What a great race today! I ran a 1:16:22 half marathon, which is a new PR (1:17:06 previous, and 1:18:48 last year on this course). And I finished 3rd overall in a deep field, packed with guys that I have been chasing and idolizing since I ran my first road race back in March of 2005. It was also great to beat my buddy-rival Eric Dolezal (finally) who usually pushes me to better times than I expected.
Big thanks to my Coach, Mark Kendall for making it down to the race to cheer me on and take nice sexy pics like the one to the left!! (that was me leading the field of 350 runners at around mile 6) Also, thanks to Don and Karen (my Speedshot Teammates) for making the trip down there to support me. And of course Pops, one of my biggest fans that is at almost all of my races! (yes Sharon, you have some competition!)! Also thanks to Clark County Running for putting on another great event.
The race: The weather cooperated with us today in the sense that it did not rain or snow as expected. However it was freeeezing and foggy, which I think slowed down everybodys times a little. 45-50 degree weather is ideal for a long distance runner, but too much below or above will start to take away from your performance a little.
I wanted to make sure I did not start out waaaay to fast as I usually do. So I made sure to run the first two miles 5-10 seconds slower than my goal race pace of 5:45/mile. I felt nice and comoftable running in the lead pack of 10 strong runners the first two miles. After mile 2 I knew it was time to pick up the pace so I took off, running 5:38 for mile 3. Only one guy wanted to come with me and that was Daniel Bartosz. I never met him but I knew he ran a fast 1:17:30 half marathon a few weeks ago. He ran on my shoulder up until around mile 5 where he started to drop back. I did not want to look back to see what kind of lead i had on everyone but I would try to quiet my breathing every so often to try and listen for footsteps behind me....I heard none. I could not believe that I was in the lead in THIS RACE at THIS POINT. I hit the turn around at mile 8 and saw that I had a comfortable 20-30 second lead on 2nd and 3rd place. I was still hitting my mile splits right on at between 5:40 and 5:47, but at mile 10 the 25 year old Canadian, Derek Vinge, moved passed me. I hung with him for a few minutes and he said a couple funny things (about his hands and private parts freezing) which really made me laugh, before he took off on me. I knew this guy had a PR time that was easily 6 minutes faster than mine, so I decided to continue to run my race instead of chase him down.
At mile 11 (only 2miles to go!), it seemed I would finish in 2nd place. I tried to pick up the pace a little bit just to secure my spot, but my legs would not respond. They were stuck on a 5:49 pace. With a mile to go I could hear Jared Wilson chasing me down, I tried to pick up the pace a little and I did but not enough to fend him off. He came flying by me at a near 5:00 pace and there was no way my legs were going to catch him.
I still finished strong and took 3rd place out of 350 runners. Official time was 1:16:22, however many people who were running with Garmins (gps watches) on, had the distance showing at 13.2miles vs. 13.1miles. So my time could have been a 1:15:45 on this day.
The best part about today, besides all the support from Pops, Coach, Don, Karen, and all my fellow running buddies that were running the course today, was being able to lead such a competitive field all by myself for 5-7miles. And not only lead, but lead out all alone, running in silence, knowing there was a field of over 350 runners somewhere behind me pounding pavement, panting the the icy cold air, trying to catch ME!!! I was kind of annoyed that I got passed like that in the last mile to finish 3rd, but I'll get Jared Wilson back one of these days :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment