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San Luis Obispo Half Marathon - Run


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San Luis Obispo, California
United States
Get Off The Couch Potato Sports
60F / 16C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 01m 23s
Overall Rank = 578/2232
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 47/94
Pre-race routine:

Woke up extra early on Saturday morning so that I could fall asleep early in the evening. The race start time was 6:30 so I knew I would need to be up at 5:00 to get ready and drive over. In the afternoon I watched my local roller derby team play an excellent bout (go CCRD!) then had my usual sushi dinner and went to sleep.
Event warmup:

Woke up half an hour before my alarm, the tactic of forcing myself to wake up on Saturday morning seemed to work! Ate a Cliff bar then headed to the race start. Hit the porta-potties then tried to find my friends who were also running, only found one as we entered the starting corrals.

I decided to restart my troublesome phone so that it would behave during the run but it didn't power back up which meant to music for me! Fortunately I was tracking pace on my Garmin 310 but this would be my longest run without music.
Run
  • 2h 01m 23s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

I was somewhat frustrated with my phone not powering up but realized there wasn't much I could do about it. The lack of music was going to be a hurdle to overcome and I tried to push it out of my mind and focus on the race. Music is a luxury I enjoy at running events and I know that for my first Olympic triathlon (later this year) I won't have music for the 10k run so I better get used to running without it.

I was lined up between the 2:00 and 2:15 pacers, hoping to finish the run between 2:05 and 2:10. The middle section of the race is rolling hills that I expected to slow me down compared to my other HM's. The horn sounded and we were off!

The first 3 miles of the course went through the historic downtown on San Luis Obispo passing some of the landmarks: Fremont theater (which is featured in the t-shirt and finishers medal), the mission, and down the main tree lined street. For the first mile I kept a nice quick pace as I let the excitement of the race carry me along with the pack. The lack of music opened up new sounds: the rhythm of thousands of feet, small talk between runners, and (this one got a chuckle from me) the chorus of Garmin/GPS watches all beeping together as we finished the first mile. Heading out of downtown and into the surrounding neighborhood there were a handful of early morning spectators cheering from porches of some of the Victorian style houses. My pace settled down a bit and I was in my groove and I hardly noticed the lack of music.

As the 3rd mile finished so did the easy terrain as we hit the first hill. I run this hill each week as I train so I knew what to expect and shifted into "low" gear and cruised right up. At the top I yelled out "That's the first of many!" and heard some groans and laughs from those in earshot. After a short down and up we were on our way out of town and into the rolling hills for the next 6 miles as the sun rose over the ridge line to the east. The scenery was beautiful for this stretch, green hills and vineyards kept my mind off the inclines and I cruised the downhill segments. There was a great crowd of spectators at one of the intersections and they cheered as we came and went. Favorite signs: "I thought they said RUM!" and "It's not sweat, it's liquid awesome!".

With the hills behind me as we ran back into town I was feeling good. Only a few miles to go and I was cruising. A bunch of my friends were having having mimosas on their porch and gave me a big cheer as I ran by which was a great boost. I looked at my time and thought "wow, I'm pretty close to a sub 2:00, I wonder If I can push the last 1.5 miles..." then came to my senses and realized I'm already running a great race and should finish solid without worrying about the time. Right before the final stretch was a steep little incline followed by a gentle downhill to the finish line. With the gate in sight and the cheering spectators lining the fence I kicked in with all I had left and finished strong.
What would you do differently?:

Not much, this was great race and I felt good the whole way. I beat my target time by a good 5 minutes and set a half-marathon PR!
Post race
Warm down:

Drank some water and stretched out. Enjoyed the expo and found friends and fellow runners for pictures and congratulations.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Just need to start working on some speed training.

Event comments:

Excellent race, looking forward to doing it again next year.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2014-01-08 12:00 AM
Running
02:01:23 | 13.1 miles | 09m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 47/94
Overall: 94/2232
Performance: Good
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/489029906
Course: First 3 miles: flat through historic downtown and neighborhoods. Middle 7 miles: rolling hills including beautiful vineyards. Final 3 miles: flat back through town to a small downhill stretch at the finish.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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