Immediately, within the first mile, my stomach started to give me issues. I just thought it was nerves or something and just needed to run it out. By mile 4 I was still feeling pretty uncomfortable but continued to ignnore it. As we got to the Park Drive I started to look for a pit stop as I knew there was no way I could finish this half without stopping. It was that BAD. Finally just passed the 10K point I made my pit stop for 2.5 minutes or so. I felt a bit better and knew I'd be able to finish the race. Given the stopping, etc I made my new goal sub 1:50.
I started back up and ran a very controlled 8:10-8:15 pace. Final time: 1:49:21 with the pit stop. Not too shabby. The photo is from the Ben Franklin Parkway - just another walk in the park home;) I've started to utilize the hat again as a repellent from sweat in the eyes. I'm thinking that will happen for the marathon too. Yellow cap anyone? ;-p
Yesterday, for my final long run I joined a group for the bridges run. The first four miles I realized it was definitely going faster than I needed to be at. I was running closer to MP then LSD pace! I dropped back a group and feel great today. Ran another solid 7 today.
Two weeks to go. Unbelievable. So far the weather is good but we all know what happened last year in Scranton and Chicago (both turned into Steamtown Marathons literally!).
Sunday, Oct 12
High: 53 °F RealFeel®: 49 °F
Mostly sunny
Sunday Night, Oct 12
Low: 42 °F RealFeel®: 34 °F
Clear to partly cloudy