It was a perfect morning for a half marathon. No wind and the temperature was about 50'. Dallas and Rachel wanted to run a half marathon for Rachel's first half and they picked the Sandy Firestation half due to timing and cost. I drove us up there and we got ready.
My training has been terrible this year in the fact that I feel way slower than normal and my legs keep cramping up near the end of my long runs and I'm not even at race pace. Turning 52 has not been nice to me, I have just slowed down and if I try to speed up I have problems.
So due to my training I decided to run the pace I plan on running at St. George in three weeks which is about 10 minutes slower than last time I ran St. George and if I still felt good I'd run the last couple of miles of the half marathon as fast as I could. This would help me determine if my marathon pace as right due to my slower old aged body.
First 4 miles: 7:00, 7:26, 8:17, 7:05 ( about 1:15 slower than last year) The gun went off and there were no really fast runners that showed up with only about 60-70 runners. A few years ago I would have been off and winning, but this year at mile one, 3 men and 1 woman were ahead of me. At mile two the hill gets going and I passed two of the men but got passed by another woman. From that time on the placement didn't change.
Next 4 miles: 6:53, 7:00, 7:18, 7:10 ( about 1:20 slower than last year) These miles are slightly down hill and unfortunately I felt like I was at marathon pace and didn't have extra.
Next 5 miles: 7:00, 7:53, 8:23, 7:28, 6:53 ( about 1:30 slower than last year) With 5 miles to go I felt pretty good and that I was at about the right pace, however, with a couple of miles left I could tell my left thigh was thinking of cramping up. I walked through the next aid station and took my time then I started again and my leg felt much better so I pushed the pace again but it only took a quarter mile for the beginning of the cramping sensation to return. So instead of running a super fast last downhill mile with the possibility of catching one or two of the women that were ahead of me I just coasted to the finish.
Now I'm worried that I'm going to cramp up half way through the St. George marathon even if I go at a pace much slower than in past years.
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