SLO Half Marathon
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SLO Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon
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Run
Comments: My goal for this race was to break 2 hours. For the first 2 miles, I ran a 9:00ish pace and felt great. By the 3rd mile I was starting to feel less great, but figured it was no big deal. There was a long hill at mile 4, and I got dropped by the pace group, ending up about 45 seconds behind them. I figured I would catch them on the 2nd half of the course, which had a lot more downhill. Miles 5-9 had a lot of rolling hills. I tried to run fast on the downhills, but never really felt like I was moving very quickly. I could see the pace group ahead of me, but I never was able to catch up. By mile 9 I could tell my pace was slowing, and I was starting to tighten up a bit. Still, I thought I could reach my goal. I hit mile 10 at 1:34:XX, and at that point I figured it wasn't happening. Still, I gave it a good effort - maybe a little too good, because by mile 11 I was really hurting and ready to be done. I thought I would still PR (my best half is 2:02:25) but even that was not to be. What would you do differently?: I may have gone out a little too hard to start with, but in the end I'm not sure it made much of a difference. If I had started slower, I still wouldn't have broken 2 hours. Today just wasn't the day. Post race
Warm down: Got some Jamba juice and tortilla chips, talked with some CCTC members who were racing or volunteering. By the time I picked up my drop bag I was freezing, so I put on my sweatshirt, took a quick cruise around the expo, and then hoofed it back to my car (a nice 2 mile cool down walk). What limited your ability to perform faster: I'm not sure. It was a decent run, but not a great one. I've been feeling off lately - struggling both physically and mentally. I guess I need to cut myself a little slack, and consider this a nice hard training run for Wildflower in 2 weeks, and of course IMCdA in 9 weeks. Event comments: Disclaimer - the leader of my club is the race director, so my review may be a bit biased, but this was a very well-run race, especially considering this was its first year. Everything seemed to go very smoothly, and the course was well-planned, well-marked, well-controlled, scenic and interesting. I'll definitely be back to run and/or volunteer at this race in the future. Last updated: 2012-04-22 12:00 AM
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2012-04-22 10:26 PM |
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2012-05-02 6:37 PM in reply to: #4166295 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Get Off the Couch, Potato Sports Productions LLC
54F / 12C
Overcast
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I just finished writing my race report and the content magically got erased, so here goes... again....
Woke up early - just after 3 - and drove up to SLO. I decided not to take the shuttle bus, and parked in a nice quiet neighborhood about halfway between the start and finish. I walked almost 2 miles through the dark streets of SLO to get to the start area. At 4:30 on Sunday morning, the streets were deserted, and it was actually quite peaceful and pleasant. Once I got there I still had an hour and a half to kill, so I just hung out, tried to stay warm, and read a book on my iPhone.
After the long walk I decided I was warmed up, but let's face it, I never warm up anyway. I relaxed, read, waited until the last minute to drop off my sweats, and lined up at the start, positioning myself just behind the 2:00 pace group.