Halloween Marathon

It was another great day of racing in the NW. It was supposed to be sunning and warm but for the first half of the day it was cold foggy and windy. I didn't warm up until the second half of the race when the sun came out.

The first 13 miles I ran with Jennifer (the wife). It was her first 1/2 marathon and she did great. She kept an even pace the entire race and only walked the steep hill (freeway overpass). She finished just under 3 hours.

The course was different this year. We took a right at a mile and a half then under the freeway and a couple more rights to the turn around. There's only about a 50 foot elevation difference from the highest point to the lowest point. I guess it’s flatter than before but you still have to run on a cambered road which always bothers my hips.

After I got pictures of Jenn finishing and handed off Shela, I took off to finish the marathon. I didn’t really feel like it but I needed to. It took me at least a mile to shake the bugs out. Running at a slow pace used different muscles I guess. I figured there were a lot of people I could catch (I started the second half in last place). I quickly passed the first person; she was wearing wings like Jenn. I was cruising right at 9 minute miles. It was an easy pace that I kept for the rest of the race. I caught 2 more running before the turn around. I saw 3 more as they were leaving the turn around but it took me a mile to catch them because I took so long filling up. As I went under the freeway I passed another guy. After that I could not see anybody ahead of me for a least half a mile. I could feel that it was taking more effort to maintain the current pace but I decided to keep it up, even though there appeared to be nobody left to pass. Good thing I did because I ended up passing 3 more runners, one of them at the last A/S where neither of us stopped and the last one with about ¾ of a mile to go. He was in bad shape, walking for 10 seconds then running for 10 seconds. After I went by him I heard him try to keep up for about 2 minutes but then I couldn’t hear him. I didn’t look back but I knew he couldn’t catch me. I think I passed two other runners but I can’t remember where. At the finish I got mauled by Shela and hugged by Jennifer, or was it the other way around? ;) I ended up running a 5:05, a personal worst! But it was good training to run a faster second half, which I almost never do.

My hips did bother me some but not as much as they have been. And considering the slant of the roads that’s awesome. I have almost no soreness today. I rode 14 miles this morning with no soreness in my quads. Next up UWR, unless I can find one before that.