Painters Half today.
| Mile | Split | Comment | | 1 | 5:40 | out slow - good for me, since I hadn't warmed up yet
| | 2 | 5:38 | still a slow pace
| | 3 | 5:17 | the pack finally picked it up
| | 4 | 5:19 | | | 5 | 5:35 | up the big hill
| | 6 | 5:15 | | | 7 | 5:19 | cruisin'
| | 8 | | | | 9 | 10:57 (5:28 pace)
| wearing down
| | 10 | 5:16 | must have been downhill...
| | 11 | 5:31 | | | 12 | 5:24 | trying to stay strong to the finish
| | 13.1 | 6:11 (5:30 pace for 1.1)
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It was a good race day. Weather was chilly early on, but was sunny with no wind, so pretty much perfect. Gloves, arm sleeves, and compression socks with shorts and a singlet were very comfortable, and it warmed up a lot as the race progressed. We had a good group at the start, including Holt, Hayden, Sasha, Jeff Mc, and a few others who I didn't know as well. The race went out very slow, which suited me, because it usually takes me a few miles to warm up. After a couple miles, the pack of about 6-7 people really started moving, but I was feeling good and snappy by then, and just tucked in behind whoever was leading at the moment and tried to run good tangents. At mile 5, we went up the biggest and longest uphill stretch. Jeff(?) kept things moving along that segment, and I think Sasha dropped somewhere in there. So by Mile 6, it was just me, Jeff, Hayden, and Dave. The slippery footbridge near Mile 6(?) again was treacherous this year, as it claimed Hayden. He went down just behind me, but appeared to pop up pretty quick (he had some very nice war wounds after the race though). The fall caused Hayden to drop back, and we lost Holt soon afterward as well, so it was Jeff and I to the finish. Jeff was running strong, and picked it up to 5:15 pace. I was able to match for a couple miles, but started laboring, and he pulled away in the neighborhoods around Mile 8-9 (I don't quite remember). It wasn't so much one move, but just keeping a hard steady pace. My own pace dropped a bit, and he put on about 5s/mile for the rest of the race. For the last few miles, I just tried to focus, keep my form good, and work as hard as I could. I was fairly pleased my pace didn't drop more than it did, given the training mileage I was doing. I knew I was somewhat fit, but not extremely fit, so holding 5:30 or faster was quite fine my me. The course weaved to the finish, and I ended up at 1:11:31. Jeff barely broke 1:11:00. Hayden was about a minute behind me, then Holt, then Sasha. I think the chip spotted us a couple seconds, because my watch was slower, but I'll take it. It was a good course. Honest, but not excessively hard either. There were certainly a lot of hills (more than I expected), but none of them were monsters, so we could keep a good rhythm going. A very fair course, and I liked it. Some parts of it were pretty as well, which is always bonus. I had fun racing with the pack of guys we had today, as I honestly had no idea who would come out on top. Kudos to Jeff for running a very good race and winning over what I thought was a solid field. My goals coming in were to run in the 1:11-1:12 range (see Wednesday's blog), and I did that, so I am happy with it. This is my 5th fastest half marathon, and 3rd fastest on an unaided course. And I'll call it a post-A.S. PR.
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