Lake Sammamish Half Marathon - Run

I felt really good coming into the race. I PR'd a 10k a few weeks ago and have been running a lot of extra miles. I also had a good week leading up to the race with limiting my runs to about 4 miles and could feel myself getting stronger through the week via my mini-taper.

My plan was to run the first few miles at my otimistic goal pace and back off if I needed to. With such a large number of people funneling onto the trail after the first mile I wanted to get into the flow of other similar paced runners early. Even still I had to do more passing and weaving than I wanted.

Hit my first miles just ahead of goal pace and felt so good I just went with it. Throughout the race I do not think I deviated more than 5 or 10 seconds per mile from my overall pace. The aid stations were every two or three miles and I took a quick shot a gel and a sip of water at each. Worked out perfect as I felt like I had energy in the tank right through the finish.

Ran right behind a father/daughter pair through the last half of the race. It was nice to pace off of them. Daughter faded at 12 miles and dad surged ahead. I tried to stay with him but he must have been holding back to provide support. The switchbacks through the parking lot were still there the last mile but much shorter than last year. There is also a short stretch before the last quarter mile that connects the parking lot to the last stretch of trail that is pea gravel. It was horrible and there was muddy grass on either side so just had to be careful plowing through it.

Finished strong and could not believe the timing clock. My optimistic goal was 1:45 based on a 1:44 McMillian time from my recent 10k. Usually I drop off pretty dramatically from McMilliian as the distances increase but I beat him by 2 minutes. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought. I am so thankful to be able to running and getting faster at my ripe old age.

Nothing. The run focus Fall and Winter are really paying off. Thanks too to the great run challenges focusing on purpose, JD, and volume.

No real warmdown. I felt great after the race. No soreness or stiffness which is pretty unusual for me. Road the shuttle back to the startline enjoying Adrienne's company. Met some of the other great BT'ers and my brother after the race over a few beers. Took a tour of the Red Hook brewery on the way home after that. Life does not get better.


Not much. I think I had a bit more in the tank but overall was so happy with the race.


This is a great early season running event. The course is about as fast as you will find and the aid stations were in the right places. A lot of grumbling at the start line about delaying the race 15 minutes for latecomers but I guess they were trying to be fair to them. There are a lot of people that get funneled in on just a few roads so things do get backed up.