Lake County Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

The race started and all felt good. We wound our way through the parking lot and the traffic was pretty tight. Got through OK and once we were out on 67 it thinned out OK. However, they kept telling us to stay to the left of the cones and there was only about 4 feet of pavement before the gravel. After the first mile, the watch said 6:54 and I was feeling good. I didn't think I was going that fast but slowed down just a bit because I didn't want to burn myself out. At mile 2 I was still going good at 13:56.

By the time I hit mile 5 the running was beginning to catch up with me. The legs started feeling heavy and just didn't feel myself. I was only at 35:23 so the time was still good. However from that point until we got onto main street and went by the boardwalk area I just kept feeling worse. I never saw the cones to tell you to get off the boardwalk until I saw the course went between two buildings. I stepped off the boardwalk onto the street and my legs felt wobbly (I almost fell) but I pressed on.

I got to the park area at mile 8 and checked my time. I was at 57 minutes. That is still an average of 7:07, but that is the maximum I could average to PR and I was feeling a little wobbly. I didn't think I could average another 7:07 over the last 5.1 miles so at that point I made the decision. I could either press on and give it all I had to try and PR which would probably leave me sore and maybe injured based on how I felt at that point, or I could shut it down and coast the last 5.1 miles. I have my first marathon in 2 weeks. My ultimate goal is to finish that race and if I did something foolish and hurt myself, I might not be able to do that. There will be other half marathons in my future that I can push myself, but today I run to race another day.

Therefore, for the last 5+ miles, I cruised. I walked a little bit and when I ran, I went about 8:00 pace or a little slower. I was feeling pretty good. Didn't feel great because my legs were still a bit wobbly from pushing in the first part. I will usually give it all I have in the last mile or so, but today I just kept my same pace all the way to the end. When I crossed the finish line I had finished in 1:41:49, which was only about 7 minutes slower than my PR. If I had pushed it, maybe I could have done it, but who knows what the result would have been or how I would have felt this coming week. Although disappointing, I think I made the right choice.

I have no idea what happened out there to me though. I felt like I had not trained enough for the race because we were on vacation for a week and a half in August, but I had a GREAT week this past week tapering. I have never run as fast as I did on the track this week. Maybe I was right though and I just didn't have the base built up enough. That is not looking good leading up to the marathon in two weeks. Well, I'll be happy to finish that race now.

No idea. I probably need to train more.

Walked a lot and waited for my wife to finish. Talked to some of the other Donkeys and other friends that were there. Had some food and said my good-by's so we could get home to the kids we had left home alone.


No idea, but I better figure that out.


I did not like this course. I really hope they go back to the old course next year when all the construction is done.