Lake County Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Once I passed the starting line I was in traffic and had to weave a bit. I got stuck behind a few people but once I got free I was a ble to settle into a good pace. The first five miles were not very eventful except for the girl about 20 yards in front of me about mile four that pulled down her pants to her knees before ducking behind a tree giving me a view of a full moon. I was in a nice pace that I thought I could keep up for the whole race. When I got to the 5 mile point and hit my lap counter, I realized I was going a 7:23 pace. If I could keep that up I would get a PR. It was justy after that point that I felt something strange in my right foot. It felt like the start of a blister right at the base of the second toe. I remembered that I was wearing different socks than I usually wear. There were supposed to be good running socks, but these were double layer and I was not used to them. A race proably is not the time to use different socks. I was feeiling it get worse and worse until just after mile 8 when I felt the blister burst. That did not feel good. Not long after that the one really steep hill on the course came up and that didn't feel that good either. I just kept telling myself to take it one mile at a time and to keep pushing through the pain. Besides - I've lived through worse. :)

When I got to the 10 mile mark i hit the lap button again and I was falling off the pace. The second 5 miles were averaging 7:37 per mile and I know it was because I slowed down a bit for that blister and changed the position of my foot to alivieate the pain a bit. With a PR still within my grasp, I turned it on a bit more for the last 5k to see what I could finish in. If I wasn't going to get a PR, I would at least get close I thought. My goal for this race was to break 1:40 so I knew I would be doing that without any problem.

Over the last 5k I kept looking at the person in front of me and tracking them down to pass them. I did this to a number of people. That feels great to do that. I kept chanting in my head that no one will pass me over the last mile. No one did and I kicked it in to the finish doing the last 5k in 7:20 per mile pace.

I didn't get my PR, but I was very close. I was only 38 seconds off my PR and that was done before my injury last year so I was very pleased with this. Building up to this race, I didn't know if I could maintain a 7:30 pace for a whole half marathon the way I was feeling in training, but I just got into a grove out there and kept it up. Sure I felt tired, but it wasn't until I crossed the finish line that I let myself feel like I had to stop or slow down.

Not wear those socks. Other than that not much else. This was a very good run. My best time since the injury and only 38 seconds off my PR.

I felt a cramp coming in my hamstring so after walking a little and catching my breath, I headed over to the medical tent and asked her to help stretch me out. That felt good. While rubbing out my hammie, she said she felt scar tissue in there and put some kinesio (sp?) tape on the back of my leg. Don't know if that will work, but I'll try it.

I walked back along the course and waited for my wife to come along and shouted out some words of encouragement to keep her moving as she went by. After she finished (see below), my foot was killing me from the blister, so I took off my shoes and socks.

I talked with Ben, met Pam and Ross and waited around for the awards.


That darn blister on my foot!!


I ran carrying a bottle full of gatorade so I didn't have to stop at the water stations. I still can't drink out of a cup and run at the same time. Since I did that I didn't think much about the number of drink stations, but my wife said there were few in the second half of the race when she really needed it.

Speaking of my wife, I can do a little bragging that she placed 3rd in the Athena division and got her PR by about a minute finishing in 1:59:00. Way to go Jenny!!