On Saturday, I ran my first 1/2 marathon. I have done 2 full marathons and had considered doing the full on Saturday but my left knee was not feeling the greatest a few weeks ago when I signed up so I thought I would do the smart thing and just do the 1/2.
For the race they have you park at the finish and they bus you around the lake to the start. Because they only have so many buses I was waiting for about an hour at the start. Finally we started after having been rained on for a little while and listening to a chubby guy talk about how much running he does. It was a pretty small race. They limited it because of the whole bus thing and no parking at the start.
By about mile 1 I was in 4th place. I was pretty shocked and kept checking my watch and I was actually going slower than I had planned. A mile or two later I heard another runner catching me. Turns out it was a girl. I started talking with her and we ended up running together for a while. She had jut run the Ogden marathon 4 weeks earlier (where she finished in about 3:17) and just wanted to see what she could do. At about mile 6 or 7 I decided I needed to push it so I sped up and left her behind. I passed another guy that was in front of me and all of a sudden I found myself in 3rd place. There was a huge gap between me and 2nd and I don't think I saw the first place guy after about mile 4. I felt ok so I just kept plugging along and hoping that I wouldn't get passed. I just wanted to get a medal for finishing in the top 3 im my age division. There wasn't much drama the last 5-6 miles of the race and I finished in 1:36:52. I actually did finish 3rd overall and 2nd in my age division (the winner was only 23 or 24).
As my prize I got a big chunk of Sandstone that had the race info engraved on it. I also got a medal for being 2nd in my age division. I think that is probably the first race I've ever gotten a trophy or medal from. It wasn't for lack of people, the half marathon was full, it was just that the fast people from last year didn't show up I guess. I'll take it though. I was a little dissappointed with my time. I wanted to run under 1:30. Oh well. Here are my splits (they count down for this race so that should explain the .1. Oh, and the couple of splits that are way fast or slow... I think I pushed my split button late or early a couple times.
.1 - 0:51,
1 - 7:12,
2,3,4 - 21:08,
5 - 8:14,
6 - 7:46,
7 - 6:38,
8 - 7:42,
9 - 7:26,
10 - 7:37,
11 - 7:29,
12 - 7:29,
13 - 7:16,
Total - 1:36.54
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