My last race in June was the inaugural AF half marathon. Let me first say, with each race I have a goal of simply beating my previous time. To date, I had a downhill half marathon PR of 2:24, and an uphill PR of 2:27. Given that about nine miles of this race was downhill, I set out to beat 2:24. Luckily, AF provided pacers every five minutes up to 2:30 so I found the 2:20 runner, clad in a neon green running vest, and told myself I just have to stay ahead of her.
Shortly after the gun fired, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with the 2:15 pacer. As I continued to find my cadence, I pulled ahead and caught the 2:10. A mile in, when I finally had my ideal pace, I was running next to the 2:00 runner! We were even pacing fast for a 2 hour finish, and ended up running the first nine miles at a steady 8.5 min/mile. For the last four miles, the course flatted out and we encountered a few gentle, rolling hills. I backed off my pace a bit, and crossed that finish line in 2:05 (9.3 min/mile). So even with walking through three aid stations, I still shaved 19 minutes off my previous time. Yay!
Next half marathon in one week!
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