Air Force Half-marathon

Race: half-marathon
Date: September 16, 2017
Location: Dayton, OH
Time: 1:56:11
Overall Rank: 519 out of 4176
Age Group Rank: 44 out of 243
Results: http: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=59806#racetop

My goal for this race was to finish in two hours. But don't we always have a secret goal, one we don't share for fear that we don't make it? My secret goal was to beat 1:54:59, because that is my fastest half-marathon time. It is true that the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon--where I set my personal best--is a hillier course than the Air Force Half-Marathon, but when I ran in Pittsburgh I had a running partner (thanks, Dan), and a race always goes easier when you have a partner to keep you motivated and distracted. So, hills+friend = no hills + no friend. Anyway, I didn't set a personal best today because I didn't deserve to. I didn't prepare for this race like I should have. I only did two "long" runs this summer: a 7-mile run and a 9-mile run. I've had some motivation issues, I guess. But not today. I pushed myself harder than I had planned to. The weather was good and my body felt good. The race results show that I maintained a 8:02 pace for the first 5 miles. I did this by keeping up with the professional pacer running with the "1:50" sign. I started getting tired soon after the 5 mile mark, and I let the pacer get ahead of me. My legs felt good but my head felt weird so I started getting Gatorade at each aid station. The addition of sugary fluid gave me a tangible burst of energy each time, but it didn't last more than a tenth of a mile after each aid station. The energy was probably just a psychological response, rather than a physiological response. By mile 9, I had slowed to an 8:38 pace, and my hips were feeling stiff. I knew I was going farther now than I had done in my training runs, so I was wondering how long I could go. I figured I would at least keep running to mile 11. And so I did. But then I had to decide whether or not I would start walking a little bit. Noting the race clock, I saw that I was still on pace to better my goal of 2 hours, and a personal best was still within reach. I kept running, but my strides were getting shorter and shorter and I was not having fun anymore. With less than half a mile to go, I saw Shannan cheering for me, and her smile is so warm that I got the motivation I needed to keep going to the end. I am really pleased with my performance, and I am proud of myself for pushing through the last miles. I wonder, though, what would it have taken to run this race just 5.5 seconds per mile faster? That would have gotten me a personal best. I think the lesson I have learned is to (1) train better, but also (2) verbalize those secret goals and that might just motivate me enough to reach them!