Multisport Athlete

What a wonderful morning to run a 1/2 Marathon. Temps in the low 60's and cloudy!! I woke up at 5:20 this morning, put on a pot of coffee and made up my normal pre race meal of toast with PB&J and fig newtons. Got dressed and packed my bag for the bike ride in. I was going to get a fairly long ride in before the race until I realized it started at 7:00. So I just rode in via the local bike trails taking it easy and warming up the legs. I was at the race site about 10 minutes before the start, put on my running shoes, slammed some GU, and spoke to a couple of the local racers. At 7:00 the gun went off and I found myself weaving through traffic stuck in the back 3rd of 1,000 runners. Once the 5k and 1/2 marathon runners split I was able to settle in and was running about 7:20 splits at mile 3 and feeling good, whahooo! My splits continued to stay under 7:30 and I was running fairly smooth up to the 1/2 way point. I checked my watch and I was dead on 49:00 min. My best split prior to this was 50:00 min so I was happy and feeling good. Then mile 9 started and my body didn't want to go any more. This really wasn't a huge suprise to me as most my long runs are about 1 hour long and I was at the 1 hour mark. Mile 9 was a 8:00 split as was mile 10. Knowing things were going a little south durning mile 9 I mentally made a couple notes. One was make it to mile 10 and then it's just a 5k. The second was I saw the 12 mile marker, made a note of where it was thinking that's were I would step it up for the finish. Mile 11 went well and 12 was even better knowing where that marker was for the home stretch. I was able to finish strong with a time of 1:38:42 which gave me a mile split of 7:32.

I was happy with the outcome and how I ran. I'm pleased with how I managed the miles when my body was saying "NO!!" I met my goal of 7:30ish splits and beating my PR. I was near my goal even splits (first half / second half) and came up just short of getting some hardware as I finished 5th in my age group (medals for 1-4) and 54th overall. Huge props to CedarRiver Runners Club for having a fantastic race. It was well organized, plenty of food and beverages durning and after the race, and great shirts and socks for the runners. This race if certainly worth doing again!

Now it's time to get ready for the Cornman Tri in two weeks.

Ed out!!