Earth Day Race Report

First race of the season....done! I got up early this morning and headed to St. Cloud for the Earth Day half marathon. I did this race last year (was my first half marathon) and so was curious as to how I'd do in comparison this year with all my Ironman training I'd been up to lately. 

I had 2 goals going into the race: 

1. Run faster than last year's time. 

2. Break the 2 hr mark I didn't have any people to run with this year, so I pumped up the iPod with my catchy tunes and hit the pavement. 

Strategy included keeping a nice steady pace and making sure my turnover for my legs kept quick (or at least I was consciously thinking about this). One mile in I checked out my Garmin and saw that I was well under the pace that I had mentally set for myself (9:00 min/mile) and so I decided that I'd attempt to keep all my miles under the 9:00 mark - or at least as long as I could. Guess what? They kept down in the low 8's... the WHOLE race (including one 7!). I felt great and kept up my 'supplements' and nutrition all in stride (practicing for Ohio in a few weeks). 

I ended up crossing the finish line in 1:50:36. Average pace = 8:27 minute/mile. Goals - Accomplished! (17 minutes faster than last year - holy crap!!!) and well under 2 hrs! I was a little floored by my 'places' too (see below)...this is a running race and I'm usually not up in this percentile for this type of event. So was very happy! I'm hoping this race is an indicator of how I might do in upcoming races - we shall see... Here's an interesting comparison to last year's race results (yes... I am an analyst! Can't you tell?

Time:  1:50:36

Pace:  8:27

Overall:  376

Division Place:  24/150

Sex Place:  117/826