First of all, I started 35 sec back from the start line (behind the 1:30 pace bunny). This was a bit of a mistake, mostly bc the race start was for marathons and half marathons so I was dodging people for a long way (probably 2-3km) and this was a waste of energy. I knew from the time I woke up that I was going to have a good day. I just felt ready and excited. Once I got a groove going around 5-6km I knew I running fast (sub 4:10's). Normally I would check myself and pull back a bit, but on this day I didn't think that was necessary. I was going to have a great race. Mentally I used my trusty strategy of breaking the race into thirds. Run the first 1/3rd with your head, the 2nd with your personality and the last with your heart. For each I repeated....
1 - relax and focus
2nd - strong and smart
3rd - Hudson... I'm coming

At 10km a women ask me my goal, I said sub 90. She said "me too", and I replied "ok let's run". I wasn't in the mind set to chat, and good thing she wasn't either. We carried each other until about 18km, when she broke from me and I couldn't follow. I kept calm, and ran hard. I dropped off my pace a little here, and got a little frustrated by it but was able to mentally check back into the race and finish strong.

As for how I felt physically - I noticed at various times in the race that my legs felt fine. Great actually. If anything was limiting me it was my stomach... I had to do some breathing to avoid cramps and came very close to barfing at the finish line. I'm not entirely sure how to go about fixing this, but I know it's not a one off issue. So I should probably work on it.

Fueling - Gel at 5km, 12km and a 1/4 of a Gel at 18km. Water at every station. pretty good.

Celebrated with my fam jam! John and Jill and mom ran too!


- stomach - see comment above

What helped me be successful -

I've learned the key is pace work. The more times I see the race pace on my garmin or on the treadmill the more confident I become at knowing I can run that pace in a race. When I was marathon training I did one key pace workout a week and 4:30 just started feeling "normal". With this half marathon I did a lot of 2 x 4km and fartlek's all in the 4:02-4:12 pace range and so 4:10 just felt "normal".

The other important thing for me is to focus on my strengths when I race. I'm a very strong distance runner, but I am not fast, so my race tactic is very important. I never go out to fast cause I'll crash and burn. I find my pace and I hold it for 21km or 42km or whatever the distance is. I use my head when I race and to be honest I think that's one of my biggest strengths as a runner.