Big Hit Half Marathon Wrap Up and Bourbon Chase Preview

On Sunday, I ran a half-marathon.  A late course change turned this into a very flat course where I thought it would be a great chance to complete my first sub-2 hour half-marathon.  Initially, I was going to go out with the 1:50 group and leave myself a little wiggle room.  However, I changed course on race morning and decided to stick with the 2 hour group and then leave them at the 10-11 mile mark if I was feeling good.

The pacer told us he would try his best to keep a 9:10 pace the whole time, necessary for a two hour finish.  In the first couple miles of the race, we go under the expressway for a bit and that caused the pacer's (and mine) Garmin to lose signal so we weren't entirely certain on our pace.  The best we could do was check each mile split.  I walked through a couple aid stations but immediately hooked back up with the pacer to keep on target.  Everything was going great until we hit the mile 10 marker.  Both of us were confused as there was no way it was a full mile.  That meant the course would be short (more on that later).  We think that the late course change to eliminate a bridge and hence a hill, caused the problem.  We kept to our pace or even a bit faster than required until we reached the baseball stadium, as the race finished at home plate of Louisville Slugger Field.  There was really no point in leaving the pacer any point since we were just ahead of our pace. Once inside the stadium, I sprinted as best I could to the finish.

The course, by most estimates was about 12.9 miles, and my total time was 1:56:31 at a pace of 8:54.  I was very happy about the result and even ran the second half slightly faster than the first.  If I extrapolate to the 13.1 mile distance, I still get a time of 1:58:27, well below my previous PR of 2:05.

The next event for me is this weekend's Bourbon Chase.  Long story but I'm no longer on my original team but now running with the Louisville Landsharks instead.  I have a total of 11.8 miles over 3 legs.  The running is really secondary as last year wasn't very fun so I just want to enjoy the event, have fun, be silly, etc.

If you'd like to track my team, you can do so here.  My team number is 476.  Beyond just having fun, I'd like to run 9 minute miles or better and continue to work on my speed.  Update to follow on Sunday.