Notes
U of Okoboji Homecoming Half
1:11:44 for 12.87 miles, ~5:35 pace, 2nd place. Would have been just over 1:13 with correct course
Pretty good race for me I think. Going in I was saying I would be really happy with breaking 73 mins given the hilly course and heat / humidity, and basically came up just short of that. Also was hoping to pick up the $500 for the win but Kevin Lewis showed up so as soon as I saw him I knew the W was off the table for me
Once the race started a guy who I didn't recognize actually took off at the start, Kevin went with him but I knew that pace was too hot for me so I just let them go and locked in to 5:35 pace. No one came with me so I was solo pretty much from the start, the guy who Kevin went with pushed the 1st 2 miles in 5:19-5:14 so they were about 35 seconds ahead of me at 2 miles. I could see Kevin start to drop him shortly after 2 and over the next couple miles slowly reeled him back in. Caught and passed him around 5 miles, but he was probably running north of 6 min pace when I passed so wasn't near him long. The 1st 6 miles I was just cruising and felt pretty good
Once you get onto the east side of the lake and run Lakeshore Drive though its pretty hilly. I didn't feel very strong at all on the climbs, and there were a lot of times where I kinda had "yep I'm toast" thoughts, but thankfully there was always a conveniently placed downhill so I could get feeling good again. I was definitely running really hard the last couple miles, but bc of the short course I was kinda holding back the last half mile. I knew we were getting close to the finish but I thought maybe there would be some extra add on to get us to the full HM distance and that never came so I definitely left a little out there on that
Pretty satisfied with this. It was warm, the course is hilly, and we didn't taper so wasn't expecting the time to be anything too fast. Now for a week in Mexico then 14 weeks to Indy