My slowest half marathon. I planned to start a little slow and pick up the pace on the last 3 miles of the course, which was primarily downhill. I started out well with a 8:35 pace through 5.5 miles, but I felt discomfort in my left quad around mile 3. The tightness worsened and by mile 5.5, I had to pull over and try stretching and massaging the knot. After 7-8 mins of trying to get my legs back, I was almost going to shut it down, then I saw one of my friends and jumped back in with a slow jog. My left quad slowly loosened up....by that time, I was resigned to the fact that I just wanted to finish...maybe under 2:00 (wishful thinking). As we approached the uphill portion on the route, I found the climbs very comfortable and rejuvinating. There was a short but steep climb under the freeway, then about a 1/2 mile later, a left turn took us up Washington Street, about a mile uphill climb. I kept a steady pace uphill, passing runners left and right, regaining some confidence that the rest of my run would be okay. Then at mile 11 came the dreaded "fast downhill finish". That downhill did me in, too much stress on my quads as they both knotted up going downhill. I had to walk it down hill as runners zoomed past me...I was a bit humilated and very humbled. As the course flattened out a few blocks from the finish, I was able to jog it out and regain a bit of diginty by running through the tunnel and just finishing the race.

Work out my quad issues. Do more hill training (including downhill training). I need to start cross training again (bootcamps and light weight training), building up my leg stregth. This aspect of training has been missing from my exercise routine do to a change in my schedule...but I know that I just have to make it happen!

Walked around the stadium, slowly stretching out my tight quads.


Quad issues...again! I will be going to the running institute to have my gait reanalyzed.


Despite having my personal worst time, the overall race was a good experience. This was the inaugural run for this event, so it was a bit special taking part in the race, even if my time and run were horrible. I soon forgot how badly my run was after I met up with our group, which included Noah Peters, an 18 year freshman in college who I persuaded to run with us. Noah is an awesome kid (the son of my neighbor/good friend) who runs like a deer. After we all met up, I asked Noah his time, he said he ran around a 1:32. About an hour after we all finished and we were about to leave, I glanced at a sheet that was taped up on a window that showed the official rankings per age group. Low and behold, Noah came in 1st in his AG! This was actually his 2nd half marathon (his 1st half marathon he ran with us under bib number that was not his at the Carlsbad 13.1). We were ecstatic, but a bit disappointed that we didn't find out earlier. He missed the chance to receive his award at the awards ceremony. I was hell bent on getting him his awards and recognition, so we searched all around the stadium to find a race official that would point us in the right direction. It took us some time to track down his 1st place prize, but after about 30 mins of walking throughout the stadium, we got Noah his award. Very satisfying...I felt so proud for him! By that point, I didn't even care about how bad a race I had, I was just so happy and proud of Noah. I treated Noah to a well desreved lunch before driving him home.