X-Country 1/2 Marathon - Run

I wish I had some drama to report, or something screamingly funny that happened, but I really don't. I didn't taper for this race, and got 4 hours of sleep the night before, so I wondered if I'd be hurting, but I wasn't.

After my first half iron race last month, where I was reduced to a shuffle on the run, I wanted to see if I was capable of running a good steady pace. My target was 2:10, with a stretch goal of 2:00.

I went out feeling easy, trying to concentrate on that feeling for at least the first half of the race. I forgot to start my watch and there were no mile markers, so I wasn't really sure how I was doing. At 5k we went back by the finish, and I saw the clock: 27:xx. Well, that was about my target pace, so I settled in.

I told myself that if I felt good at 10 miles, I'd step up the pace, and I did just that..I believe I did the final 3 miles in about 23 minutes, still with some left in the tank. Since I was calculating my time by adding my watch time to the 5k time, I mistakenly thought I didn't have a shot of making 2:00. I rounded the final corner to see the clock at 2:02 and thought, "Damn..I could've easily pushed it for 2-3 more minutes and broken 2 hours." Oh well..next time. I beat my first half mary time by 38 minutes as it was..I didn't realize how far I've come since February. :)

Got the beer out of the truck, wrapped napkins around it to avoid the park rangers, and chugged it down.

Met Christine, and cheered Haley, Jess, and Renee through the finish line. I wish I could've stayed for dinner, but I had a party to get back to.


I forgot to mention that my buddies Mike and Ken did this race with me. Last February, they both kicked my butt. This time, I didn't see 'em after the 5k mark, and they weren't in front of me. Mike said when the 300 lb lady passed him that finished off his motivation and he just started walking.. :D