Today, I ran the Weston Half Marathon in Weston, FL.  This is a very nice local race that has a great post-race party, which I didn't attend this year, doh!

Anyway, after a horrible marathon last week, my recovery has been going well.  I had to take off from exercise until Wednesday, mainly because my throat was still swollen after that anaphylaxis/asthma attack during the marathon.  So I ran well this week but I didn't push it for fear that the allergy attack would come back.

I woke up at 4:40am to get to Weston by 5:30am so I could do race day packet pickup (which around here is a rare treat).  After packet pickup, I went back to the car, drank my coffee and used the restrooms.  Temps were already 73F and humidity was at 71 dewpoint (97% humidity).  At the finish, it was 76F and 93%.  Bah.

Here is a picture of me and my running group friends before the race.  The one to my left finished second in his AG and my other friend was Top10 when I saw him last.

My plan was to take this HM easy.  After all, I just did a marathon and I had no plans to race this all out.  But I also didn't want to run it at easy pace.  So, my plan was to run by effort but no faster than HMP.

We started at 6:20am and I was soaked within 5 minutes.  The temps still felt cool but I knew the humidity was high.  I had decided not to use albuterol at the start nor during the race.  In fact, I left the albuterol in my car.  If needed, I could walk to prevent an attack.  My plan was to see if I could race without albuterol.  Today showed that I could.

Miles 1-6:  These miles went great.  The sun was coming out so the sun was not an issue yet (which was later).  I was running these at MP-HMP heart rate and doing low 9s.  I knew I will have to slow down later but I wanted to take advantage of the fact that there was no sun.

Miles 7-10:  As the sun was already out and high in the sky, I slowed down to mid 9s.  Two of the miles were at 10:22 solely because I started walking the water stations and I had to fix the sock because my toe was bothering me a bit.  Still doing a great pace and feeling fine.

Miles 11-13:  This is where the marathon last week came back to let me know I was tired.  Like I said, I was fine with the slow down because I wanted to do this race easy, but I was still doing a good pace.  Miles 11 and 12 were a bit slower, but I had to stop to use the restroom and it was smack in the middle of these two miles so both appear to be slow but I was not.

I finished 2:08:54, which is a 7 minute course PR and my second fastest HM this season.  The good thing is that this felt too easy, even without albuterol and even with the marathon last week.

The best part was my outfit.  Here are my socks.  Very appropriate, no?

Course PRs are always nice.  What do you think you could do if you focused on a HM?

You go girl! Love the socks!

Congratulations on the course PR.

Course PRs are always nice.  What do you think you could do if you focused on a HM?

Oh, I suspect my speed is closer to 1:52 if I train for one.  However, I don't see myself training for one any time soon (and looking at the number of 2013 marathons I have, 2013 won't be it either). 

Thanks, guys.  I was not even expecting anything less than 2:10 today so it was nice to have finished faster than that even with the stops.

Wow, so cool that they make personalized socks with your middle name on them!

I know at school when one of our kids is having an asthma attack, one of the best things we can do for them is to help them relax and stay calm.  I wonder if by telling yourself that you're running this one easy and have no expectations if that also helps avoid an asthma trigger?

In any case, congrats on what sounds like a super race!