Another great event as always from the Brandon runners group. You can review the event as a whole in last years Dec 2010 blog when I ran the 5k and PR'd. Knew this year what not going to be a PR of the Half since I had only been able to train about 4 miles in the last week and half because of a hamstring strain. Did not even know if I would be able to make it through, but was going it a try. Also had a friend Jason H and Jennifer W running the half with me. My friend Bill L was doing the 5k.
Great thing about this event was the Groupon coupon on-line where I was able to do it it half price!!! Gotta love that!
Did the day before packet pickup as usual with no problems. Rode with Jason and got there about an hour before the start. Met Jennifer and discussed the course and other stuff. Saw Bill going in for his packet. Then I saw my high school friend Trixxi coming out of Sports Authority. Told her there would be no rematch from last years event since I was not doing the 5k, She stated she told her mom she really wanted to do the Half. I told her to tell her mom she could run with us. So was able to get it changed and lined up with us. I mentioned all I wanted to do was try go out about 8:50 to 9:00 minute pace. Jason and Jennifer were okay with that and so was Trixxi. At least we thought she was.
As the gun went off so did Trixxi sprinting away from us. We went out with a nice even turning out of the parking lot and onto Lumsden Ave. We passed 1/2 mile and I noticed we were running a 8:30 pace, but I knew the interstate overpass (big hill) would slow us down a little. Sadly not much as we hit mile 1 at 8:31. I felt okay and so did the hamstring so I thought I would go with it. Also it was very nice to have running partners for once. We turned onto Faulkenburg Blvd for the long out and back. We slowed just a tad with second mile being 8:36 as we got some water from the station positioned about every two miles. Crossing Hwy 301 was interesting to see such a big road being stopped for a race. Pace was still going pretty even and legs felt okay. Did mile 3 in 8:38. So much ahead of my pace did worry me a little.
I was nicer to run along and have conversations with someone instead of just focusing on the route. Of course, Jason and Jennifer were doing more of the talking since I still had a little bit thinking about the hamstring. Mile 4 was 8:48 and gave way to Mile 5 as we turned onto Parkway Center heading towards the "dump." It was here where we saw Trixxi again. Remember she had sped off from the start. As we were passing mile 5 doing it a little slower at 9:01 we saw Trixxi passing on the other side passing mile 6. She looked like she had a very good steady fast pace going. Yelled over and gave her the thumbs up. Maybe that inspired us to pick up the pace and do mile 6 in 8:47.
After we turned back onto Faulkenburg Blvd we passed the halfway point in 56:37. We passed mile 7 with a 8:54. I knew my body started to feel it a little so I told them they could go on , but they stated they would stay with me.We did the turnaround and started the turn back on Faulkenburg Blvd. There was a slight wind in out face they made it harder to keep the same pace. Still we did mile 8 in 8:48.
My body was really starting to feel it and I made the mistake of thinking there would be gels on the course. Should have asked to be sure and would have brought some with me. As we neared mile 9 I knew I would be slowing down some. We did mile 9 in 8:51 and again told them to keep up the pace, but I could not. They started to pull away. The last 10 mile I tried to use a slow down catch my breath and body so I could make a good run the last 3 miles. I did mile 10 in 9:37. The slowed down did not help. The very low number of training miles was hitting me hard.
The last 3 miles was very exhausting on me. Not much to state except I did the final 3 miles in 10:15, 11:12, and 12:54. Had to walk up most of the overpass. I will state that even breaking 2 hours disappeared it was nice to see friend and family cheering me on the last 1/10. It helped inspire me to at least sprint to the finish in 2:03:55. 23rd out 30 in my age group and 198 overall out of 319.
Considering it was my second Half Marathon and hardly no training miles the week and half before I did not feel to bad with that time. Especially since my hamstring held on the whole race. Now it is time for a week off to make sure it is okay and training for 2012!!!
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