I was nervous about this race, as I have only run twice over 13 miles since March, plus I decided to run in some pretty worn out lightweight flats, and wasn't sure how the leg would like that. My goal was anything under 1:23, and my original plan was to run at about a 6:15 pace down the canyon and then see what happened when I hit Hollow road. The plan changed quickly when I joined up with Carol Rowe, and she set a blistering pace down the canyon. Since she was going for the women's overall, I stayed with her to watch her race develop, and to see if I had what it took to stay with her. We ran in stride the first seven miles and came out of the canyon at a 6:02 average pace, along with the woman she was racing. Then they dropped me like a ton of bricks. I was pretty sure Carol was going to win, as she was pulling ahead, but apparently the other woman runner caught her and beat her by just six seconds. Quite an exciting womens finish, but I missed it as I was a minute or so back by the time they finished.
After the canyon, I was really out of gas, had bad stomach cramps, and just ran on sheer will power. But I don't think I got passed by anyone and did manage to pick off a few people, so I guess I wasn't doing too bad. I struggled on the hills, but once I turned onto 200 west I was on my home turf and that gave me the energy to pick it up. I looked back behind me with about a quarter mile to go, and there was a younger guy bearing down on me, so I cranked it up as fast as I could and managed to outkick him at the end, which felt good. My leg seemed to hold up fine though my calves are pretty trashed.
There was some confusion with some of the posted times right after the finish, and they kept getting changed, which was weird. I forgot to stop my watch when I came through the chute, and stopped it probably 20 seconds after I finished, after taking off my chip, and it read 1:21:45 at that time. The official time that is posted at milliseconds is different than what they had for me initially on the preliminary results and at the awards, but now appears correct based on what my watch said (the official time says 1:21:23, consistent with my ~20 second lag in stopping my watch). I'm glad they got that sorted out, I worked hard for this time, and it is a half marathon PR for me.
Didn't get a chance to see as many of the bloggers as I hoped to, with a hectic schedule after the race as well, but did talk to Allie, Dave, Paul and Cody at the start. Dave ran a great race finishing in the top 3 in our age group. My wife got some good pictures of Jon, Paul and Cody coming in, I will have to send them proofs along with instructions on how to order copies if they want them.... maybe I will release the copyrights for a bagel or two. LATE ADDITION- great local news write up on the race, with great comments by Jon Allen, and a nice coverage of the amazing women's race. Great to see Carol's picture in the paper too. See this link if interested.
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