Lake County Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Have you ever started a race and felt like it was going to be "your day"? Well, today was "my day". My "A" race is 30 days away and I have been putting in a lot of miles. Those miles have seemed slow to me. They are banked miles though and they paid off at this race. Today I started nice and easy (finally) and put down a 9:28 and 9:05 to start and stayed at a very consistent pace the rest of the way. As each mile passed, I just felt really good. The big hill at mile 5 was no problem. In fact, it was the first race where I did not walk a hill. I just kept plugging along and kept feeling good. I stayed with a lot of the same people most of the race, talked to one guy at mile 8 who asked me what my goal was. I replied "sub 2". He chuckled and said "you are going to do that easily today". Thanks buddy, you were right. He found me after the race to congratulate me. I never did get his name or number. Nice guy.

I didn't pay too much attention to my mile splits until I saw the mile 11 split on the Garmin...8:48!!! I really got excited at that point because that meant I had almost 21 minutes to cover 2.1 miles and still beat 2:00. Mile 12 was 9:06 because I took a few walking steps at the last water station to make sure I had a little Gatorade to push to the finish. Mile 13 was 8:47, which I am so happy with because that included the last long hill.

The finish was interesting. Dave was with me for the last 3/4 mile or so, yelling at me to NOT look at my watch. Once I got to the parking lot it was two quick turns to the finish. With about 25 yards to go, I passed a girl. She then sprinted to pass me. My competitive juices were sky high. I passed her with 5 yards to go and threw up my hands and screamed as I crossed the line. I've never really had a finish like that before, but it has been nine attempts to break 2:00 in a 1/2 marathon and I finally did it!!!

A huge THANK YOU to Dave Jesse. The workouts have obviously helped. The hills, the track workouts...it all adds up in the end. Thanks for your confidence in me and thanks for pushing me out of my comfort level.

Thanks to all the BTer's for the inspires and a big thank you to the Tuesday night group as well. You people are AWESOME!!!!!!

Nothing! A PR by almost 6 minutes!!! In fact, every new thing I tried today was perfect. In addition to the extra pre-race food, I took an extra Roctane gel. My usual is one at the start and one at the halfway point, but today I also took one at mile 9.75 to give me a little boost to the finish. Also, my choice of alternating water and Gatorade at successive aid stations worked well. Like I said, it was "my day".

Walked around, grabbed some Gatorade. My wife and kids showed up for hugs. Talked to Scott and his group some more, found other friends who raced. Heard many stories of good races. It makes sense since the conditions were perfect. Grabbed some food with Nashers, Amy F and Jim Webs. Fun times had by all!!!


I love this race no matter which course they use. Just a fun day as usual. I know a lot of racers and volunteers at this race so it is great fun for me.