The run was fun. I heard from Tim (who was also running the half), that they had about 900 for the 1/2, 10K and 5K. I started right up front, so for the first mile or two, lots of people passed me.
The first few miles make for a fairly flat and quick course. That changes around mile 5 where some very interesting and steep inclines (up and down). You can see the elevation chart here.
From mile 2 to mile 10, I passed a coupe of people but saw a few pass me, but for the most part held my place, even when on mile 9 I took my eyes off the ground to look if somebody was coming close to catching me and hit a root that made me kiss the ground. I scrapped both my knees and right had, but quickly stood up and kept running. No biggie.
I am really enjoying trail runs. I feel the miles go faster because you are so focused on looking at the ground to avoid falling that tim passes faster. They are very entertaining. I also suspect that because of the shorter steps required, my speed increases. Perhaps something to try on paved road.
By mile 10 I was seriously pumped up. I felt great. I wasn't tired at all, so I picked up the pace slightly at a time when people where starting to slow down. The cool thing of running marathons is that half marathons are very short races to run. Easy to do beginning to end. at least in comparison to the full. The result was that I passed about 15 people on those last three miles. The more I passed, the better I felt and the more I targeted to pass.
crossed the finish line at 1:53:33. That is 8:40 per mile. In fact, while I have run 13.1 mile distances faster, I have never done it on a race, so this PR is the equivalent of an Olympic, but not world race. It is interesting how much I need to twist, search and rationalize to find a PR on my runs....
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