Notes
2024 La Crosse Half Marathon
Perfect morning for this run. Some concerns of rain during the race, but it ended up holding off until after I was finished (though Anna, her dad, and uncle weren't so lucky). Wasn't really sure about how this was going to go. My past few long runs hadn't been a bit of a struggle towards the end, so wanted to get out conservatively. Before the race, I was thinking I would be happy with a time between 87.5'-90'.
Wanted to get out at a pace close to 7', however from the get go, I was out a bit quick. Slowed a bit after 2 miles once we hit the bike trail portion. Kind of wanted to slow up even more to ensure I wouldn't blow up, but I found myself in a nice group of 4-5 guys, and a big gap behind up, so I just decided to stick with it. Around mile 5, one guy made a bit of a surge, and the whole group kind of blew up, so I just decided to follow him at see how it ended up. Ended up tracking that guy the entire rest of the race. Kept him within sight the entire run as we slowly moved up in the field. Probably passed 10 or so others during the second half as I kept surprising myself with faster splits.
Once we came out on the road around 10 miles, there were a few overpass hills that kind of squashed some of my momentum, but I managed to hold it together and run consistent the rest of the way. Had a bit of a sour stomach the last 2K, and started to dry heave as I kicked down a couple of 5K participants in the homestretch. Course ended up being a tad short, but overall, I was very happy, and a bit surprised with how well this ended up going! Guess there's still some life in these legs, to carry me to this without any workouts. This has given me some motivation to actually do some workouts for the first time since I can remember. Here's hoping it pans out.