Colonial Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Started out slower than planned due to congestion, first mile 8:24, worried at first, then just laid back and figured plenty of time to make it up. Pushed little by little trying to get pace average to 8 min miles. Finally made it btw miles 6-7, almost halfway and heart rate monitor only beeped a couple of times going up a couple hills. I forgot to change alert to give me more HR flexibility, but I wasn't really sure where to pace it for HR. Took a Roctane at 36'. Feeling good overall at halfway, took another Roctane at 1:15. Shoe lace untied, stopped to retie. Water stops were sparse, but I felt ok since I was fully hydrated. Left hamstring tightened up from halfway through to the end, but never became an issue. Continued to pick up pace slowly each mile. I didn't expect to peel off another 15" per mile on my overall average, but I just kept feeling good and waiting for mile 10 (The Line). Continued to pick off racers for back half of race, I think I was passed by one guy that I remember, who I tried to keep up with but he kept pulling away slowly little by little until the last mile or so I couldn't see him anymore and just stayed focused in my own zone. I planned to pick up pace again for last 5k and my right hip was in pain. "Training is about learning to hurt" - Chrissie Wellington, as are pre-races. I picked off 3 more runners last half mile. I couldn't catch the final person ahead me that was in my sights, but closed the race very strong and feeling great about my day.



Nothing really, I met my best time goal. Start picking up pace earlier, and start more in front to miss traffic in this race again.

walk around, some stretching


Nothing


Only water stops, this year they had one gel stop near the end. Would have been nice to have more water stops, but I didn't really need it with the weather, perfect temps. Great early season race.