Notes
The very last thing I was expecting today was a PR, yet I somehow eked one out--by 2 seconds. LOL. A couple days after a 90-mile week and with no taper, off of 6 weeks of training, I am very pleased!
I tried on paces like shoes today. In the end, I feel confident that with some rest, a few more weeks of training, and better pacing, I can clock a significantly faster time. Bring on Columbus! A sub-1:37 half and a 3:30 marathon some seem realistic instead of hopelessly ambitious.
Here are my splits. Please don't laugh:
7:40, 14:17 (2 miles, avg 7:09. oops), 7:21, 7:47, 7:15, 7:27, 7:47, 7:40, 8:00, 7:52, 7:58, 9:13 (1.1 aka eternity)
Basically I just ran without worrying about pace at all. The course was narrow with lots of twists and turns, as well as a multitude of different surfaces including asphalt, concrete, bricks, boardwalk, and dirt. No real hills, but a few nasty little inclines to break up the rhythm. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't call it a PR course. After about 9 miles I ran out of gas--that was definitely the lack of rest catching up with me, not to mention some too-fast miles at the beginning. At that point I decided to see if I could run the last 4 at goal MP, or 8:00/mile. That worked out better than I thought....I felt very tired, but managed to hit 3 out of 4. I even came darn close to my 10-mile PR. The last mile was about 8:20 and then a slightly uphill, narrow path to the finish. Some dude sprinted around me and then basically stopped in front of me where the path narrowed, so that didn't help. The top 2 in my AG were 1-2 overall, so with them out, I was 5th in my AG.
As a race it was kind of a mess, but as an experiment it worked out great! I'm very excited for Columbus now...I will be taking an actual mini-taper for it, and will try to hit consistent 7:20-7:25 pace throughout, which should help.