Palmetto Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I went out dedicated to hitting 1:20 or nearby. That was overly ambitious, but I figured what the hell. I'll try. I was holding 6:08 for 5 miles, and then things went south. I was actually in 3rd place for those 5 miles. Then I slowed down and went from 3rd to 6th over the next few miles. Then we hit the real hills and I truly blew up and lost another 5 places as a small pack passed me. At mile 11 I started to feel a little better and picked it up again, passing two people who had cracked even worse than I had, and finished 9th.

I'll take that. I had made a conscious decision to go big or go home. I ended up 'going home', but I learned a lot more than I would have if I had gone out at a 6:25 pace and held it.

Nothing. I went for it knowing that the consequence of failure was blow-up. I can live with that consequence.

My quads especially are pretty blown out. I've stretched them many times, and I'm wearing compression tights now. We'll see....


Even splits would have made me much faster, but that's not what today was about. Another time...


Despite blowing up, I still got a PR. Not the one I was hoping for, but I'm not complaining. It'll come...

On the other hand, I am totally stoked to see Samuel and James finish their first genuine 5K race. They were both fantastic. Samuel was chomping at the bit. (He got up at 4:45 and asked me whether we could go ahead and get over there...) He did a great job, as did James.