We were very wet puppies!

MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011

I ran the March Madness half marathon on Sunday. 1:56:59 - I treated this as a training run for my May marathon and wanted to be sub 2 hours. It was a very hilly course (for Illinois) that I have done maybe a dozen times. (Not sure what my PR on the course is - I think somewhere around 1:42.)

Most of my Glen Elllyn Runners marathon long run training buddies were there, so I had a lot of homies and it was certainly social, which increased the fun factor. That helped compensate for the weather: Rain fell just as we started, with cold wind. It let up after a few miles and then it just spit. But for the last three miles - with the long grinding uphill - the heavens opened up: it poured and we were very wet puppies. Thunder was booming off in the distance. A 30 minute cold shower with sound effects!

My splits were in the 8:20-8:40 range first 5 miles (much downhill), then mid race oscillated between 8:22 and 9:18 (up some big hills and then down and rolling), and then all but the last mile were in the 9+ territory. I ran even in terms of energy and, except for one steep uphill that canted to the right and for some reason made my left foot hurt, I had no physical issues except for slowing a little from undertraining. My biggest week since October was 30 miles and my longest run was 12 miles, so I was great with my result.