Phew, great run for me. It was a beautiful morning and just perfect for running. I was able to leave the tights and warm top at home which was great. I ran strong through the entire thing finishing in 749th  place out of 2176 (434th out of 704 Male, 68th out of 97 in age group) but a respectable 9.01 pace which beat my super goal of 2 hours by running 1:58:07.  This beats my PR as well (well the only other time I have run a half) of 2:15 at the 2008 Seattle Marathon. I ran that one injured, I think I rolled an ankle the week before in training.

My time goal was to beat Seattle, which I didn’t think would be too hard. My super goal was 2 hours, but I seriously didn’t think I would be able to do it. I didn’t have a lot of room for error if I was going to do it, but I wanted to give it a try. I started out pretty fast but I tried hard to hold back. I didn’t run slower than a 9 minute pace until mile 4 (I claim hills) and didn’t run another slower than 9 until mile 8. At that point I was feeling pretty good as I had racked up several minutes to beat 2 hours. Miles 9 through 13 all hovered at pace, the highest was mile 11 at 9:23 (oddly one I missed on the partially functioning watch but really wanted to see for inspiration, since it was the slowest mile maybe the running gods were hiding it from me.) My average heart rate was 165 which was high, but I think right where I needed it to be. I maxed over 180 in the last 1.1 (high of 183). My HR went up over 165 first in Mile 4 on the hills and only went lower when we ran into downtown. If you want to see all the numbers, click here.

So my watch. Grrrr. Around mile 6 it got stuck on the clock or the compass mode and wouldn’t switch back. I couldn’t get it to go back to the data screens so I was running blind. It did however give me a pace report every mile, so that was something (and enough to keep me going to beat the two hour mark. This has happened before with this watch, makes me wonder if there is too much technology involved… Fortunately it did store all the data from the run, so I can check it out now. I think the most frustrating thing was I couldn’t shut it off at the finish. Several minutes later I was finally able to get it to shut off. Pretty frustrating overall experience with it.

So one more race for the spring season, the Sean’s Run 10K. Then I get to make the decision on the San Francisco Marathon. Right now I have to say I am leaning towards not doing it. The half may be the race for me after all.

Tomorrow morning I run my earliest race. The Race for the Roses half-marathon starts at 7:00 AM sharp. I’ll be setting the alarm for 4:30 to make sure I get a cup of coffee and Lara bar in me. The electrolyte for the run is Gleukos and they passed out samples in non curbside recyclable plastic containers (I’ll take mine to the plastic recycler, but I doubt many others will. Gleukos basically acknowledges that you will just throw the soft plastic container away by trying to ease your worries and saying that they “PRE”-cycle, which I believe means they pay some money up front so you can drink your drink in an environmentally irresponsible manner and not worry about it. I am hoping this means can just throw the container in the street, I am pretty sure it does. So the point of me bringing Gleukos up in the first place was that I am going to hydrate pre-race with it and fill my water bottle up with it. Still irritated with the waste.

And the Gluekos wasn’t the only offender. The event themselves is using disposable timing chips. No longer do we have to deal with the hassle of returning them, we can just throw them away. Hurray! Again, I am thinking on the street would be a good thing. On the positive side the Convention center thanked me for riding my bike to pick up the packet. Well, actually I took mass-transit, but better than driving myself so I was with them in spirit even though I used more wheels.

Environmental destruction aside, I am ready for this race. I am fully hydrated and well rested. I have eaten a ton the last couple of days, and good foods (with the exception of a bowl of popcorn last night). I had my traditional bowl of pasta for dinner (though the benefit of pasta before a race is scientifically debatable, its a good tradition and I know I feel (possibly psychological) if I run after a good meal the evening prior.) Now the next challenge will be to get enough sleep tonight, I am going to watch a movie in bed tonight and hopefully be asleep soon after 10 (earlier if Mega Piranha turns out to be a bust, good chance of that.) I am psyched to run tomorrow.

The route runs right through downtown Portland and some surrounding areas. Hills don’t appear to be too intense. I am going to shoot for the 2 hour mark and hopefully hook up with a nine minute pace group which would put me a two minutes under 2 hours. I think that might be too fast for me, but I am gonna give it a shot and see how it goes.

I am taking three gels with me. One for pre-race, one at say 6 or 7 and another at 11 or so, I am also bringing a pack of Sharkies and some Sport Beans for the race and a Greens+ protien bar for after the race. Gluekos in the water bottle even though they say don’t rave with a drink you don’t normally train with, but I think it will be ok. I had most of a bottle today while I was picking up my packet. Go #1274!