April flew by with very little training volume - 123 miles total. The schedule of normal, daily life simply preempted a few training sessions. What is the result of the lesser volume for the month? The first day of May brought a nice result in a local half marathon. My PR in the half marathon was 2 hours 2 minutes in the 2004 Seattle 1/2 marathon. Other than a few triathlons, I have not raced the 1/2 marathon distance since then. Going into today's race, I was trying to develop a plan. I settled on the intent to run 7:00 per mile for the first 8 miles, then pick up the pace over the last 5.1 miles to sneak in under 1:30. As usual with my races, that plan was tossed out the window within the first mile. Mile 1 was 6:33. Just a bit quicker than planned. Mile 2 was 6:50. Mile 3 was 6:29. OK, at this point, my original plan is gone. My new plan? The same as usual - just hang on. Shoot, I only had 10.1 miles to go. No problem right? Here are the mile splits;
Mile 4 - 6:42
Mile 5 - 6:51
Mile 6 - 6:44
Mile 7 - 6:49
Mile 8 - 6:51 I'm beginning to think that I can hold on......
Mile 9 - 6:45
Mile 10 - 6:41 total time is 1:07:14 - with 5k to go, I just need to go 22:46. 1:30 is no longer the goal - sub 1:28!!!! Here we go.
Mile 11 - 6:43
Mile 12 - 6:47
Mile 13 - 6:39
Last 0.1 miles - 35 seconds
Finish - 1 hour 27 minutes 59 seconds!
This was a much better result that I had expected. Glad that I threw my plan out the window early. I guess I recovered fairly well from last Sunday's 55k ultra marathon. I really felt great today.
I ate 4 oranges 90 minutes before the start. Probably drank 30 ounces of water during that time. During the race, I took a mouthful of water at each aid station (about every 2 miles or so). After the race, 4 or bananas, lots of water. Making up a large banana smoothie now. Later!
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