and steady uphill rollers until mile 11 set me back again.  The mile 11 turnaround was a nice downhill where I returned to my roughly 8:10 pace.  At that point I saw that I would salvage some dignity by finishing under 2 hours.  This seemed like a given until the last half mile to the finish which was uphill.  That's right, the start and finish were both uphill as a result of a last minute change in the location of the start/finish line on this loop course.  This was definitely no easy course- or so I was told by more than one racing veteran.  The altitude and the climbs/descents just sapped me.  I've actually had better times on training runs than what I ran today but none of my training runs have come close to the hill work I endured today. 

Nonetheless, it was a net positive experience.  I learned what not to do on this course (i.e. leave my aid belt and gu at home and eat yogurt and a bagel before the start and a cheeseburger and fries the night before.  But first and foremost, my wife and I were able to experience a nice weekend alone!  Hallelujah!