Flower City Half Marathon - Run

Yeah, keeping cool not a problem! I didn't take my shell off until 7 miles in. Since I wasn't that confident in my less-than-ideal training, I started out very slow- I kept to 11 min miles initially, and didn't let myself go under 10 until 7 miles. I started to feel good around 4, and kept it around 10 then. After the hills (about 9 miles in) I felt great (and saw my husband and son there!) and I picked it up. I did my final 5K in <28 minutes, so was pretty happy with that. I passed many many people during the last (7!) miles. At about 11 miles I was running with someone who was running about the same pace as I was, and we pushed each other to the end (thanks Allison!). We were able to actually hold a conversation, so I probably could have gone a little faster :).

So, just a little gripe, but my overall place was based on my gun time, not my chip time. Is this usual? I obviously started much farther back that the others I finished with, and would have been several places higher on chip time. Not that I lost any awards based on that, but that was a significant minute! I'll have to start further up if that's usually the case, even though I start slow.

Not get sick in January, so I could train for longer!

Walked to car, drove home.


Training, training, training. But I think I got a little taste of what I might be able to do with some at least adequate training, and that's kind of fun. I enjoyed this distance, and could see myself racing it again, though I also have an old 5K PR to top one of these days :).


Great race, especially for an inaugural. The course was fun, and well supported. The volunteers were enthusiastic. I hope it is successful and runs again! If they want to be like the boilermaker they need beer at the finish line (I didn't look, but I didn't notice anyone with beer!). The bands (2) along the way were really fun- more would be awesome (maybe a string quartet by Eastman). And can't all races now give technical t-shirts instead of cotton?? But overall an awesome introduction to the half-marathon distance.