Fort4Fitness Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I was in coral C (8min/mile pace group). I started near Ryan, and he was right in front of me. For some stupid reason, I decided that I should try to just stay right behind him. I ran the first mile in 7:30- it didn't feel hard, but I knew that was going to get me in trouble. I had a little talk with myself at that point and reminded myself to run my own race and not someone else's. I backed off after that and slowed to a 7:50-ish pace. I think it was too late and had already done its damage. I was feeling more tired than I should have been feeling by about 5 miles. I did my best to hang in there for the next five miles (did ok). My back started aching pretty badly around 9.5 miles, and I wasn't even sure if I could make it. I got passed by my pace group right around this point. Miles 10 and 11 were really rough, and it took a lot of determination to keep going. I got my second wind after that when I realized how close I was and that I was going to make it after all. I finished the last 1.1 miles strong.

I would've taken more preventive action against my back issues earlier in the week. A really stressful week at work had me feeling uncomfortable for a few days previous.

I always say this, but I need to go out slower. I have a really hard time doing that when my adrenaline level is so high at the start of the race.

I had Ryan rub my back a little while we sat and talked about our races. Then we walked back to the car. We met up with Dirk quickly to get my heart rate monitor back.


Back issues and going out too fast

Also, I wore a long sleeve shirt, which was comfortable for the first 6-7 miles but definitely felt too hot after that.


I thought this race was really well organized. They said that almost 10,000 people were racing this weekend between all of the events, but it didn't feel chaotic at all.

The race shirts (long-sleeved tech shirt) were really nice, and the medals were too. I would definitely do this race again.