Silver Strand Half Marathon 2007

ah ha! The race that almost wasn't! It wasn't in the budget and I was hit with a repeat piriformis flare up with a side of ITB. But I've been using my foam roller, religiously since Wed. Yesterday morning I was still limping about but got some Advil and started taking it every 4 hours to try to help reduce the inflammation. Not sure if it was phantom taper pains or everything worked the way it should but today was the best I've felt in a long time! I ate ate and ate some more yesterday. I was gagging it down, literally. But I didn't want to run out of energy.

I was up at 2:30. Finally crawled out of bed, grabbed a piece of pizza and gagged it down, chasing it with Red bull. I headed out the door at 4:30 and was at the State Beach Parking lot by 5AM and waited until 5:30 to get on a bus. It was cold but I brought a big blanket to wrap up in. Many MANY people saw the value in my choice, LOL.

Found 2 of my friends but was missing Lynn. The wheelchairs, skaters, and the amputee runners went first and off we were! It's a flat fast course except for several 1/2mile+ slow gradual climbs. I started slow in hope of chasing down that ever elusive negative split. My goal was a 7:50-55 pace somewhere in the 1:43 range. Hoping for a PR.

I found my groove early on and was glad I didn't have to talk to anyone. At mile 4 I took my gu. I made sure to grab a cup at every aid station and had one gulp before I tossed it. I passed Lynn at mile 7. I felt a surge coming and went with it. I steadily began passing people one at a time. Gave Lynn a high five coming back at mile 11. I picked up speed since the course had thinned. I came around that last corner and saw the finish, about .25 away and I turned it on. I felt like I was floating.

My Mile splits...

8:16
7:43
7:53
7:56
7:55
7:53
7:54
7:46
7:36
7:31
7:37
7:25
7:15
the last .1 miles were a 6:52 pace

yes, I think it's the first negative split for me! And a new PR. And I came in better than goal. My first 7min/pace distance run!


Date: 11/11/2007 7:30 AM
Type: Race
Course: Silver Strand Half Marathon
Distance: 13.1 miles
Duration: 1:42:17
Pace: 7:49 / mile
Shoe: Adidas Supernova Classic (P-1)
Weight: 126 lb
Field Placement: 191 / 1716 (11.1%)
Age group: 35 – 39
Group Placement: 12 / 149 (8.1%)
Gender Placement: 32 / 882 (3.6%)
Statistics: Calories: 1248
VO2 Max: 43.9