Team Cross Runs

Race Review: Rochester Half Marathon

A picture perfect day for running led to a great performance by almost everyone on my team, including myself.  I’ll break the news early, now middle of the morning text messages here: I set a new PR, but about a minute and a half.  Finally, after 3 years of trying I had a record setting half-marathon race! I almost didn’t go down but I am glad I did.  My time for the 13.1 mile distance was 1:33:22 or 7:08 pace, good enough for 65th overall and 7th in my age group.  All of this took place at the Rochester Half Marathon, in Rochester MN (home of the Mayo Clinic).

Now for all (that I can remember) the details.

Pre-Race I had been up late the 2 nights prior thanks to something called the Olympics, so having to wake up at 4:30am wasn’t easy.  We were carpooling down so I couldn’t be too late.  We arrived in plenty of time and actually by being so early we were able to get registered and use the restrooms before the large crowd came rushing in.  Four of us rode down together and only one had pre-registered.  They didn’t have any t-shirts for race day registrants, but the total fee was only $20 so that is a pretty sweet deal.  We lounged around at the Holiday Inn Express which hosted the race and waited for the other cars to arrive before warming up.  The temperature was maybe 60 degrees at the start with no clouds in the sky and no noticable wind at the start.

Race Time We lined up in the middle of Broadway Ave in  downtown Rochester. I started a little farther forward than I should have, but I also know that sometimes in these smaller races (only 602 finished) that if you get to far back you’ll get stuck in the opening miles.  I also kept telling myself to take it easy at the start and go out slow.  After the race announcements off we went.  We turned down 4th Ave and then turned again into a residential area before hitting the first mile mark.  I felt comfortable and relaxed even as I tried to stay at the back of a small back, then I realized a teammate, Chris Taylor, was running in the pack and his goal was several minutes faster than mine.  So I let the pack go.  We hit the first mile mark in 4:41.  Oh wait that was a marathon later in the evening.  Seriously though I hit the first mile in 6:48.  A little faster than I had hoped but nothing to panic about.  My goal is to break 1:30 which is 6:54 pace.  We continued through the residential area and jumped onto the Bear Creek Trail, a paved bike path which aptly runs along Bear Creek. The trail meanders along the river bank at this point in an open park but soon gets into a great woodsy area.  This shade helps keep the pace moving and I went through mile 2 in 6:53.  Still feeling pretty good I wasn’t worried about the pace.  As we continued to twist through the woods we came to the first water stop around 2.5 miles.  A local Boy Scout Troop did an excellent job with the water and Gatorade.  They had a ton of cups lined up on the ground which would have made a great picture! As we came into the water stop I was at the back of a pack of 6 people, after the stop I was at the front of the pack.  As we continued to meander I made sure to cut the straightest line possible between the turns so as not to add any distance to the run that didn’t need to be there. We continued on the trail through mile 3 in 6:54. Our first 5K was in 21:33. My plan for the marathon is to take at least on Clif Shot Blok every 5K so I did that during this race as well.

In the 4th mile we sadly (?) left the bike path and turned onto Pinewood Rd, a large country road.  I said sadly, because the road had very little shade on it.  There was also very little traffic which was nice, especially considering the fact that we weaved across the road several times.  It seemed everyone was doing this as they were trying to “cut the tangents” but it was a little ridiculous. I lost track of how many times we actually criss-crossed the road. I doubt we saved much time and we came through mile 4 in 6:59. Along this long mostly straight stretch I was passed by several runners who were obviously starting out slow and picking people off.  It also started to feel a little lonely as I was kind of stuck between two groups of runners. The sun was also starting to warm up, though it never really felt hot.  I came through mile 5 in 6:59. The 5 mile mark was at the beginning of the next water stop so I almost missed it.  The group was doing a great job of passing out water and Gatorade and I continued moving along.  This was a pretty lonely stretch of road that was marked by a local radio station’s van blaring both country and rock songs and a lone porta-potty under a highway overpass. Around the porta-pot I started hearing footsteps and a guy caught up to me, we didn’t really chat - but did talk back and forth a little bit.  We were a little suprised we hadn’t seen the leaders yet, but soon enough they started coming back to us.  Right before mile 6 we turned onto a gravel road and started really enjoying the better parts of rural America (read: sweet smells of home - or pig farms!).  The mile marker was on the wrong side of the road and I almost missed it and hit the lap button a few seconds after we passed it.  Mile 6: 7:14.  I ran with this black shirted guy for a little while longer, but he kept a strong pace and I let him go.  I came through this 5K in 21:46 or 43:19 for the 10K.

