sleepyThe plan for today was to run easy and finish somewhere around 1:55-1:57. I honestly didn't care about time with the big race so close. Well, sometimes things don't go as planned. I met SK and EA at the start since they were adding extra to the beginning to get a 20 miler in. I had asked what their plan was and they seemed cool with my 8:50ish plan. Perfect. 7am and we're off. Mile 1 I start noticing the trend of hills and just hope it's just a beginning fluke. Mile 2 I click my watch and it says 8:11. Uh-oh, that's not the plan. I had a feeling the mile was faster than I wanted but figured I'd give another mile or two to figure out if they were going to race or calm it back down. Mile 3? 8:23. Mile 4? 8:27. Once I realized they were having a good race I wished them well and set off on my own for the rest of the morning. It wasn't tough running but I didn't want to keep getting faster and faster. Just not part of the plan.
The rest of the race was spent turning, immediately climbing a hill before turning again. By mile 8 I got kind of bored and keeping the pace a bit quicker made it be over faster:) My favorite hill? I think that goes to the one a half mile before the finish line. Overall, I finished healthy and felt fine other than a little cramping due to lack of water from the fasting that took place on Saturday. I don't recommend half marathons after a day of fasting:)
Splitsville:
1) 8:56
2) 8:11
3) 8:23
4) 8:27
5) 8:32
6) 8:41
7) 8:43
8) 8:34
9) 8:37
10) 8:36
11) 8:32
12) 8:22
13) 8:18
.1) :44
1:51:44 (8:31min/mile)
I'm pretty happy that the 8:30s felt pretty darn comfortable as a long run. Considering I'll still be running about 15 seconds faster it seems pretty doable. If I run what I ran the past two weeks together, you know what I get? ;-)
After the race, it turned into a regular who's who blogger meetup. First, I saw Crazy Bandana and chatted with him for a bit (do I hear #100?). As I picked up my bag in the baggage area, I ran into Johnny after his 1:41 (new PR I think?). Finally, saw flygirl.
After I caught up with the TRD gang, we headed into Astoria to a local diner for some grub (mmm Buffalo burger!). Upon return home, I ended up napping for a couple of hours:) YAY!
So that's that. No more training to do. Taper, taper,taper time!
Happy start of fall (as of 5:51am!)! And since shoreturtle started this, the current forecast for October 7th in Scranton: High of 55, sun and clouds:-D
