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Notes

Official time 1:27:05 for 9th place overall. That's my best half to date, such as it is, despite being 30 seconds off my actual PR, because the course was tough and I ran a pretty even pace (compared with my very uneven pace on a faster course when I ran 1:26:34 at the Navy Air Force Half last September). The weather was almost perfect: around 55 degrees, sunny, with only a little wind. About half the course was on a straight road, starting out running into the wind for a few miles and slightly uphill. The other half was a loop that we went around twice, with lots of ups, downs, and turns on different surfaces: mostly asphalt trail and sidewalk with some road and unpaved trail. It was somewhat poorly organized. Before we reached the loop there was a turn-around and slower runners didn't get out of the way to allow faster runners space on the road, because there was nothing forcing them (or even indicating) to do so. This forced us onto a sidewalk for a while and caused us to miss a water stop. I didn't mind not getting water there, but I missed the next one too because I failed to navigate a path around the runner next to me to get to the volunteer in time and didn't want to slow down. So I didn't get any water until around 6 miles. But I lived. Then, on the second time around the loop, the narrow, curvy course was full of slower runners who were not told to stay to the right. So faster runners had to do a lot of weaving over those 2.5 or so miles. The only time I actually couldn't get past people and had to slow down was right before we turned off the loop back onto the road in the 11th mile. Before that, in the 8th mile, I started getting tired and stopped briefly at a water stop to make sure that I actually got water and got the gel down with no trouble (remembering the MCM). That caused me to lose contact with the group of 3-4 other runners I had been running with for much of the time, but I caught back up to them a couple miles later. By then it was two other guys and the top woman. As we turned onto the road in mile 11, I figured that I was probably faster than those people and could beat them all in a sprint at the finish, after climbing and then descending a hill just before the finish, if I just hung with them until the end. That would have been the best strategy consistent with my stated goal of running to win or to place as highly as possible, since no other runners were close by. But I decided to test my distance chops on a long drive from two miles out instead, which instantly separated me from the others. I wasn't strong enough to hold off the two guys, though. One caught me as I ascended the hill towards the end of mile 13. I passed him again on the downhill, but he and the other guy passed me again shortly before the finish. Because of my long drive, I couldn't accelerate much at all at the end, but at least I beat the top woman and the other guy who had been running with us earlier. This was an encouraging run given my poor training lately. My goal for the next 2-3 months should clearly be developing more strength over lots of miles and longer distances, without losing touch with speed (at least tempos) entirely - but returning to revive that in September without losing touch with summer strength. This far out, I'm starting in a good place. This should basically be my Fall marathon pace if I do things right. Today, though, on this course, it was decidedly my half marathon pace.