Notes
This was by far my slowest half marathon, but there were some positives given the starting conditions.
Starting conditions:
I had a fever and diarrhea for the previous 6 days before the race.
I only managed 1 mile over the previous week of training, at a 7:22 pace.
I ate my first solid meal of the week two days before the race.
Positive take-aways:
I planned to run this to force myself to do a run. 7:32 pace is slow for a race but not bad for a long run.
I did not shit myself. I have a streak going since I started running (no, not that kind of streak) of never having shit myself in a run. It is important to me to keep this going for the rest of my life.
Race report:
When I got to the race, my plan was to go out at ~7min/mile and keep in there until the end. At the start, the leaders went out slow (around a 6:20 for the first mile) and I went out a bit faster than I had planned (6:28 for the first mile) so I closed the gap and ran with the leaders for the first 8. Around mile 8 my stomach gave me two choices: keep pushing and try to win this thing or don't shit yourself. I took option 2 and slowed way down, occasionally having to walk, to stay out of explosive diarrhea territory.
When asked by another runner at the finish how my race went I replied: "I've run faster but at least today's run wasn't shitty." I think that just about sums up this race.