Running race 1:38:54 [4] 12.87 mi (7:41 / mi)
slept:7.5 shoes: Asics Gel-Excite 4 - Blue (#2)
Second half marathon! (A little short). Shower and nap first, then a description.
Showered and curled up in bed! I wasn't expecting much from this race given that I've only gotten in a handful of long runs this season, and overall my mileage has been pretty low. However, I ended up with a ~8 minute PR (which totally still would have been a PR if the course was a full 13.1!) even on a much hillier course than the race that I ran last year.
They had to change the course today to adjust for flooding on the bike path we were supposed to use and a bursted water main. The original course was flat for the first few miles, then rolling up until about mile 7, then rolling down and flat again towards the end. So, once we hit a large downhill after mile 8 and having already done a lot of rolling uphills, Bex looked at me and remarked that we were on track for PRs, and I responded that I thought the rest of the course was relatively flat. Not more than 10 seconds later, we come around a corner to see a MASSIVE hill. This hill was essentially the equivalent of all the other climbs we had done previously, combined. I died pretty hard and was probably going slower than walking pace up it. Bex powered through the whole thing, which meant that I didn't have a running partner for the remaining miles. I was really struggling towards the end, but overall I did a fairly good job of keeping my pace up.
My body feels a lot better after this half than it did after the one last year, which is a good sign. I'm very happy with how this went. It was a good last race with the club running team here :)