Notes
Half marathon in Las Vegas.
I was able to sneak my way up near the front despite not arrivinging at the designated 45 minutes early for my heat. Also at the start there were several running from my heat and the elite heat that made there own space to do strides. I did a couple warm up strides and stretches, nothing super serious.
The elite group went, five minutes later my heat went. I started within 60 seconds from the first runners in my heat. I could have pushed my way to the front, but I preferred to try and start slower and have a stronger second half. Because it was so crowded I wasn't able to use the bathroom ahead of time and I considered stopping in the first two miles. I ended up pushing through and not needing to go until after reaching my hotel room. My two, I was feeling pretty dry mouthed and took a gatorade cup. Def created a side ache for two miles.
Despite the side ache, I was starting to feel good by mile three and was starting to find my group of runners at my speed. It looked like I was pretty comfortably running at around 7:00 min pace. Road was paved enough, much better than Berkeley. After mile eight I could start feeling some discomfort in my right knee and just below my right hip. Kind of like the tendens in the right hip? Unsure. I started leading more with my left leg and that seamed to really help.
I felt the worst at the turn around. The turn around was roughly mile 9-10. Something about the change in motion and turning and then the change to slight uphill made me feel like garbage and get a side ache again. After a mile it went away and I started pushing past a number of people in my running group.
The last few miles didn't feel as slow as they were on paper, so not sure what was causing that. It looks like it was slightly up hill. I believe my rank did improve those last miles. I was able to have a very nice little sprint at the end. Nothing crazy for this fun run.
After the race I wasn't in any immediate pain, but was very tired. Lungs recovered very quickly, but legs were pretty tired. After awhile my left big toe started feeling the same way it was after my serious training in 2020 which ultimately took me out of my traing. Overally the race went very well.