Took off with Eric and Ken faster then I've started a half marathon before. The downhill didn't help and at one point I noticed our paced had slipped under 6min/mile. I slowed up and figured I'd relax down the hill and catch them at the bottom. Worked perfectly, we hit the bottom, the wind hit them and I slid right back in with Eric and Ken. We hung together through mile 2 when Ken started to pull away a little. Saw Jeep Fleeb around mile 4, he told me to hang with him but wasn't sure I could hold the 6:45 pace he had going so we chatted briefly and I let him go ahead.

Eric pulled ahead on a hill around mile 6, he was obviously feeling good when we started up hills. I'd catch him on the way back down. One hill pushed him ahead for a couple miles but by Mile 10 the three of us evened out again. The miles were clicking by pretty fast and at mile 10 I was well on my way to a PR, we had held a 7 min pace and with 5k I was in a good position get well under 1:33. I picked up the pace a little cause I felt good, and then we started to head downhill. Running downhill is the one thing that still bothers the IT band and I had to use my quads to limit the pounding of going downhill.

The last two miles were long steady uphill and my quads were fried from the downhill section. Pushed through the last two miles and finished well under the 1:35 I set out to run and I was happy overall with the finish. Cross about a minute after Eric and 30 sec after Ken.

Looking back a couple days later, I wonder a couple things:
1) If I hadn't been wearing a Garmin would I have pushed beyond the 7:10 pace we set to run initially. Two places I think I may have changed the race without it. 1 when I let Jeep Fleeb go and 2 toward the end of the race when my quads started getting tired.
2) On the flip side, did the Garmin help me maintain the pace during some middle miles when my body wanted to slow down?

In past races, I had decided the Garmin psyched me out, I haven't figured out pacing myself for a fast long race entirely although this race and a few other workouts have given me some confidence about how hard I can push for a long race.

Stretched out and walked around the finish area while we waited for Gloria. I was a little worried about some sharp pains in my IT band. they went away through the day though.


Plan on going back, gotta get 4 more medals to make my star...