Notes
A great race and way beyond my expectations. The extra mileage paid off, but as I didn't train much at half-marathon pace I was very hesitant in setting a challenging goal.
The weather turned out almost perfect, about 50 and overcast early in race with the sun peaking through later on. Off to a slow start as we hit the corral later than we wanted and got behind all of corrall A and somehow, a decent number of B's and even some C's. Some mild side stiches came on during mile 2 and I spent the next several miles keeping them at bay but still holding a solid pace...in fact I was quite surprised.
Mikey had pulled ahead after 2 but stayed within my sites. I wanted to catch up but opted to run my race and wait for a surge later in the run...assuming I could hold this pace. Seeing my splits holding strong made me a little nervous about having the wheels fall off...but excitement started taking over knowing that I was on pace for a great time.
The stitches had all but gone when I exited the track...which had been a mix of running solo and catching big groups of people, but I hadn't made up any ground on Mikey's pack. Finally took some gatorade and considered beginning my push as I came up on the mile 9 mark. I was feeling strong and confident that I'd be able to finish that way...Mikey's group became my group right as we got to the 10 mile mark after I dropped a nice split.
From there it was a challenge as I had a breif chat with a fellow-runner (who seemed far too able to talk), tried to pull Mikey along with me, and then gave it my final push. I vaguely knew that I was under 1:19, but was pretty surprised to see that I had crept just under a 6 flat overall pace with my final 5k (18:13). Funny that last year at this time I wasn't yet running a single 5k that fast.
I can say that I'm a fan of this race, lots of bands, fans, and energy throughout the course. The track was a perfect opportunity to focus and was fairly serene compared to the rest of the course.
Will almost surely run it again next year.
Splits:
6:21, 5:53, 6:04, 6:00, 6:03, 6:00, 6:04, 6:00, 5:58, 5:51, 5:56, 5:58, 5:52, :27