The day started out clear and cool with a brisk 15mph wind. But with the sun shining it was warm enough, even in the shade. At the half mile mark or so there was a steady climb, all around me people were saying that was the worst hill on the course, congratulating themselves and others once they'd reached the top. I thought, "Good! 'Cause that hill was nothing much!" However the continuous rolling hills proved to take quite a bit out of me...
The first five miles flew by! The next 5 were a bit of a challenge, I started to feel...off. Just not so great. But, I stuck with my pace, had a Gu at mile 8 and kept on going. The fun part was seeing a couple of friends at 8.5 - one was a fellow half marathoner and one was doing the full. I ran with them for just a bit before getting my pace back up to where I felt most comfortable. At this point I was doing about 9:45min/miles.
Around mile 11, my marathon friend came up behind me and we ran together for about 2miles. It was fun, but by that time I was not really in the mood to chat so I apologized and said, "I'm sorry, Brian, I can't talk to you right now..." I've noticed that in the last few miles of any run I do, I'd prefer not to talk to anyone, just want to finish out the run/race in my own head. Weird, rude, annoying...call it what you will, it's what I do.
At mile 13, I left Brian behind. He still had another 13mi to go and I kicked in the jets for the finish. The only negative thing I would say about this race was that the finish to the HM and the Marathon were not marked so well. There was no banner or flags or balloons or anything to mark the finish except time-keeping pads on the ground. And you can't see those from the course...obviously. When I did finally see where the finish was, I was pleased to see the time clock registered 2:09:30. Not my best, but in the top three! I felt really good about that since the course was a bit more challenging than I'd anticipated.
The course itself was probably the most beautiful one I've ever run. We ran along the ocean, pastoral settings (cows, geese and horses - oh my!), mansions, mansions and more mansions. Oh, and tour buses! So. Many. Tour. Buses!! But back to the ocean...at one point, the course took us around a corner and there was the coastline. It was gorgeous! We ran along the coast for about two miles or so before heading back to the mansions. We did get to see more of the coast than just that but that was the most breathtaking part of the course. To prove the point, this was the location of the start and finish:
The final .1mi:
Overall it was an awesome day! I'm glad I got to share it with some amazing and inspiring friends. I can't wait for HM #8!!
No comments:
Post a Comment