I ran London's Run today, the half-marathon version. It wasn't quite a half-marathon. They changed the course because of some serious mud and the new distance wasn't measured quite right, in fact it was short by a half mile, not that I was complaining by the time I finished.
Flew to Phoenix Friday night and met up with several siblings and nephews I had arm-twisted into running the race with me. Turns out we are all over the map in terms of talent. One nephew came in 5th overall, and one brother finished pretty late. I was somewhere in between.
There were over 523 finishers in the half-marathon, and it was very crowded at the beginning on the narrow dirt track. My goal was to get a Boston pace for the race (8:37 per mile) but when I saw the mud and the crowded conditions I quickly adjusted my expectations. I was coming off a poor running week anyway.
I was a little encouraged when the first mile came in at 8:48, despite the conditions. A couple of nephews who hadn't trained much took off like rockets and I figured I would be picking up body pieces at about mile 4, but I never saw them again until the finish. Being smoked by untrained teenagers seems to be a common theme in my racing career. I passed two brothers and eventually caught up to the third brother, who normally runs faster than me but has a bad hip right now.
I was struggling with the pace until I caught up with him, then all of a sudden everything clicked. We talked and hit several splits below 8:30. He stopped at an aid station and I told him to catch up with me. Shortly after that the 10K and half courses split and he went the wrong way, running his own unique hybrid race. (I did the same thing but corrected myself after a couple of steps -- didn't stop me from giving him considerable grief.)
Another theme of the day was pink. Several women wearing pink passed me. I was holding my own against every color but pink. I managed to pass one of them and felt pretty good, but then she caught me at about mile 10, just like all the others.
But then just at that low point a runner coming upstream began yelling "Flatlander". Yep, it was the one and only Burt, miraculously appearing to save the day. We yapped away and before I knew it the race was over. It was totally awesome for him to come out and pull me in, especially just after finishing a very fast 10K of his own. Just a great guy, and got to meet his wife as well. She took a picture of us which I hoped to post, but I am too lame to figure it out, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you I really did meet Burt.
I also got chicked by my sister, a fellow blogger who is making a surge this year. We went back out for some cool-down miles after the race, which loosened up our legs and gave us a chance to look for lost siblings.
Here are my splits: 8:48, 8:39, 8:52, 8:16, 8:34, 8:26, 8:19, 8:27, 8:27, 8:45, 8:48, 8:51, 5:33 (8:48). Average pace 8:37 per mile, which adjusted to a half-marathon distance comes out to 1:52:53. That number is almost exactly half of 3:45:59, the age-adjusted marathon time I have to run to BQ. So I was very happy to get this time despite my low expectations, and happier still to have improved since my last race, even though it didn't seem like I was making much progress this month. This is my first half -- I didn't think I would like running this distance, but was surprised at how much fun it was. I plan to run the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth at the end of February, and hopefully I can get my two teenagers to run that one with me. | 