The race continued on the dirt road and I was now seeing lots of runners who had turned around already.  The turn around was marked by 3 orange cones and a guy saying something like, “slow down and turn around.” I came through the half-way point around 46:44. This also marked the highest point on the course, but it wasn’t all downhill from there.  Now I was seeing large groups of people running towards me as I ran back out of the dirt road. Immediately after the turn around I was hit by a head-wind.  Nothing too hard, but enough to be noticable in your race pace.  I tried not to worry about it and to stay focused.  Two other guys caught up to me and we ran together for awhile. I start to cramp a little bit in here.  It felt like it went across my whole diaphram. I tried not to let it slow me down too much as we ran through mile 7 in 7:07.  As soon as we turned back onto the paved road it seemed to go away - weird.  Our small group continued running together, pushing each other along through mile 8 in 7:14. I think they guys were local because they were getting lots of cheers from the oncoming runners.  We went through the 3rd water stop, this time I took some Gatorade and tried grabbing a water.  The girl wasn’t looking at me and so we weren’t able to make the exchange, but that was fine. As we started heading West again the headwind picked back up and I tucked in behind guy #1 and guy #2 tucked in behind me.  This proved quite fruitful, I know the more proper etiquette would have been to arrange some type of sharing agreement where we’d trade back and forth for the wind breaking duties, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it - so I said nothing.  Meanwhile guy #1 broke wind in more than one sense of the word! Yes, he loudly farted not once, but 2x’s and they both reeked almost making puke.  At the first whiff I quickly pulled out from behind him for a few strides then tucked back in. I guess in some ways, that is justice for drafting! We came through mile 9 in 7:02! This 5K was 22:08 while the overall 15K was 1:05:27.

We continued along Pinewood Rd, this time not switching sides of the road very many times.  To point out how ridiculous it was, right before the turn back onto the bike trail a group in front of us crossed the road and almost immediately crossed back over to our side.  A little silly. I some how missed the 10 mile mark, but according the the mile splits that Garmin is able to reproduce we came through the 10th mile in 6:57. Almost as soon as we turned back onto the bike trail and I no longer needed the wind blocked - but maybe also due to have just run 2 miles at sub-7 min pace I couldn’t stay with guy #1 or #2 anymore and off they went. Now I was alone again meandering through the woods.  The winding trail also made it hard to see where people were in front of me to see how close I was.  I occasionaly caught a glimpse of someone up there.  At the final water stop I again took some Gatorade.  I came through mile 11 in 14:26 WHAT??? Oh yea I missed mile 10! I felt pretty good that I just ran 2 miles under 7:15 pace - not so good according to Garmin because mile 11 was 7:31. I guess I fell off pace quite a bit after the guys left me. At this point it was more of the same from the start, except now in reverse.  I don’t think anyone passed me, nor did I pass anyone during this stretch.  I tried to dig deep for motivation, not really sure where I was at overall pace-wise (I could have just looked at my Garmin and realized where I was, duh!). I came through mile 12 in 7:41. This 5K was 23:08 and through 20K in 1:28:36.

Ok, only a mile to go, suck it up.  You can do this.  We stayed on the bike trail instead of going back on the streets through the residential area.  This made for a few short ups and downs as we went from river level to street level a couple of times - nothing major at all but I felt them a little bit.  I got passed by a group of 3-5 runners which was a little frustrating, especially since I didn’t have enough energy to even try to go with them.  I did pass a guy who was stretching out his leg on the side of the trail.  I felt like I was picking up the pace, but in reality, I was probably just maintaing it. I was finally able to see the finish area! Wait, I started hearing footsteps.  This was the motivation I needed and I picked up the pace a little bit. We came up to the street level and crossed a bridge - there was the crowd and lots of balloons. I hit mile 13 in 7:33. A quick turn and a wide turn and there was the clock.  It said 1:31 something, I got excited and took off.  When I crossed it said 1:32:24, then I looked at my watch and saw 1:33:22.  A little disappointed but knowing either way it was a PR I was excited.  It turns out the clock had stopped earlier and they must have reset it wrong.  My Garmin time ended up being the same as my official chip time (full results).

