Louisville Half-Marathon

First of all, I'm on a one-man crusade to stop calling these "minis."  There is nothing mini about 13.1 miles.  A mini implies a 5K or something similar.  Call them what they are:  HALF-Marathons.

My achievable goal heading into today was to best my previous PR (2:20).  This would be a 10:41/mile pace.  My stretch goal was to go sub-2 hours or a 9:10 pace.  I decided to use music for the first time in a long time as I wasn't running with any of my normal running partners.  I did see several familiar faces, however, including Jeff and Pete from V02, Carlos, Bill, Shay, David and others from the Landsharks, etc.

Temp at event time was a perfect 55ish degrees with a decent breeze.  The route would take us from the River Rd/Mockinbird Valley area down to the Belle of Louisville and on to the bike path.  Course was a straightforward out and back and nearly all flat with a couple small hills.  A good course for my goals. 

My plan was to use a run/walk strategy from the very beginning.  Run 9 minutes, walk 1, repeat.  I was a bit disappointed with the aid stations, but then again, it was to be expected with the company putting it on.  When will I learn?

My mile splits:

1 8:42
2 8:48
3 9:22
4 9:28
5 9:46
6 9:06
7 9:44
8 9:34
9 9:38
10 9:34
11 10:14
12 10:38
13 10:36

The grand total was a 2:05:58.  You can see I probably started out a bit too quick.  I blame Metallica as my playlist was Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning and part of And Justice for All.  Lack of nutrition finally caught up to me about mile 11.  Yeah, yeah, I should know better by now!  My hamstrings were also very tight.  This is why my sports massage therapist has basically ordered me into a yoga class, which I'm doing tomorrow evening for the 2nd time.

Overall, a good day, a new PR and more lessons learned.