Ran 13.1 a week before in 1:52 "cruising." Thought if I could just do that again, I'd PR by 7 minutes and if I pushed a bit, I might break 1:50. 25 mph winds were straight out of the South which worked well for the course layout. It would have been brutal to have that wind out of the West. Tried to start "easy" and settled into a low-8-minute/mile pace. I added 20 seconds during the first headwind leg and picked up a few of those elsewhere. The group pretty quickly settled into near-final-order and with only a hundred runners, there wasn't much passing after the first 2 miles. I did have 2 runners pass me near the 4th corner and I passed them back (never to see them again) when they stopped for a drink. Picked off another runner in the 2-mile stretch and another in the 1-mile headwind. Caught someone at the 4th corner aid station (I think) and then another guy in the mile back towards town. Felt...strange...to be the one passing people late in the race...

Probably drink something. I ran past every aid station without stopping. I got lucky that it wasn't warmer. Debated getting something on the second loop but my stomach started churning from the headwind effort. By the time I got to the 4th-corner aid station, I only had 1.5 miles to go and figured I could tough it out.

I was rewarded with a PR by 12:41!

Got a bottle of water, a banana, and a couple of cookies and walked back to watch other friends come towards the finish. Walked around for about 30 minutes, stretching some.


Genetics...I was talking to my mom later and told her my HR averaged 180 for the 1:45. We chatted about it and she asked what I usually train at (I try to keep it below 175 and would prefer below 170). She said when she does hard racewalk intervals, she'll see 175 on her HRM and she's 67, so I get it naturally...


Pretty good race. Nice that I could show up an hour before the race and pay $25 to run a half-marathon. Since they get a lot of walk-up registrations, I don't have a problem with minimal post-race activities.