I can sum up my race report from the Country Music Half Marathon in one word….HOT!!! Well, I woke up at 4:15am and looked at the thermometer outside, and it already read 68 degrees…at that point, I knew it was going to be a hot day. I had my usual pre-race breakfast of toast with peanut butter and a banana, and at 5:00am headed to the parking area to take the shuttle to the starting line. Once there, I hooked up with some old friends and chatted with them for a bit. At 6:30am we had a time of prayer & devotion with Team 413 www.team413.org and then it was off to my assigned corral (corral 4)…followed that with some watermelon flavored sport beans (usually eat those about ½ hour before start time). The official start time was 7:00am (with the elites going out at that time). My corral crossed the start line around 5 minutes later. At that point, I’d say it was over 70 degrees and sunny. The first two miles went pretty good…mostly a straight stretch of road with rolling hills up and down (mostly down). Then came the third mile which is mostly up hill (not too steep, except towards the end, but uphill none the less). I crossed the 5K point at 27:20 (right on track for a sub 2 hour finish). Miles 4 and 5 were more uphills, and the heat was really getting to me at this point, so they were over a 10 minute mile (putting me over a 2 hour finish). Mile 6 was mostly downhill and was able to do that in 9:16…putting me at 56:47 thru 6 miles. It was at that point I knew they was no way I was going to break 2 hours…not with the way the heat was climbing. The heat, along with a blister developing on my right foot…I decided to slow it down and take care of my body. Since a sub two hour half was out the window at that point, I knew the best thing to do was take care of my body, save my legs for next weekend’s half marathon I ran pretty much 10 to 11 minute miles from miles 7 thru the end. Nothing really eventful happened during that stretch, except that it just got hotter, the sun was really cooking us, and my blister was getting worse. I was stopping for water & cytomax at each water station at this stretch…making sure I stayed hydrated. Around mile 10.5, is the cut-off for those people doing the full marathon and those of us doing the half. I was so grateful to be making that right hand turn (the half folks). I said to myself “If I had signed up for the full…I would have been a weenie and bailed and done only the half. From about miles 10 thru the end I saw about 4 or 5 people that had fallen out (but were already being tended to), so I just said a quick prayer for them and kept moving. Finally, up and over the bridge and the finish line was in sight…although it seemed like a million miles away. I made a semi-quick dash at the end, and finished up at 2:13:53. Like I said, not quite the time I was shooting for…but I saved my body and will race another day. Some days, it’s just smart to “bit the bullet” and live to race another day. So, now it’s onto Indy Saturday. Right now the long range forecast is near perfect. Low of 47 degrees, a high of 62 degrees (occurs well after race end) and mostly cloudy…can’t get to much better than that. Hope I didn’t bore anyone…and I’ll post a RR from Indy when I return.