Flower City Half Marathon - Run

I seeded myself with the 1:50 pace group. But before the start everything squished towards the front and I lost the pacer. The first 4 miles went as planned, low 8's. I felt good and the course was nice through some of the business district and into the historical areas. Miles 3 and 4 are part of the Rochester half in the fall. Mile 5 heads up hill into Highland Park. Through the park and into the Mt Hope Cemetery. Almost 2 miles of wandering up hill and down hill amongst the headstones. At times I felt fortunate that I wasn't with them, other times I just wanted to lay down with them! Finally get to the top of the longest climb and it is a long downhill to the exit. A mile or so past the hospital and into the University of Rochester to the river path. Only challenging part here was exiting the path up the clover leaf and across the bridge to Exchange Street and the mile plus to the finish. This is where the cold and dampness started to catch up and the ankles/achilles started to cramp some. I tried to pick it up, but was not to be without the potential of taking me out of training.

If I were to race this instead of using it as a hard training day I wouldn't have ridden the bike for 2 plus hours yesterday. I would have done some more running in general, but specifically hills.

I got my medal and something to drink. I went into the arena to warm a bit and stretch some.


Nothing to add.


This weekend was the inaugural Flower City Challenge, with a duathlon and paddle tri on Saturday and the half marathon and 5K on Sunday. The race numbers exceeded their expectations, but the organizers have done many other races and adjusted just fine. Considering the weather today there were plenty of people on the course cheering. A couple of bands along the way as well as one in the lobby of the arena. It is too bad the weather didn't cooperate as it would have been fun to stick around afterward and enjoy the festivities. As it was, I got cold and headed to the car for some dry clothes and the ride home.