Notes
That. Was. Brilliant!
Official times for my half marathon today are up! I set a new personal record, coming in at 1:25:37 (gun time 1:25:42) for an average pace of 6:32/mile. I placed 30th overall out of 2112 runners, 24th among the 993 men, and 6th out of the 129 men in my age group. I'm very pleased!
I said going out that I knew I'd break 1:28:00, thought I could break 1:27:00, and wanted (as a stretch goal!) to break 1:26:00—and break 1:26:00 I did! This is two years in a row that I have improved my PR by ~3 minutes. Last year's time on the same course was 1:28:57, so I improved by a full 3:20, which surprised me.
I knocked out miles 1 and 2 (both downhill) right around 6:00, which worried me.
For context, the guy who won the half marathon did it in 1:12:07, which is a 5:31 pace—fully 1:01/mile faster than me. The guy who won the marathon ran the first half in 1:15:13, and finished the whole thing at 2:29:30, at a 5:43 pace, which is just mind-bogglingly fast from where I stand.