Overall Time: 1:28:36
Overall Finish: 54th (out of 2,030)
Pace Per Mile: 6:45
Age Group Finish: 8th (out of 106)
The only monkey wrench I had in my plan was the allergies that had kicked in this past week. Through part of the run, my sinuses swelled up to the point where I was sniffling and one of my eyes started to shed tears. Oddly enough it straightened out and it never really affected my race performance at all.
Miles 1-5
Splits: 7:00, 6:39, 6:50, 6:47, 6:50
Split total: 34:06
I started out going slow, though not by choice. Even though I wasn't far from the start, there were many runners up to the front that were not going fast at all. (I am really starting to like the pace markers at the larger road races because of this.) I knew this course so well, however, and when I weaved my way to the left edge of the road I had a narrow slit that allowed be to leapfrog dozens - perhaps hundreds - of runners. I was still gaining momentum after the first mile and by the time I turned on to route 1, I had found a comfortable pace. At that point my goal was to just maintain this pace until the end.
Miles 6-10
Splits: 6:56, 6:51, 6:45, 6:41, 6:43
Split total: 33:56
Overall: 1:08:02
Miles 5 through 8 were on route 88, the road that had the dreaded rolling hills. In the Marathon leg, this terrain would wear down on me and beat me up. Luckily I only stayed on this road for a few miles, turning around after the first major up and down hill. Once I passed back on that hill, I extended my stride a bit and started to take the race with a bit more aggression. On mile 9 I had approached a guy running the half and we proceeded to make conversation through the next few miles. I tend to be pretty antisocial during a race but the talk was welcome and we helped each other keep up a stronger pace than what we've been doing.
Miles 11-13.1
Splits: 6:40, 6:40, 6:40, :34(~6:40)
Split total: 20:34
Overall: 1:28:36
I hit a harder pace than what I originally intended but I was determined to keep it up. (What I didn't realize was that I had a 5K at such an even pace - only when I looked through my splits after the race did I notice I had done that.) I broke away from the other runner as soon as we turned to the Back Cove and defied my tired legs. The most interesting part was that I was passing runners on every mile from start to finish. No one passed me after 4 miles.
I was happy with my finish. This is a very familiar course to me now - my 4th visit to this race - but this was my first half marathon in over 2 years. I never had any doubt that I could finish it, but I always try to prepare for the unexpected.
Lucky for me, the unexpected never happened. It was a solid, complete race.
