This was such a great day. I was able to PR by 3 minutes and 40 seconds with the help of some awesome pace setters.
I rode up to the top with Julie (thanks for the ride!), Rachelle, Emily, Josse and Erika. Congrats on all of the fabulous races today - Allie in the nailbiting 5k, all the FRBs in the half. Wow, what a great day!
I decided earlier this week that I wanted to go for a PR in the half. I wasn't sure if I was ready since my long runs have been less than quality with my recent vacation and all the races I've done. Once I decided to go for it I settled on a goal of sub 1:20 and knew I had to ave a 6:05 pace to accomplish this. I figured a 5:5X pace in the canyon and 6:0X on University would be a good plan. It turns out I was able to hold on to the 5:5x with a couple faster than that for a lot longer than I thought I could, but I attribute that to the awesome group I ran with - Kassi, Scott and Mike.
Scott and Mike broke the wind for us - so much that I never realized there was a headwind until I fell back on University Avenue. Scott realized I was struggling and came back to me and let me draft for another 4 miles. He asked if I was ready to make a move - and I think I grunted back that I was just trying to hold on. Looking back at my splits I wasn't really dying that badly - just checking out a bit mentally. Somewhere in the last mile he gave me one last, "You got this," and bounded off to catch Mike and Kassi. I pushed hard at the end when I saw the clock ticking up from 1:17:4X and was elated to see my Garmin split of 1;17;59... But then came the drama of the messed up chip/bib/number...who are you? You're not Nate? What did your Garmin say?
Thanks for the cheers Matt, Brandon and Allie - I probably looked like a zombie, but I was so grateful for the encouragement on that long stretch of U. Ave.
After a quick cooldown with Kassi I got to cheer my son on in the kids marathon mile. He did great and was so excited to run a race on his birthday. My four year old jumped in the last 200M of the run and sprinted into the finish with his brother. He ran so hard his shoe came off but he kept going and didn't really seem to notice it. The announcer thought it was hilarious and called attention to him. At the finish line the volunteers gave him a medal not realizing he wasn't registered. He was so proud of it and kept saying, "Mom, isn't this so cool. I ran so fast I won this medal!" I did a quick switcheroo and gave him my medal and gave back the medal he shouldn't have received but reassured him it was just as good as the other one. He can't wait to "win another medal!"
5:52, 5:45, 6:02, 5:50, 5:44, 5:53, 5:54, 5:51, 5:55, 5:58, 6:07, 6:01, 6:05, 5:46 pace last .16 per Garmin
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