Post Race As I caught my breath - got the chip removed - and received my finisher’s medal I made my way towards the food and drink.  I took a Gatorade, Water, Orange, and Banana. I would have taken some of the rolls, but my hands were already full.  I caught up with some of my teammates and we chatted and waited for everyone else to come in.  After eating some of the food and stretching I hit up the Kemps Ice Cream truck.  Nothing like a free Orange Cream Bar to help with recovery!  We waited and waited quite awhile for the awards ceremony as several of my teammates got awards.  I also finally met Chad Austin having read his blog for awhile.

Team Round-up: (If I screw this up guys, just remember I’m the New Guy)

• Kirk Walztoni - 1:15:45 3rd overall and 2nd in his age group plus a PR
• Paul Lamere - 1:27:06 1st in his age group
• Chris Taylor - 1:28:11
• Marty Humphrey - 1:34:31
• Anne Walztoni - 1:34:43 2nd in her age group (8th overall woman)
• Deb Humphrey - 1:36:44 3rd in her age group
• Carolyn Fletcher - 1:42:40 3rd in her age group
• Ann Choiroloff - 1:43:12

Race pictures are available here.

Indianapolis ends in a Tie

After slogging it out for 13.1 miles two Kenyans tied for the win at the 31st Annual Indianapolis Mini Marathon. After reviewing both still pictures and video, race officials declared Kenyans Lamech Mokono and Valentine Orare winners and awarded them both the 1st place prize money. The pair came in first, in a time of 1:02:53, out of 35,000 entrants. (Indy Star article)

I’m having trouble finding a way to get a full list of results to see how many actually finished and if there is anybody from Minnesota who finished.

I know a lot of my friends from Anderson ran the race because it is part of the Anderson Road Runner’s Road Race Series. This is the first time since 2005 that I haven’t run the race so it is a little weird to be reporting on it. I’ve enjoyed running it and being able to run on the Brickyard but have never performed well there! Here is a race review from blogging buddy Joe.

Let’s hope that the Indy 500 race doesn’t end in a tie in a few weeks!

Updated 5-5

Organizers announced today that there were 30,225 finishers, the most in the 32-year history of the nation’s largest 13.1-mile race.

Technorati Tags: Indy Mini, Half-Marathon, Indianapolis

Half Training: Week Twelve - Final

This is it, the final week of training!

Monday - Run 6 miles at goal half marathon pace. A very nice morning for a run! It was just under 30, but sunny. After a half-mile warm-up I did an out and back 6 miler on the Midtown Greenway. I pushed the pace and it was a little struggle to maintain a sub-7 pace. I was glad to finish the workout in 46:51. This was 6:57 pace which is 5 seconds per mile off the 6:52 goal pace. This felt like a good solid “last workout”.

Tuesday - Run 3 miles easy. Run 3 acceleration strides. I took this easy run on another beautiful morning. It was 43 and sunny with some strong wind gusts. I ran around Powderhorn Park which isn’t anything too exciting but a nice change of pace. I ran the 3 miles in 23:59. I did 3 accelerations at the little park near our house on their soccer field.

Wednesday - Run 3 miles easy. Run 3 acceleration strides. Another easy run on a beautiful morning. It was 50 and sunny! Today’s run went downtown and around the Metrodome. That was appropriate since we went to the Twins game that night. This one was a little easier (not any hills) and my time was 23:40.

Thursday - Rest. It felt nice to sleep in a little bit today and just rest!

Friday - Rest. It was nice to sleep. I felt pretty good and relaxed.

Saturday - RACE DAY!! 13.1 miles at goal race pace! Go read the race review for all the details but it was mid-40’s with some strong wind gusts. My overall time was 1:36:44 (1:36:58 officially).

Sunday - Rest. A little sore - definitely want to rest and reflect today!

Race Review is on the way!

Total Mileage - 26.2 Miles in 3:15:34. Now if I could actually run a marathon in that time range!

Technorati Tags: Half Marathon, Training

Race Day: Earth Day Half-Marathon

After 12 weeks of training the race began. But a few comments about the before part of the race. The race directors had to change the course due to a bridge being closed in St Cloud. They notified everyone of this change via e-mail before the race and updated their course maps on the website. They also made it very clear that there would be no race day packet pick-up (so for an Earth Day event they wanted you to drive to the city 2x’s. St Cloud is a little over an hour for us). What they didn’t make as clear was that a local high school track team was doing proxy packet pick-up for a $5 donation. Well worth the cost since it would be cheaper than 2 trips up to St Cloud. I knew things would be a little different since I’m on a USATF team, but it didn’t look like they offered race-day pick-up. After several e-mails and a little frustration I found out that I would be able to pick-up my packet at the USATF tent on race-day! Shew!

