Notes
Weather: good temperature (mid-50s), but very humid (90%).
My thoughts going into the race was that I could run 5:30 pace or slightly faster. When the gun went off I was up front with a group of about 10 runners. We stayed together for the first 1/2 mile and then five runners took off (they ended up top 5). I ran comfortably right around 5:30 pace in the early miles. A couple runners were about 10 meters in front of me, but I caught them right at the mile 3 mark. The three of us ran together for the next 2-2.5 miles and then they started to fall back. For the last 7.5 miles I ran all alone. I was still feeling good and running 5:30 pace when I was alone. At the turnaround , a little over 9 miles, I saw a runner about 100 meters behind me. At this point, I was not enjoying running alone and thought to myself that I'd let the guy catch me so we would run together. I immediately squashed that thought and kept up the pace. At 10 miles (55:15), I tried to pick up the pace but I just didn't have another gear in me. Luckily, the guy who I thought was catching up to me fell back a little and I was able to cruise in with a comfortable lead. I finished 6th overall and 1st Military.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with my race especially considering that I ran alone for practically the entire race. The time (1:12:22) was my second fastest half-marathon ever.