Everyone Runs Half Marathon (13.1 miles) Race Report

Still taking it easy this week. I only ran 2 times during the week (4.5 miles each). I got a killer massage yesterday from the best massage therapist in the world - Dan. He is great at sports massages and worked on my hips which have been screwed up since the 60k. I felt much better - he really worked my legs over good.

Of course, I went and wrecked that nice massage by running a half marathon today - on pavement! By mile 5, my hip was sore and by mile 9, my left foot was bothering me (like it has been since the 60k).

Nevertheless, this race is awesome.

I showed up early to help with registration - I got up at 4am and the race started at 7:15am. It was pretty cold out there on the football field. I was bundled up in jackets, pants, and gloves up to the start of the race.

Saw lots of friends - Shari, my trusty trail running partner, who is looking pretty svelte these days:

Also, I saw my friends Steve (x 2), Boone and Joel and some gals I've met at other trail runs - Becky and Missy.  Steve got 1st in his age group - Joel was 4th overall!

My time: 1:56:56.

I was 4th in my age group out of 15 people. Just missed 3rd place by a little over a minute. I was averaging about 8:48 (which is what I need to do for Tucson Marathon to get 3:50) until mile 9. Then I slowed to 9-9:10 minute miles and ended with a 8:56 average overall. Not bad for being 2 weeks out from my 60k. My fastest mile was 8:36; I know I could get more of my miles faster if I just did some speedwork.
The half marathon course starts on the track at Sabino High School, which is near the Catalina mountains. Beautiful! The course is fairly flat with some gentle rolling hills-less than 1,000 feet elevation overall. It winds around local streets and residential areas and finishes back on the track. We received a long sleeve technical shirt at the finish line.

There were 8 aid stations in the 13.1 mile course. I didn't take any water along with that many aid stations.

And the music! There were all sorts of folks along the course playing musical intruments and singing. Bagpipes, guitars, banjos, violins. It was awesome.

I won a monster canister of Cytomax sports drink (I think it was a random raffle?)

And, we all got a mexican breakfast and Robek's smoothies afterwards.

What a great race. Big thanks to Steve Landau, the RD. I'll definitely do that race again.