The Hottest Half - RunHalf Marathon

This was a great race! I had not decided if this was going to be a training run or a race pace run. I decided that my legs would make that decision in the 1st mile! I felt good so I decided that I was going to shoot for below an 8 min mile pace. I did a shot block early which helped and alternated water and gatoraide at every station. Played many mind games with myself and was counting down the miles to go. By mile 9, I was ready to be done and my pace had slipped. But then a girl that I was behind stopped at the water station and that gave me motivation to pull ahead. I look down and could not believe that I was back on track with my pace. So I passed 2 other girls that had already passed me and felt strong for about a minute or two (not long enough) then slowed down again. I did the math and figured that I could slow down to a 9 minute mile and still beat my PR of 1:45. One of the girls that I had already passed, passed me and I tried to stay w/ her until about 12 3/4 when I decided I was going to just get this thing done. After I accelerated and passed her,I realized that the course was longer than what my Garmin was showing and that I needed to hold this pace to the finish! Then finally -up the hill to the finish and it was done! Beat my last time by almost 3 minutes from November.

I think I drank too much, I had the sloshy tummy and gained 2 lbs from the race! I am not used to drinking so much during a run.

I started out at 7:30 pace and my goal was to maintain around that. I wonder how my body would react to starting out a bit slower than speeding up. I have not been successful at that strategy yet but should give it another shot to avoid my HR getting so high. I was in zone 4 and 5 for at least 3/4 the race. See log for details.

Stretch Stretch and more Stretch. Saw one of Jen's friend's husbands, talked the some of the girls that were running next to me and then saw Todd and Buehler.


Great race, very organized! On time and ran smoothly.