Athens 1/2 Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I had a single mission here. BREAK 1:30. The last race was still fresh in my mind, and I gotta say, the thought of what happened 7 weeks ago was a good motivator here. If I felt in "great" shape last race, I felt even better THIS time. Plus, the weather was perfect...NO WINTER clothing bogging me down. Also, I wasn't wearing my GARMIN this time....whatever them mile markers said, I HAD to go by them for my splits. My TOP PRIORITY here was to BE CONSERVATIVE.....stay within my pace....don't go RABBIT....MAKE MY GOAL!..Once the gun went off, we headed through the streets, which for the first 1/2 mile or so was all downhill. I felt very strong, but stuck to my plan to find my pace and stay with it, no matter how many rabbits passed me...even the girls! :) MILE 1: 6:22. A bit fast, but I KNEW that would happen. It was my TEST mile that would tell me what to do next...SLOW DOWN. The MILE 2 MILE MARKER was nonexistant, or I just didn't see it, so I had to wait until MILE 3 for my next split, which was 13:20, putting me at a 6:40 pace...ok, better, but STILL a little fast. I felt great and was JUST settling into a good rythem. However, I KNEW I had to slow up a bit more...3 miles is NOT 13, and I still had 10 to go....DO NOT SCREW THIS UP JIM! Mile 4: 6:45. I was running with a pack, but since I was still ahead of my 6:52 pace, I slowed up JUST a tad more and let them go ahead. This is SO hard for me to do....purposely let people pass me up, but I am really running with my HEAD lately, and it seems to work much better. Mile 5: 6:48: AWESOME...I was able to slow up just a little more. I was feeling awesome and was finding it hard to resist the temptation to just open up and take off....but that path has lead to disaster in the past, so I pressed on, letting a girl pass me by, and even telling her "good job". I'm growing as a person all the time. Mile 6: 6:51, almost DEAD ON my needed pace, PLUS I now had nearly an entire minute in my bank. On I went, and soon the TURN AROUND came into view. By now I was able to guage that I was in around 20th place or so overall, so that was nice. I found a group of 4 that was holding the same pace as me and stuck with them for a few miles now. Mile 7 mile marker was missed, but by the time I got to 8 the split was 13:28, with gave me 6:44s. When I missed the 8 mile marker, I wanted to play is safe, and just stuck with my little group, so I was a tad fast still, but I was constantly taking a "gut check", and all systems were GO. NOTHING HURT, breathing was good, I felt AWESOME. It was here that I decided that if I still felt this good by mile 11, I would just open up the tank. Mile 9: 6:53, good deal, still WAY ahead of what I needed, and with the miles clicking away, less time to screw this up. Mile 10: 6:48. From mile 8 on, I had kept waiting for something to feel "tight" or to start hurting, or to feel tired, but I was feeling more and more energized by the step. It was a freaking awesome feeling to feel this good THIS far into the race. Over the last mile, I broke from my littl pack and was scoping out the 3 guys ahead of me....putting on my RACE hat now. Mile 11: 6:48 again. Ok, all systems were showing GREEN....time to pass some people and open up the nitro. Only 2 miles now, and with so much time in the bank, I felt I had little chance of screwing this up. ZOOM! Mile 12: 6:37! The 3 guys ahead of me were passed in a blaze. I KNEW I had done this race now on the CONSERVATIVE side, but I HAD to do it this way to ensure a sub 1:30. Again, I now pushed it one more time...pushing it harder but STILL not feeling any discomfort....no pain....I have honestly NEVER felt THIS good in ANY race this close to the end...EVER....I had endless energy, like it was the BEGINNING of the race, not the end. I saw the stadium now. Harder I pushed, KNOWING there was something going on inside of me that had never happened before, and I wasn't going to ignore it. It was one of those magical times that I've seen other people talk about on tv and read about in books. There was some force inside of me, giving me speed and power I either didn't know I had, or had forgotten I possessed. I hit the track and did my 1st loop and saw mile marker 13: 6:10. SIX FREAKING TEN!!!! At the END of a HALF MARATHON! I turned it up one more notch, not even realizing I had another notch in me, and sprinted...SPRINTED to the finish line! I saw Bill snapping pictures, and I hit the line feeling like a million....make that a TRILLION bucks! I ACTUALLY felt like I could have kept going forever, which is weird, because after a race I usually feel like I want to collapse! I grabbed my medal, my SECOND PLACE AGE GROUP mug, had my chip removed and found Bill. We walked back to the car and headed back to the hotel. Wow.

Are you kidding me?

Just walked a half lap around the track to get back to the car.


Nothing. I rocked this bitch!


Great time, great race, great course. I'm just freaking happy!

P.S. When I first crossed the finish line, the official told me I was 2nd in my age group. However, there were 2 guys in my "age group" who beat me, but they apparently registered as OPEN and MASTERS, which left me OFFICIALLY as FIRST in my age group...yea for me!