Celebrate Life Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I went into this race hoping I could beat my PR of 1:59:33 from last year by a couple of minutes. I felt like I was physically and mentally prepared to give it a good try. After the first mile I could tell something wasn't quite right. I just didn't have "it", and I felt like I was working way too hard. Somewhere around mile 8 I realized I wasn't going to PR, but I still wanted to stay under 2 hours. It took a pretty good mental effort, and I am pleased that I was able to do it. A couple of times on some hills near the end I even said, "Come on!!!" out loud, which, in retrospect, I find a little comical.

Not sure why I wasn't at my best. The training plan I used this year had a lot less running in the week before the race than my plan last year, so that may be it. Maybe I didn't sleep well, or maybe it's just that I'm a year older. Probably it was just one of those days.

As with every race, lots of great things happened even though I wasn't at my best. I am very pleased with my mental effort. This race has a half hour early start for slower runners, so I like to give a little thumbs up and a "good job" when I go by, because those folks are doing some great things out there. Around mile 6 I was passed by my patient, Kaitlyn S. who has been my patient since she was 5, and now she is a school teacher. Oddly enough, she had come to see me the day before to check a wisdom tooth, and told me she was doing the race. She was a runner in college and was using this as a training day for a marathon. She just glided by, so smoothly and effortlessly, like she was barely working at all.

All in all, another great day, and a great race.

Not sure. Maybe taper less? Definitely I should have run faster.

Walked around a bit, said hello to some people. They had a nice spread of food, and they even had some meat, but I didn't feel like eating.


Don't train enough.


An excellent race for a great cause.