2:15 1/2 Marathon

[underpants]

Yesterday morning (7 freakin' AM) the McDonald's X-country challenge

FREE McDonald's prepackaged apples to all who finished!!!

My first race of any kind since a 10K 8 years ago. I signed up Friday afternoon just to get some experience with the "race day" atmosphere and schedule. I got there so early Saturday morning that I parked right in front of the gate to Maymont park, lots of free bananas at that time of day.

2:15:33 much better than I expected especially since it was not a road course run. I planned on running at my basic marathon pace to get an idea of a time. Problem was that as a cross country race getting into a roll or a pace is tough. There were 4 water stops which I had planned on stopping at but also at least 6 interruptions: trails, staircases (one up-one down), some rocky spots, and a nasty switchback that I knew from previous experience is not worthy the time savings in the energy it takes to RUN up it as opposed to walking. The interruptions did give me a chance to catch my breath but they really kill time.

2:15 not bad for a 40 year old ex-smoker (20+ years) who weighed in at 290 8 months ago... at least I think so.

Marathon day is 6 weeks away.

[cobalt1999]

1. Congrats.

Hell of a time for a x-cross country 1/2 marathon.

[underpants]

2. Thanks- funny part I forgot in the original

About a mile or so into the race I thought "Man this feel like a fast pace" but I was going along with the crowd as I was SURE that I should at least be running with people who looked like this group did. Well it is amazing the shapes sizes and ages of people running in all kinds of speeds. So out of the crowd this guy comes running up (sand bagging no doubt so he could pass a lot people) and he comes up to ME , points to his watch, and says "Nice pace huh? A little fast well no a bit slower than 9 per mile" I think to myself "WHOA that is way faster than my normal pace" and off the guy ran.

I backed it off a little so I would be dying at mile 6 or so. My wife laughs at this saying that he was some sort of "running angel"

[cobalt1999]

3. Race day adrenaline does that to me too.

At my last 5K I ran, I noticed that after 1 mile I could see the leaders and the time was under 7 minutes. I was feeling good, but I knew I had screwed myself for the last mile and I suffered greatly. No "running angel" for me.