Half way there?

Half way as in Half Marathon. I ran the Horsetooth Half Marathon yesterday. My original plan was to run it at my planned marathon pace. But I ran pretty well Tue and Fri this week and knew there was no way I was going to be able to hold back. So I made a plan. I haven't run a recent 5K, but have had some race pace training runs. From these an equivalent half time would have been 2:06:42 (9:40 pace). I finished in 2:09:00 by watch (2:09:34 gun time). It's a hilly course (and I ran 20 7 days prior, not exactly a standard taper ;-) so I am very happy with my result. After the monster 2 mile hill at the start I averaged a 9:37 pace. Adding to the experience was the attendance of my parents, the first time they have seen me race. I'm not sure who was more proud, them or I. This race was a 6:42 PR for me and 22:56 faster than when I ran it 1 year ago as my first half marathon ever. I don't think I'll take another 23 off for next year, but I wouldn't bet on my time being over 2 hours either.

Considering my relative lack of hill training before the race I felt pretty good afterwards. Minor aches on Monday but they were probably aggravated by riding in a car all day. A day after bike ride seemed to stretch things out a bit. I first tried this after my half last November and am sold on this.

Here's a link to my race pictures complete with some great scenery in the background on some of them. I'm wearing orange, there are some pictures of a guy in white included in this search that are incorrectly labeled. Too bad they didn't mix up our times, he finished 21 minutes before me! ;^>

Oh, and my time in this half predicts a 4:32 marathon (10:24 pace), a pace 4 seconds faster than the faster edge of my anticipated marathon pace. Cool beans!

Week 8: 22.9 miles with a long run of 13.1 miles.

----------------
Now playing: Jethro Tull - Mother Goose
via FoxyTunes