Distance - 13.1 miles
Official Time - 1:37:46 (7:28 min/mile pace)
Division Place - 78th out of 761
Gender Place - 396 out of 5159
Overall Place - 483rd out of 12,091
This was a weird one for me because I found myself more worried about my wife's race than my own. Knowing that I have a couple of tough weekends of triathlon's coming up, I didn't place too much emphasis on this race. However, it was my wife Jessica's first half marathon and I was really excited for her on race morning.
After waking up around 5:30, I ate my sweet potato and then fixed her some oatmeal. We got dressed and were out the door by around 6:40 or so. The kids stayed the night at Jessica's mom's house, so we were able to head down to the start without having to drop them off or wait for a sitter to show up...which was nice.
After parking and getting to the start, Jessica went to meet up with her sister and I started my warm-up. The temperature was in the low 50's and despite the forecast for rain that we had all week, there was no precipitation falling from the sky.
I moved into my corral and was ready to go. The only time I was nervous was when it took my GPS a LONG time to sync up with the satellites. I waited to long to get it started and it finally synced just a few seconds before the starting gun fired! God forbid I go on a run without knowing my pace at any given moment!
The plan for me was to go out around a 7:20 pace and see how I felt after mile 8-9. Things were going well as my first 5 miles were 7:23, 7:15, 7:16, 7:23 & 7:24. While my effort seemed to be the same, my pace slowed slightly for the next few miles. Miles 6, 7 & 8 were all right at 7:28 pace.
After coming out of Churchill Downs around mile 8.75, I started to feel like maintaining this pace was more difficult. So I had to make a decision. Do I push through it and end up being sore most of this week and not ready for Rev3 Knoxville on Sunday...or do I back off? Amazingly, I was a able to convince myself for hold back. I just maintained my same effort for the next few miles - which caused my pace to slow. Miles 9, 10 & 11 were all at 7:33 pace.
I was really starting to feel some fatigue at the 12 mile mark. My legs were starting to get heavy and I could tell that my breathing was becoming a little bit labored...so I backed off a little more. Mile 12 was in 7:37 and mile 13 was a 7:41.
I glanced at my watch as I turned the corner for the finish line and it was only then that I realized how close I actually was to a PR for this race. So I put my head down and pushed it down the finish shoot. I crossed the finish line 19 seconds off of a PR. I could have set a new Personal Record for this race, but I have bigger fish to fry at the moment. I'll be back next year to set the PR!
As for Jessica, she showed a lot of determination and will on Saturday. Despite some stomach issues and an IT Band flare up around mile 6, she pushed through and ran a 2:39 half marathon. Pretty impressive considering my first half was only 26 minutes faster than this! Good news for her is that I have lots of experience in rehabbing IT bands!
I was also very proud of all of the runners that I have been working with for the Kids Center. Having a small part in helping people accomplish their goals is pretty rewarding! Doing it all to help out an awesome organization is even more rewarding!
Check out the video below of Brian Heyburn, one of the members of the team that I helped train...and a former client of the Kids Center! Very inspirational! After watching the video, click on this link to make a donation to the Kids Center.
Nice write up! Awesome job keeping the main goal in focus. I'm sure it will pay off in your future races! Still a good run!
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