Johnston's Wichita Half-Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I started out in a pack that was planning on running a 1:24...but our pace was around 6:00 flat for the first mile, and then we backed off from there to around 6:19ish. I felt pretty smooth during the first couple of miles, and then rather blah after that. My cold/allergies have been making me feel miserable lately. I help onto the group for the first 5-6 miles and then kind of had a mental/physical breakdown and let them go. My legs felt really heavy and fatigued for that early in the race, and about the same time my watch suddenly stopped working for the first time ever. All it would show was what time it was...I couldn't see my overall time, splits, etc. I decided to back off and the group I was running with got about 100 yards away. I then just tried to relax and go, and the next thing I knew I was slowly pulling in that group and others. By the 8 mile mark I had passed that group and was feeling pretty smooth. Fatigue set in again around the 11 mile mark, but I had enough to hammer it down and hold anybody off from passing me. I wish I knew what my mile splits were for the last 4-5 miles. I think I had a few really quick ones in there. I ended up beating my time from last year by about 6-7 minutes, and beat my half marathon time from the spring by 2 minutes. Overall I was really pleased with my performance and my PR. I was excited that I finally awarded in my age group for the half mary...my age group is really competitive.

Not be sick, get better sleep, relax more in the fist mile or two.

When I finished I started coughing which led to a cramp in my thoat...yes...really painful. I then walked to my car to get my bag and change my shirt and socks, and the went back to cheer on my wife who was finishing her first half marathon. I am so proud of her.


Being sick/allergies.


I had a great time at this race. Every year this event gets better and better...and bigger and bigger. This year there were over 1,000 finishers. I'll certainly do this event again. I thought the new course was slightly tougher than last year's, but it was more enjoyable.