We got to St Cloud with plenty of time to get ready and warm-up on a pretty good morning for racing. It was mid-40’s with a sometimes strong wind. It was a little hard to decide what to wear for the day because the wind was still cold but I hadn’t brought a dry-fit t-shirt so it was either long sleeves or just a singlet (I was wearing shorts no matter what). I opted for the singlet and cotton gloves (and it felt good for the majority of the race). The campus of St Cloud State Univ is right next to the Mississippi River and would serve as a good place for the looping course. This would prove to not be one of my favorite

race courses. On the right is a map of the course from my Garmin.

The races website also called this a fast and flat course. It may be fast with a winning time of 66 something, but it isn’t flat. I will say that the course had an overall elevation loss but there are a lot of spikes on my elevation chart:

My official time is 1:36:58 my watch said 1:36:51 for the race so that’s pretty close! However, my Garmin said it was 13.25 miles not 13.1, oh well I guess. It is a certified course and I know that there are differences in distance because we tend to cut the corners a lot closer than they do on the measuring device. Either way it still didn’t help my final time be where I wanted it: 1:30 or 1:34.

We started right next to the St Cloud State University’s Recreation center after all the pre-race formalities. Everyone took off and I set into a comfortable pace going through town heading towards a lake which we went around for the first mile. Imagine everyone’s surprise when we came through the 1 mile in 5:50 something… Since the course had been changed the old painted miles weren’t accurate anymore, but someone had put the mile marker and its big bright yellow balloon at that mark. Everyone looked at their watches and discussed the situation. I took a look at my watch and realized the error and kept on going! A little farther around the lake they had the mile marked with a big clock that read 7 something. My split was actually 6:50, a little fast but it was comfortable. We then ran through town and I felt comfortable with the pace, I wasn’t really passing many people but still felt the pace was solid. I came through the second mile at 6:40. I really need to figure out how to make the Garmin show the split time and the overall time so I don’t have to do estimated mental math. I knew I was still sub-7 but didn’t realize I was that quick. The third miles we crossed the Mississippi River and had a nice down hill along the river. It was tree covered and probably could be pretty in the summer, if you aren’t racing a 1/2 marathon! I came through the third mile in 6:42 and still felt good. I took a Clif Shot Blok as planned, but had trouble getting the bag back into my pocket. I decided to hold onto in my hands for awhile longer. At this point the overall time is 20:13. This was a 6:44 pace with an overall race projection of 1:28.

This fourth mile did a little out and back that was annoying. We went about a tenth of a mile down a little road hit a water stop and then did a 180 and headed back out. A comment to the race director would be to make this water stop accessible both ways on the course not just the one direction. After that we headed back up out of the river valley and I hit the mile mark at 6:52. We then went up and over the Mississippi River again. Right after we crossed the bridge we went onto a sidewalk that was lined on both sides with cheering fans. This was a great feeling as they were pretty close to us and sent a surge through me, wiping away any pain I was feeling. It was more of an uphill mile back onto campus for the second loop of the campus. I came through the 5th mile at 6:59. We continued around campus, running through a plaza and alongside the river. The elevation chart show a quick steep uphill, but I don’t really recall this one. I do know that we went downhill under the bridge we had run over during the 5th mile before bottoming out again along the river valley. We went through the Gu stop (which I didn’t take) and I talked with another guy wearing an MDRA jersey - he’s not on the USATF team but runs with the club sometimes. I tried to keep in contact with him but like so many other “marks” he pulled away. I came through the 6th mile at 6:59. I took another scheduled Shot Blok. We went through the relay exchange area and I was pretty sure the clock said 43 something so I felt pretty good. My watch actually says I ran the first half in 45:07 which is still pretty good. This had me at 6:53 pace which is a 1:30:13 projected finish.

