Thanks all for the encouraging words. It was a thrill to cross the finish line first, even if it was a very small event.
Double race weekend for me - did a Sunday morning half with my son and one of his cross country buddies. Because of the impending winter storm, the race was up in air until the last moment, but it went off with about 600 hardy souls lining up in the freezing cold ready to start. I had originally hoped to PR this race, but I was dealing with a head cold and had just run a 5K the day before, so I gave up on that idea. The revised plan was just to stick with my son and his buddy (who had never run a half) and pace them to a decent time in the mid-1:40's range. We held a 7:30-7:45 pace in the beginning, which was a little fast, but the boys were feeling good and able to talk and joke at that pace, so we decided to see how long we could hold it. At about the Mile 6 mark, the snow started to come down, but I was enjoying the cool temps and the wintery scene. My son had been experiencing some GI issues all week, and had to stop at the Mile 10 water station to use the porta-potty. He told us not to wait, and we kept on going. I knew the other boy was a very strong runner at the shorter distances, but he had never raced anything over a 10K, and had held back to make sure he didn't blow up. I told him there was only 3.1 to go to the finish, and it was time to empty the tank. I looked at my watch, and a very slight PR was possible if we turned it on for the final 5K. The other boy started to slowly pull away, but I kept him in sight as I ran as hard as I could to get that PR. Coming into the final mile I knew it'd be close, but I was able to shave :17 off my old half PR to finish in 1:38:35, about :15 seconds behind my son's friend. My son came in at 1:45 despite his pit stop, shaving nearly 15 minutes off his old PR from last year. 3 new PRs meant a great race for all of us. And we got home before the roads got bad! :biggrin:
+13
62,301
Double race weekend for me - did a Sunday morning half with my son and one of his cross country buddies. Because of the impending winter storm, the race was up in air until the last moment, but it went off with about 600 hardy souls lining up in the freezing cold ready to start. I had originally hoped to PR this race, but I was dealing with a head cold and had just run a 5K the day before, so I gave up on that idea. The revised plan was just to stick with my son and his buddy (who had never run a half) and pace them to a decent time in the mid-1:40's range. We held a 7:30-7:45 pace in the beginning, which was a little fast, but the boys were feeling good and able to talk and joke at that pace, so we decided to see how long we could hold it. At about the Mile 6 mark, the snow started to come down, but I was enjoying the cool temps and the wintery scene. My son had been experiencing some GI issues all week, and had to stop at the Mile 10 water station to use the porta-potty. He told us not to wait, and we kept on going. I knew the other boy was a very strong runner at the shorter distances, but he had never raced anything over a 10K, and had held back to make sure he didn't blow up. I told him there was only 3.1 to go to the finish, and it was time to empty the tank. I looked at my watch, and a very slight PR was possible if we turned it on for the final 5K. The other boy started to slowly pull away, but I kept him in sight as I ran as hard as I could to get that PR. Coming into the final mile I knew it'd be close, but I was able to shave :17 off my old half PR to finish in 1:38:35, about :15 seconds behind my son's friend. My son came in at 1:45 despite his pit stop, shaving nearly 15 minutes off his old PR from last year. 3 new PRs meant a great race for all of us. And we got home before the roads got bad! :biggrin:
+13
62,301