The Cowtown - Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

My race plan was to keep a 11:30 mm, walk uphill, and make up the time on the downhill, and if I felt up to it, to push the pace to a 10:30 mm the last 3 miles. Stuck to my plan pretty well!

Before going into this race, my left knee has been hurting when I run. My longest training run was 9.50 miles, and the knee held up pretty good at a 11:30 mm. When I did a 9 mile training run at 10:30 mm, my knee hurting pretty bad by mile 8, and it was hard to lift my leg. Figured trying to keep a 11:30 mm to mile 10 was a good plan. It was overall.

Honestly, I ran around a 10:30 mm most of the time, but with the walking segments, brought my average to a 11:30 ish mm for most of my miles. I tried to run slow going a "go all day" pace. When I did, I was doing 10:30 mm.

Had a restroom break at a Quick Trip around mile 9 ish. I wasn't willing to wait in the LONG port-o-john lines on the course. Probably added 5 minutes to my overall time. I probably didn't save any time.

The knee hurt but I was able to suck it up till the end, and do a 10:30 mm pace for the last 3 miles.

When I stopped, I hurt! Now, 6 hours after the race, my knees feel fine, but my hips HURT. That's another issue I have been having for a few months now. I'm realizing that my sub-2 hour half marathon dream is never going to happen. Pretty sure my hips and knees won't allow it in my lifetime, not at this point.

Let's see... not twisted my ankle in November AND December... not have the knees and hips I have!

Another great year for the Cowtown half marathon! I finished my medal series! Woo-Hoo! Lots of friendly volunteers to help out, and having an aid station close to every mile on the course was nice. My only "needs improvement" would be the after race shirt pick-up. The line was OUTRAGEOUS. They had it right last year, and there weren't any lines. This year, they funneled everyone down to a small table for their race distance (half marathon, marathon, ultra). Which meant the 2:30-3:00 finishers for the half marathon stood in a very long, slow moving line. Oh well, the shirt was well worth the wait! I also got a cool bag because it was my 5th year in a row!