Sunday, October 02, 2005

Ridgefield Half 13.1miles

Previous years
1:58:02 2002
1:52:24 2003
1:57:02 2004
1:59:12 2005


What a great morning for a race. I got to bed by 10 not my 9:30 plan, but this was a whole lot better than my usual time. I may have woke once or twice but each time I forced my self back to sleep. My alarm went off its usual time of 4:50am but I did not get out of bed until 7:00 which was fine with me. I did my pre-race routine, bathroom, a cup of oatmeal that ended up in the car with me, an apple and 16oz bottled water. I was out the door by 7:40 got to the race at about 8:05 signed in got my t-shirt last stop to the bathroom there was a little line but it wasn't to bad, I used the time to stretch. Jog to my car as a warm up to get rid of my top and t-shirt, jog back to the start line. This was not a very good warm up, it was better than nothing.

Overall I enjoyed the race as usual, there was only one problem at mile 10 the water station that was there seemed to have been abandon, and it was at exactly this time that I decided to have the one power GU I ran with, my luck. There were a few neighbors out cheering us on and handed a woman a bottled water which she drank without actually touching the bottle to her mouth and I did the same, got my GU in and handed the bottle to someone else, no he was all set so I set the bottle down. This was just so unexpected, but in the end it worked out fine.

I felt strong thru the race. I did not wear my mp3 player I tend to where it during these long ones. Today I decided not to. I really wanted to pay attention to everything and I did not want my mind to wonder. I tend to wear my mp3 player as a confidence builder also. Previously though I've found I do better without them.

I did pretty good with checking my splits which I very rarely do. But reading every one blogging their splits made me pay special attention to them today.. ei

This is how I started:
Mile 1- 8:10
Mile 2 -8:08
mile 3 -8:44(hill)
mile 4 -8:34
mile 5 -9:33(hill)
mile 6- 9:13(hill)
mile 7 -7:53
mile 8- 8:16
mile 9 -8:54
mile 10 -9:27(hill)
mile 11- 7:43 :) after the gu
mile 12- 9:53 :(

this is were I lost track on my watch 12.82miles average pace 8.49 per mile. I felt pretty good thru the whole thing. Not bad for my first time tracking splits. I think I'm going to do this more often in the future.

I got two nice pictures at the the end of the race :). Another observation: it is good to know that even though I can barely maintain a nine minute miles during training runs these days I can get them in on race day even some sub 8mins :).

Pet Peeve: A woman passed me today with a big grin and said " I've ran behind you for years" as she was passing me. Is this a compliment or what. I would never say that to someone when I'm passing them. I just smile and kept going. This is not the first time that I've had such comments come at me during a race. This is a long one I just had to get it out.

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