Placed 2nd in my Age Group! (Read 592 times)

I wasn't going to post a race report on this one, but when I saw the results, I just had to. I ran the LAWS Half Marathon yesterday in Leesburg, Va. Weather: 50s- total downpour the entire race. I wrote in another thread that I was hoping to run a sub 1:50. My last half was 4 weeks ago at the National in DC where I ran a 1:57:25. I ran a negative split there and I think I determined that I started out too easy. Yesterday I wanted to start out "comfortably hard" I didn't run a negative split... but I didn't lose as much as steam as I thought I would and I came awfully close to my goal. My time was 1:51:57 I started out too fast, which is why I've been starting easy at the recent halfs and 10 milers I've been doing. By mile 9, I was in the 9 min. range per mile, instead of 8s. I was a little toasted but I worked as hard as I could to still get under 1:50. And I didn't totally crash and burn. What a different feeling it is to run the whole thing hard. I could barely talk at the halfway point. Afterwards, my running group and I shivered under an overhang and ate some cheese pizza- we debated: Does running in torrential downpour, lightning and thunder, make you go faster? And to get home and see that I placed 2nd in my age group was big surprise. Yes, it is a small race and no, my time isn't really that fast, but it's still a PR and I'm happy. I was especially happy to see that it wasn't 2nd out of 2. I think there were around 30 women in the age group. They also gave out medals to the first 100 finishers. I was #95. If I can't brag a little here, then where can I ? Thanks you all. I read a lot more than I post, but I really consider Running Ahead to be my internet running home. You guys help more than you know. I said this in the other post, I have finally gotten the racing bug back. I just want to keep racing so I can figure out... how fast is fast enough to run well, but not so fast that I slow down some at the end. And I consider this a PR, since my fastest half is 1:47 back in 2004 on a course that was known to be 1/2 mile short. Thanks for reading... Happy running everyone!

Awesome job!

Really nice job! Especially in that kind of weather.

Nice race and congrats on the hardware! You crushed the previous race time by ~5 1/2 minutes, that's awesome! If you came that close in a downpour, you can definately break your 1:50 goal in nicer weather conditions. Think of all the extra water weight you were carrying around in your hair and on your clothes.

Great job.

Congratulations! I'd be thrilled to finish in the top 3 in my age group!

Way to go Kim! Congratulations from a fellow Virginian.

Impressive!!!