Monson Memorial Classic 2006- woot!!

Well, I'm plenty sore now, and the solid waves of heavy rain made it one of the least "comfortable" runs I've ever attempted, but I blasted through my hoped-for time and knocked almost 30 seconds off my best half-marathon pace; overall that's just over 7 minutes off my best time. Woot indeed (though I think that uses up most of my improvement space for a few years).

Interestingly, new course records were set this year for men and women too, so maybe a little bit of HEAVY rain makes people run faster. . .? Mark turned in a time faster than last year but not his fastest, which interestingly he set in his first half-marathon two years ago. Ivan was not so lucky; something (shakes and blurred vision, etc.) took him out at about 10-11 miles, apparently. Still, we're all planning to be back next year.

It was a nice temperature for running -- and the rain wasn't particularly cold, though I was _worried_ it would chill me off too much. Road surfaces were, well, roads, but not all too hard; some were shale and oil, which is a bit more gentle. The run was really clustered at the start and I had to dart about to find running room. As soon as we turned off the big road I was okay, but then it seems like it was up hill _all_ the way. I kept wondering when we'd crest the hill. Well, we did a few downhills, but all in all I must remember for next year--it's a hill run, basically. Not steep; nothing steep. but insistent, incessant, wearying.

Had some good targets to pick off in the first section, then from about 8 miles it was hard to stay ahead; at 10 miles people started passing me back again. Didn't lose too many spots, but there were 3-4 in the last 3 miles that I really wanted to stay up with. Couldn't. Legs were stiff, feet were beginning to blister (right foot, anyway -- soggy soggy shoes by that point).

My pace varied with the terrain, but overall I evidently didn't fade as much as it felt. Rather, the real distance runners simply picked up the pace from about 10 miles. (Wonder if I'll manage a marathon next year. . .) Here's the splits, per my digivice:

Lap time
1 6:30
2 7:03 (trying not to go too fast)
3 7:04
4 6:49
5 7:06
6 7:23 (this was a hilly one and I needed a drink)
7 7:14
8 6:51
9 5:54 (so doing this in practice wasn't a fluke!)
10 6:15
11 6:48
12 7:06
13 6:45 (pretty fair finish; too bad I couldn't do it in mile 12 too!

and then a little bit more.*
*A half marathon is not quite 21.1 km, and it's a few yards less than 13 miles and 200 yards. Weird.

Here's my official time from the posted results (as usual I forgot to switch off my time piece once I crossed the line, doh!):

Time: 1:30:22
Speed: 8:69 mph
Distance: 13.1 miles

Comments: soreness after the run, but energy and breath still plenty there. Very sore today (two days later) as I've not been out since, and I've a ton of deskwork to do still tonight. But definitely very encouraging, and lets me wonder a little what to set as targets for next year. This year my goal was a half marathon at 7:15 pace. Should I think about the marathon challenge? I don't know. Too distracting, I fear. this I can (just about) do while doing other stuff. And only boring people senseless in the confines of this blog :-)