RVM

All I can say is I'm glad that I didn't know yesterday that I was going to feel like this today.

On top of being potentially more sore than from any other race I have ever done, I am sick as a dog. I pushed very hard yesterday, and a half marathon is a much further run than I am accustom to racing. I am, however, pleased with my time. I planned to finish anywhere between 1:20:00 and 1:24:00, and my gun time was 1:22:53.

I knew it was going to be a long run, and I kept telling myself to hold back. I know that I tend to start off fast, but as long as I was able to fall into a decent pace after the first km that it would be ok. It was hard to watch the more consistant runners go by from km 2 to 7 but I knew that I had to hold back or I wouldn't finish. I didn't even look at my watch until after the 10km mark, as I just wanted to run by feel. I was happy to note that I was at 38:50 when I did finally look.

I was almost half done, and I started to think that it might be time to start to slowly reel in some of those ahead of me. Every time I chose someone however they seemed to get away. I continued to try to find someone to run with or to catch, but it just wasn't happening. This trend continued until 17 km or so, when I completely forgot about everyone else and just focused on my pace. I was really starting to hurt, so I kept a careful eye on my watch trying to not slow down. I ran well until km 19 and 20 where I slowed to a 4:00/km pace, I tried to keep the pace time down, but with about 1.5 km to go I started to limp.

My right knee (ITB insertion I think) was incredibly sore, and it felt like it was all I could do to keep going. I limped for 100 to 150 meters before finally forcing myself back into a run. I had such a short distance left and I needed to finish strong. With about 900 meters left I found a runner who had slowed and I focused on making it my goal to pass him. I got by him with about half a km to go and by focusing on him was able to pick up the pace. He made a last ditch effort around the 150 meter mark and I was forced to respond by sprinting the last 100 meters. It made for a great finish for me, but very painful.

As I said earlier, I finished in 1:22:53, placing me 38th OA and 11th AG. I couldn't believe it when I saw that... I placed well, had a great race, but my age group was rediculous. In order for me to have taken a 5th AG (to be called up on stage) I would have had to have done 1:11:30.

I am very pleased with my run, it was a solid first Half Marathon. However, it reminds me that I need to put in more training so that I don't feel like so much garbage after the race.

I wanted to say a BIG thanks to everyone I saw out on the course who was cheering, your cheers really helped!

Well, I've got time to recover... I don't plan to race again until Nov. 11 for the Thetis Relay.