Frederick Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This was training for Eagleman in 6 weeks as I hadn't planned any long runs before this. In addition, a coworker was also doing the run and had planned on an 8:40 pace which is faster than he had done this distance before. That's a slower than normal pace for me but I wasn't planning on pushing things so I said I'd keep him on his pace. So, most of the run was really quite casual for me. Met up with Mike Matney too who said he was going to run with me, but then I think Mike changed his mind and went on ahead somewhere. I really was feeling quite good for the pace I was moving at, which is more than I can say for some folks around me. Ken kept up okay, but I had to ensure that I wasn't getting too far ahead of him from time to time. The race started out just cloudy and mild with temps in the upper 50s. I had arm warmers on but took them off soon after we started. Since I was trying to keep Ken's mind occupied by talking about things, the race went by rather quickly and we were at mile 9 before I knew it. Unfortunately, the rain started to come down around mile 8 or 9 I think. It's okay when you're running but not afterwards. Okay, since I was feeling quite good, I told Ken at mile 11 that I was going to push the last 2.1. So, mile 11 comes up and I take off. Up to this point, I think we were around 8:40 pace as Ken was trying to maintain. Most of the splits were in the 8:20 to 8:50 range. But after mile 11, I was at 7:04 and 7:09 pace! Feeling it a bit too coming up to mile 13. One young gal put on a nice burst of speed around here and really took me down a notch on how well I thought I was running. But, it just motivated me to press on. We ended up in front of the grandstand at the Frederick Fairgrounds for a nice sprint at the finish. Met Mike shortly after and I think I must've ran past him in the last couple of miles. Sounded like he ran out of gas but he also biked 80 miles yesterday too. Then saw Ken and he wasn't doing too well. A bit wobbly, so I receommended he go to the medical tent. Saw Lucas who had an awesome performance as usual and then got food and drink. Met Mike and Ken again at bag dropoff. Ken was okay now and we all talked about the race a bit before wishing each other well and saying goodbyes. Rain was now pouring and it was quite chilly. Best thing was to get into dry clothes. Stuck around a little while to see if I could see anyone else. Saw Tracy V at the Rescue Mission booth, but no one else. Talked about the race a little but Tracy had to go and I didn't see much point in staying any longer. Headed home to dry out.

Well, six weeks to Eagleman. Gosh how I wish I could run like that after the bike!

Not much really considering I was helping to keep pace. Perhaps next year I should train to really do it at a race pace.

Took in food, drink, used thermal blanket, got dry clothes at the car.


Not really a limiter, but considering I was pacing for someone, I can't really fault that. Now, my ankle/achilles tendons were having a bit of a problem but the brace there really did help and the foot felt pretty good. The rain really wasn't a problem on the half. It might've been on the full since it had gotten chilly.


This is a nice race and I might perhaps do it at a real race pace next year considering how well I did in my AG with just the 8:25 overall pace.