American Discovery Trail Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This is the 4th time I've done this race. It's held in conjunction with a marathon. The marathon is a point to point course that starts at the same time and uses the same course in the final miles. I've also done the marathon twice. Originally the half marathon course was almost entirely dirt, but in the past few years most of it has been paved. The start/finish area in America the Beautiful Park is very scenic as it looks toward the mountains. My wife, Vicki, was also running this race for the first time.

My goal for this race was to run a personal course record. I'm finally recovered from my foot injuries from earlier this year, and now that triathlon season is over I'm able to devote all my training to running. In the past month my running has started to get close to where I was before the injuries. Vicki's goal was to break 2 hours. It would be her first time to do this and she has been training very hard. I've done several of the longer runs with her and have given her some tips on how to push through some of the inevitable pain near the end of the race.

New this year were two pace groups - 1:45 & 2:00. Perfect, as my course record was 1:44:48, and Vicki wanted to break 2 hours. I didn't plan to run with the pace group, but slightly ahead.

At the start I got off nicely and was able to keep out of the crowd. I wanted to run just under 8:00 pace to the turnaround and pick it up on the return. Within the first couple miles I had separated from the main pack and only had a few people running near me. I had passed a number of runners and was only passed by a few. I was trying hard to keep from pressing too hard in the early miles, but felt like I could have been running faster. Around mile 5 or so until the turnaround I could feel myself slowing just a bit, but not too much. Just before the turn a guy went by me who I thought was a guy that used to be in my age group and always beat me. He's now in the next age group, but I figured if I could hang on to him I could have a decent time. I went through the turn at 52:18 and was surprised to see the 1:45 pace leader very close behind. I was doing a good job of not letting the one guy get too far ahead, and actually went by him when he slowed at an aid station to take a gel. He passed me again and I still thought it was this guy I knew, but he didn't say anything. Close to another aid station I went by another guy, but he picked it up shortly after and went by me. As he did I was wondering if he might be in my age group, but I thought he was younger. He seemed to be pulling closer to the other guy and I was about 100 yards behind. In the last mile I tried working hard to catch these guys and did close the gap to about 50 yards. As it turned out the one guy was not who I thought it was, and both of them were in my age group finishing second and third. I never thought any of us would be in contention for awards as in past years it has taken about 1:35 to crack the top 3.

I did end up beating my course record by almost 3 minutes and I was pleased with my effort. This was slightly less than 2 minutes slower than my HM PR. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't push myself just a bit harder though as I think I may have had it in me to go a couple minutes faster. There is another half later this year where I'll have a solid go at my PR if there is decent weather. It feels strange to have run my best ever on this course, yet still be somewhat disappointed. A few years ago it was me who was thrilled to just break 2 hours.

After I finished I walked around to work out the soreness a bit, drank some water, did a little stretching and waited for Vicki. Just past the 1:57 mark I saw her make the turn to enter the park. It's about three hundred yards from there to the finish and I was hoping she had it in her to keep up a good pace. She did! She finished in 1:59:09 and was both exhausted and overcome by emotion after she finished. I was almost as thrilled for her as she was. After she recovered a bit it was great to find out she had finished third in her age group. The payoff of several months of hard training was rewarded and that's a very satisfying feeling.


Maybe go a little faster in the first several miles and run harder the last few miles. There's a fine line between going out too hard and dieing at the end, and pacing it just right that I have to dial in better.

Walked around in the finish area, drank some water, did some minor stretching, and waited for Vicki to finish.


Just getting back into good form after the first part of the year when I was injured and the triathlon season took time away from run training.


This is a very nice race that doesn't seem to draw out much of a crowd for some unknown reason. The organization is great, food/pizza and beer after the race. Decently fast course.