Racefest Half Marathon

Time: 109:40
Distance: 17.21 miles

W/u: 22:13 for 2.65 miles
Race: 71:52, 2nd place overall
C/d: 15:35 for 1.56 miles

Today was an incredibly long day. It started early this morning in Charlotte at a half marathon I decided to run. Last year the event brought in some pretty tough competition as the race served as North Carolina's USATF Half Marathon Championships. This year I was hoping that the field wasn't so tough in order to grab a piece of the prize purse.

During the warm up from the Dick's Sporting Good's parking lot in South Park, I could tell the legs were feeling good. I jogged very slowly around the business parks and around the mall. As I ran through what would later serve as the post-race area, I noticed that Scott Dvorak was rocking his new Karhu Forward Rides. I gave him a pair last week and I think they were debuting on his feet this morning. I finished up the warm up with Jason Cook who is an employee at Fleet Feet Huntersville. He was going to be helping out a buddy in the half.

I didn't recognize too many people during the moments just before the start of the race. However, once the race began I soon learned it would be a two man battle. A battle that I would soon lose on the bastard of a hill around mile 7. Ryan Bender and I took the pace out fairly evenly for the first 10k and we more or less shared the lead. He would push a little bit on the uphills and I would reclaim a half step lead on the downhills. I was aware of the hill mid-race because Caitlin told me to be weary of it, though I never scoped it out.

I felt good early on and felt confident in my abilities to win the race, but that quickly went out the window as I was gapped on the hill. Ryan put a few steps on me about 50 meters into the hill and his lead gradually opened up. At the crest of the hill I was about 30-40 meters back, but still very much in the race as there was a lot of running to do. I hung around for the next 10 minutes but after making up little ground I threw in the towel. You can see below as my splits go from 5:12, 5:34 on the hill, 5:20 in the chase and 5:44 in submission.

I more or less just ran to the finish line rather comfortably. Looking back I'm a bit upset that I didn't man up and continue to race. It was a great opportunity to test the fitness and instead I folded. I just wrote about how the Kenyan's could/would attack workouts and races with almost a reckless sense of pace. I'm not going to make excuses about how easily I was popped off the winner's heels today. I should be more focused and prepared to hurt going into races especially when there is cash on the line.

It's time to re-group, hydrate and drive up to Washington, D.C. for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.

Splits:
5:16, 5:19, 5:22, 5:09, 5:23, 5:12, 5:12, 5:34, 5:20, 5:44, 5:50, 5:44, 5:53, :55 for 71:53 total.