Today's Race

I always like races that have a lot of words in them. Today's was the Cleveland West Road Runners Club Spring Classic Half-Marathon and Five-K. The plan was to run the first 7 miles easy - maybe about 7 minute pace, and then hammer the last 6.1, bringing the pace down to about 6:30, and completing the whole thing in about 89 minutes.

Didn't happen. I felt like I was running very slowly, but those first couple miles were in the 6:30 to 6:40 range. After about 3 1/2, we turned back into the cold wind. And I do mean cold - it was 33, but that strong westerly wind brought the wind chill well into the 20s. So the 2nd quater of the race was tough. I went through the half-way point in this double out and back course in about 43:40 or so. About 2 minutes faster than I had planned. What would this do to my 2nd half hammering?

I did manage to pick up the pace just a bit. Most of the 2nd half miles were right around 6:30, even those going into the wind. I powered away from a group I was running with at about mile 8, but one guy came back and passed me at about mile 12. I still did finish fairly strong - my last mile was my best - a 6:21.

I came in at about 1:26:40. So I did manage to do those last 6.1 in just under 40 minutes; at least this went according to plan. I think it was about 10th place overall and 1st in my age group. They gave me my award as I crossed the finish line - I like that. This may be the fastest I've ever run this course, and I've done it many times. It's also my best half in about 5 years or so. Still not quite where I want to be yet though.

Now I gotta rest/recover, train and then taper in the 9 days between now and Boston.