Dick Beardsley 1/2 Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Good solid effort, overall I'm happy with this race. I'd probably classify this as a "C" race in that I decided to do it on Thursday because my training plan called for close to 13 this weekend anyways. I didn't really approach the race or my speed trying to go all out and PR or break the 2 hour barrier. In fact, I was trying to just run it easy and smart, not go out too fast and not feel like garbage at mile 11 and end up run/walking the last two miles. I'm happy to say I accomplished those goals. I also took 16 minutes off my time on this course last year, it's funny what some proper training will do for you!

My first three miles were 9:52, 9:34, 9:34. The idea of finally breaking two hours was always in the back of my head, but while I've gotten way more training mileage in these past 6 months I have not been running fast or doing enough/any speed work. I'm not sure if I ran those first three closer to 9:15-9:20 if I would have still felt as good as I did at mile 9 or 10, or would have felt that I went out too hard. I'll probably focus on getting under that 2 hour mark for next spring. I have one more half marathon in October, but it's 3 weeks out from IM AZ and once again I'm treating it like a training run instead of a race, so I don't know if it would be wise to try and break that 2 mark there.

Walked a bit, tried to warm up and took in as much post-race Gatorade as I could get my hands on. I always feel a bit like these races are anti-climactic and once I'm done, have my medal and get some fluids in me I'm then saying to myself, "I guess I'll head to the car and get out of here now". Got a late checkout from the hotel so I was able to hit the hot tub and get some jets on my legs. That felt good and got me good and warmed up too.


The only limiter today was that it wasn't my goal to perform fast.


This is a great race, I think we'll make it a yearly thing to do. Last year it was hot, this year it was nice and cool. For some reason after last year we thought the course was too hilly or something, I'm not sure why that was, the course isn't really too hilly at all and was quite enjoyable. It's low key and where else do you get the chance to hang with, maybe even run with superstars like Dick Beardsley and this year's special guest, Carrie Tollefson.