At this point we came to the hardest hill on the course which was a longer sometimes steep uphill that went for 3/4ths of a mile and climbed about 90 feet in elevation. I had planned to take it conservatively up the hill since I hadn’t been running a lot of hills around here. The course leveled out along the shoulder of a major entrance road into the city. This was now also running into the wind which we’d do for the next several miles. I posted a 7:42 mile. We continued along the road making a detour into a sub-division. Nothing too exciting happened here as I slipped into the monotony and mid-race doldrums. I ran a 7:29 8th mile. During the next mile which continued boringly along the road a guy went by and I decided to stick with him. It felt good to “open” back up a little bit and get into a solid rhythms again. There wasn’t a lot of crowd support along the road but occasional pockets of people cheering. At an aid station I let the guy I was running with get away from me but I managed to drop back to a 7:13 9th mile. I was at 1:03:31 for 9 miles. This had me just over 7 minute pace for the whole race and a projected finish of 1:32.

We finally turned off the main road and headed into a sub-division next to the St. Cloud Country Club. There were some little hills up and down along the way. I managed to to run a 7:25 for the 10th mile. As we continued through the sub-division I was running near the edge of the road and managed to scrape my arm on a metal fence post. That pretty much describes how I was feeling. I was quickly getting exhausted and was starting to get passed by more and more people. Occasionally I would try and go with them, this would work sometimes! Right before the 11 mile mark we climbed a hill that at that point proved to be pretty formidable to concur. I came through the mile at 7:59. My Achilles started to hurt a little bit here, nothing major but it was saying hello! Now the race is pretty much downhill along a bike trail to the finish - easy right? And the wind to the back to boot! They had some fun signs along the way such as only two more miles to go and such encouragement as go and catch that person, or something like that. It was pretty much all lost on me as I was focusing on running and not getting passed by too many people. The downhill did help a little as I ran a 7:56! Sadly I fell apart during the last mile. Not really sure what happened but the torrents went by as I was getting passed a lot and didn’t have the energy to mount a surge to go with anyone. I ran a 8:14 13th mile. As we came into the clearing near the parking lots you could hear the finish but it was still a long ways off. We made several turns before it was finally in sight. I was trying to finish strong and ran a 1:44 last tenth(or quarter). As I neared the final couple of hundred yards some woman started to pass me. This seemed unacceptable so I stepped and went with her. She didn’t like that and kicked it up a notch. Enough of this crap, I dropped into bottom gear and laid out a huge kick. It’d be interesting to really see how much I beat her by but since it is chipped timed there isn’t anyway to know unless they video taped it!

To make myself feel a little bit better I’m gonna get all geeky with you and my Garmin. I subdivided the race into 0.10 mile distances and it produced 132 splits! Remember that my watch actually thinks the course was 13.24 so the last split is just 0.04 of a mile. It says I ran that short segment (approx 64 meters) in 11 seconds which is a 4:56 pace. So even though I couldn’t handle any more on the course I was able to summon the strength to sprint for 64 meters and out kick a woman!

I struggled to keep standing as they cut my chip off and I shuffled to get water. “Water, water, that’s all they have?” I said to myself a little frustrated, exhausted and upset. But as I left the chute area I realized they had stuff set up inside the field house. They actually had a ton of goodies: Gatorade, cookies, bananas, apples, oranges, bread, and pizza. We sat and ate a little bit so I could recover! After sitting for awhile I wandered over to get a free massage. They were massaging the calves, hamstrings, and glutes. It felt really good. The only damage to my body is my stupid toe-nail has a blister again and my Achilles feels a little tender.

We didn’t stick around for the awards or anything but I showered and we spent the afternoon in St. Cloud.  The final breakdown is 209/1773 overall, 180/895 males, and 40/157 age group.

Technorati Tags: Half Marathon, Earth Day, Race Review

Looking Ahead - Half and Full Marathon

Looking ahead this week I’m doing two pretty major things. I’m not sure what order they will happen exactly but I think I’m going to 1) Register for the 27th Annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on Friday and then 2) race the Earth Day Half Marathon on Saturday.

Twin Cities tends to fill up within a month and they are planning on that happening even though they are expanding the field to 11,000 entrants. Last year the race had just over 7,000 finishers. The course runs from downtown Minneapolis making a big circle around Minneapolis before finishing at the State Capitol Building in St Paul. Registration open at 12:01 am Friday morning!

This date has been marked on my calendar for awhile now and I actually selected this weekend’s Half-Marathon with the fall marathon in mind. I can race Saturday and will have several weeks of “down time” before beginning a new, yet to be determined, training program.

