Started with the 1:40 pace group as it was very crowded the first 2 miles. There was a lady that tripped on one of the early downhills and saw her hit hard and I was making sure that I kept my feet underneath me. Followed our pace leader Sabine as she cut through the crowds the first mile. Went out a bit slow on the first half mile, but had more than made it up by the 2nd mile. I had to hit the porta-john at the Corral area but didn't have time and had to bite the bullet during the race. Skipped the first aid station area as all of them were full so I ended up going on the 2nd opportunity and lost about 40 sec. The 1:40 pace group was ahead of me (after I had made about 30 seconds ahead of them) so I chased them down and settled in for half a mile. Decided I was still good to go faster and went on my own pace clicking in right under 7:20/mile pace. Was able to catch up to the 3:15 marathon pace group which was a good pace for me in these conditions and was just hanging on at the exertion level I wanted to keep and kept them in sight until the turn-around for the half-marathon. At that point, I waited until about Mile 7.5 and decided to start ramping up the pace. Quickly realized I didn't have much room to ramp up (as it was also slightly uphill) but did increase my RPE to just below side-stitch effort.
At Mile 10.5, I went for it, figuring I only had less than 5K left. Kicked as hard as I could the last mile but it wasn't much of a kick as I was starting to get side-stitches pretty bad. Did go hard the last half mile and had nothing left in the tank at the finish.

Ran this race pretty much in negative split fashion. According the the results website, I passed about 100 people every 5K, and no one passed me at all during the last 6K. I think I'm starting to learn this distance and getting better at race execution.

This is my 4th half-marathon and my 4th PR! One of the biggest jumps also as I beat my previous best by over 3 minutes. I think it would be pretty reasonable to go after a sub 1:35 next year (or in better conditions). This was the end of my 3rd year running so I supposedly have 2 more years before I start approaching my plateau. I sure hope that it's a little longer as I am a triathlete and may take another couple of years past that. I'd like to see if I can get under 1:30 in a few years, while continuing with the same sustainable time commitment I've been putting in.

Except for wasting time hitting the porta-john on the course, nothing. I raced this the best I could with the training I had.

Spent about 2 minutes hunched over trying to recover from my kick effort, then just walked around and talked to friends that I saw coming in and walking around a bit. Got my recovery shake at my bag check and had a banana, pretzels and a cookie. Had dinner at Paradise Bakery afterwards.
Realized that I had some chaffing on the inside of my right bicep. Funny as I thought I used Body Glide there already.


Unseasonably warm weather (65F) and high (almost 90%) humidity for the duration of the race. Course was also hillier than the old course from the last 2 times I did this race.

I didn't really have anyone to race with and push me for too long and that probably would've made me go faster.


This is the Dallas area's biggest race and had almost 20k runners (marathon, half-mary, and relays). Very good race and I will do this again next year!