Sunday, May 16, 2004

North Trail Half Marathon - PR!

North Trail Half MarathonWell, I was aiming for 2:15 but didn't hit that. I slowed down quite a bit in the second half and realized after mile 8 that 2:15 wasn't possible. However, I still got a PR, shaving 1:39 off my previous PR and 7 seconds off my pace at that race. I ended up with 2:16:10 (10:24 pace) and I'm very happy with that.

The race was nice, a smaller field without a lot of hoopla. We ran on a running/biking trail that stretches to the Northwest from White Rock Lake, stopping just short of LBJ/IH 635 and returning on the same route. We had to deal with bicyclists (not the nicest bunch) but no automobiles, and the route was pretty and often shaded. It felt pretty hot after the first hour but never got terribly uncomfortable. There were lots of Team in Training folks out today and I saw a couple of my old teammates and some coaches I know.

The only problem with the race was the port-a-potties. They were late, then they were delivered to the wrong part of the park and were probably about a ten minute walk away. Before they delivered them I decided I needed to take some action so I hopped back in my car and headed down the street to McDonald's.

Here are my splits. You can see where I started to burn out, around mile 8. To make 2:15 I needed to do mostly 10:18 splits with some 10:12s mixed in for the slower early miles:
10:37
10:18
10:17
10:23
10:12
10:12
10:17
10:16
10:20
10:27
10:27
10:36
10:39
1:02