So for this weekend’s half-marathon I’m venturing out to do the Earth Day Half-Marathon. It is the USATF-MN Half-Marathon Championship race, which I didn’t know when I signed up. Even though I don’t think our team is going to have enough people to field a team because of Boston it will still be fun. The race was forced to make some last minute course adjustments due to a closed bridge in the city. I think everyone is a little skittish since the I-35W bridge collapse so they closed the bridge before it got worse. This affects the race because the main detour around the know closed bridge is on the course. It should be a good race and I’m excited to see the fruits of all my hard work! Check back on Monday or Tuesday to see how it went!

Technorati Tags: Marathon, Half-Marathon, Twin Cities, Earth Day

Crazy Running Stories

Two stories reported over at The Final Sprint are quite crazy. They might be a little old now but still worth pointing out!

First, 12 were killed during a suicide bomb attack in Sri Lanka, at the start of a marathon. The terrorist posed as a runner before setting off the bomb as the race began - killing 12 and injuring about 100 others. Among the dead are a Sri Lankan minister and a former Olympian.

Second, a swarm of bees attacked participants in a half-marathon in Japan. Dozens were sent to the hospital after the attack. It sounds like the bees were pretty much in one spot flying together and just decided to attack some of the runners getting beneath their clothing.

Be careful out there!

Half Training: Week Eleven

Image provided by stock.xchn

This is the next to last week of training, it is hard to believe that it is finally here! This was a cold week weather-wise, but we missed out on some of the worst of it. North of us got slammed really bad. This is kind of a taper week although not by much really. Overall I am feeling healthier although the mucus is still lingering around.

Monday - Run 6 x 1600 meter repeats at 10K pace. Recover between the repeats with 400 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. I only did 4 intervals and I also did 800 meter rest (just because I used an old program in the Garmin). My thought process was that I wanted to run them but I also wanted to help my body to not get sick(er). Part of me thinks I would have been better off just running the equivalent distance since my times weren’t that impressive. My 10K pace is about 6:30 and none of them were even close, only the first interval was under 7. It was in the mid-30’s when I ran without much wind so it was pretty decent conditions. My splits were 6:59, 7:07, 7:27, and 7:25. I think if I start using a track that they might come down some…

Tuesday - Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I did 4 easy miles on the Midtown Greenway. I was a little sluggish after yesterday’s workout but nothing major. It was in the mid-30’s again without a lot of wind, so that felt pretty good. I did the 4 miles in 32:23. I tacked on a couple of accelerations at the end.

Wednesday - Run 20 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at goal half marathon pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I did this one on the Greenway as well. You may recall similar workouts but this one is a little different since you don’t actually get a recovery on the “off 30 seconds”, it is slower but still kinda fast. I tried to run each “hard” interval all out but know that I definitely didn’t succeed, just like I didn’t run the “off” intervals at goal pace. It is fun to sprint for 30 seconds though, I like the feeling of speed! The total distance was 4.58 miles in 35:14.

Thursday - Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I just ran this one around the neighborhood. It was in the mid-30’s but had a significant wind-chill. I just took it easy for the run and did 4 in 33:05.

Friday - Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I had to leave pretty early in the morning for a training so I didn’t run but had planned all along in my head to run in the afternoon. It was miserable weather throughout the day though. In the low-30’s with a “wintry mix” of rain, slush, sleet, and snow. We even had some thunderstorms rumble through Thursday night.

Saturday - Run 4 miles at an easy pace, the speed up to goal half marathon pace for 6 miles. Cool down with 1 mile at an easy pace. I was a little shocked that they wanted me to run 11 miles the week before the race. I tentatively planned to run about 8 just to get some solid mileage in. A group of guys I’ve run with some was doing 12 (before their trip to Boston) so I thought I’d go with them. I assumed from where we were meeting that there’d be opportunities to drop out if I needed to or wanted to! The plan was that I would just see how I felt and try to run most of it with them. We were at a bridge at 7 miles that would let me back across the Mississippi and would put my run right around 8. We stopped for a traffic light and I said - I’m heading back. So I ended up running 8.5 (7 with them) which felt pretty good. We weren’t pushing the pace at all but it was definitely my fastest average pace run of the week. So 8.5 miles in 1:05:45.

Sunday - Rest Day! And on the seventh day I rested!

Total Mileage - 28.3 miles in 3:44:37

Technorati Tags: Half Marathon, Training