Finished in 2:02, which is a personal best for me, 10 minutes faster than my previous best of 2:12:43 at Twin Lights Half in 2011. Still waiting for the official times to be posted but this should be within seconds of their number. This is the first race since my injury a year ago where I felt like a runner again. I guess the diagnoses of activity induced asthma was correct because using my new inhaler totally crushed the breathing problems I had 2 weeks ago at the Allstate Half Mary, even though the temperature and dew point were similar.
I put my maximum effort into this race, with an average heart rate of 175. I still had a kick at the end with a 7:30 pace in the last half mile.
The first part of the race was very congested, which helped me to stay slow for the first mile. I have this tendency to go out too fast when it all seems so easy and then wonder why I start sucking wind later. I have to say this was one of the more enjoyable races I have done. It really didn’t start to be uncomfortable until about 11 miles, but that makes sense considering I am still a bit light on my weekly milage. I think what really helped was having a good taper, flat course and cool weather.
I spent this race concentrating on my Chi running form, slipping in and out of proper form for the first few miles before I settled into it comfortably. When you are in the proper Chi form it almost seems like cheating because running seems pretty effortless. It does require you to hold you core though, and around mile 11 I started having some issues with my core weakening. Well.. time to add more of a focus to my core weight training!
I came in 1420th place out of 3129 runner. But I only came in 78th out of 107 in my division, so clearly I have a whole lot of work to do if I want to start moving up in my division. And you would think that the upper 40’s mens division would yield slowish runners, but they place quite well in every race I go to. In fact the 50’s also yield excellent times across the board.
Here is an 8 minute video that shows a little more of what it is like to attend a race like this.
I have another half-mary in 3 weeks and I am not inclined to try to beat this time. I am just going to go and enjoy myself. My goal will be to break the 2:00 barrier in the spring.
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