This morning I did the Spokane Half Marathon - a fairly hilly course especially with Bloomsday (doomsday) hill at mile 9.  This is my second time doing it but I was a long ways from my 7 min/mile goal with a time of 1:34:44.  I thought last year I did it faster but it turns out I was mistaken (last year my time was 1:35:28).

Summary:

Total Time: 1:34:44
Average Mile: 7:11
Placed overall: 43
35-39 Age Group: 7

The temperature started cold (I recall 24 on a bill board as we drove into town) but it warmed up by race time.  Immediately before the race I decided to abandon all my layers and strip down to just shorts and a non-cotton T-Shirt.  Good Choice!  For me, this was perfect attire for the race - I was never hot or cold.

Over all, I had a really tough race.  By the time I reached the bottom of Bloomsday Hill I had enough and was ready to start walking.  By the top, I was wondering why I participated in such a crazy painful sport in the first place.  Then I remembered what I learned in high-school, "It is like poking yourself in the eye.  It feels good to stop."  The rest of the race was slow going.  However, my Garmin 405 was showed me significantly slower than I was.  Next time I need to have it set for lap time, total time, and total distance.  Not having the total time made it difficult to know where I was overall in regards to my goal.

Lap times varied by as much as 1.5 minutes.

Lap	Time
1	0:06:52
2	0:06:45
3	0:06:38
4	0:07:04
5	0:06:38
6	0:07:16
7	0:07:37
8	0:07:05
9	0:08:06
10	0:07:54
11	0:07:43
12	0:08:14
13	0:06:53

I haven't run since my last race and I suspect this really made a difference.  My last hard training week was the week of Sept. 15.

Well... I think that is it for races until Jan 1 and the Coeur d'Alene Hangover Handicap.  I will take much of next week off (from running) and then pick up with a 3 day a week run schedule (one of which is over 10 miles).

Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:39:10 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  Personal | My Sports