Notes
Carmel half marathon. Goal coming in was sub-70. While I ran 70:06 at Rivertown races 3 years ago, that course was 100-150 meters long so I wanted to crack 70 minutes officially. Perfect weather. Sunny and about 48 degrees at the start with a 8-10 mph wind. Probably should have looked at the profile more closely beforehand because the first 5 miles or so are a net downhill. And we had the wind at our back going out on the 106th so it was a solid pace to start. I just settled in around 8th or so. Once we turned onto Hazel Dell, we started working a bit uphill but nothing crazy. Wasn't until mile 7 did we hit a pretty significant hill and that is when it started to get tough. The gradual uphills combined with the slight headwind coming back made the effort more difficult. Ended up missing a turn at mile 11 due to uncertain marking of the course that cost me 10 seconds or so. Wasn't too pleased with that. Last mile was tough. I heard a guy coming up behind me so I just kicked for dear life. Super happy to have ran 69:30. Finally sub-70 officially. 33:55 first half, 35:35 2nd half. But given the wind and hills, might have been a fairly even effort. Given the training block and the achillies issues, this was a great success. Mile splits on my watch: 5:00-5:16-5:13-5:08-5:19-5:09-5:18-5:26-5:25-5:46 (wrong turn)-5:16-5:03. I think some miles might have been a bit long and some a bit short but the overall distance is accurate.