What a beautiful day to run a 1/2 marathon. A shout out to the race directors of the Delevan Frostbite classic, which is in it's 33rd year . A small in number race but, a good time and fast course. I signed up for this race as a warm up and to see how my training for the St.Louis Marathon is going. I have only done one other 1/2 marathon race which was the Indy 500 1/2 last year. 1:34 and some change. A couple of different things came about yesterday.
I invited a runner who is new to the area and is an incredible runner. I met Brandon at the gym one day running on the tread mill next to me. He has some local sponsors which automatically tells me his is fast.
The goal for the day is to start SLOW and do a negative split. I wanted to run the second half faster than the first. That didn't happen as I 'll explain here shortly. After checking in, a bathroom break, and it was off to warm up. Just a quick five minute warm up before loading on the bus for the ride to the start line.
As usual I get up to the start line and see what others are talking about, see who I think is in my age group and so on. The whistle blows and were off. Right out of the start again I'm up with the lead pack. I should know better by now. Anyway Brandon takes off and no one goes with him. His first mile 4:57 , My time 5:42 What? Way to fast for this guy, but I stayed with it and decided to see what the first 5k time would be. Maybe a PR. A right turn up ahead I could still see Brandon and no one was even close. This was around mile 2 and the two guys right ahead of me were talking about the rabbit up front, Brandon. They said he would die out at that pace. I informed them different.
At the 3 mile mark I checked my watch, what? 17:52 No way. I then told myself even after feeling pretty good its time to slow down so you don't BONK. That's still a PR for the 5k. I slowed down which let a few guys pass me. The rest of the race I held a nice steady pace until the last mile which I picked up a bit. Finished strong with a PR of 1:27:14 pace 6:39
The winning time was seconds off the course record. Brandon time was 1:08:53
and the course record set back in 1981 1:08:15 He's already been invited back next year. The second place finisher had a time of 1:15. Seven minutes back. Good job Brandon
My time by the way was a PR by 7 minutes. Time 1:27:14
In all, yesterday puts me right on track for the next 2 races. St. Pats day 5K and the St. Louis marathon April 6. I did get a boost of confidence from this race which means alot. I have an 18 miler in the morning but, I will be going much slower. I made some gains with my training program and only hope to continue making these positive gains.
Until next time...
"Pain is temporary, Pride is forever"
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