Saturday I had a run of 5 miles. It was a good run, but nothing overly spectacular. My pace was an average of 9:49 with average HR of 161 and a max of 174. Like I said, nothing stellar there, just a good run. This morning when the alarm went off at 5:00 am, I wasn't overly excited about climbing out of bed, but after hitting the snooze once, I knew I would feel better if I did and regret it if I didn't, so I crawled out and got ready.

I arrived at the gym about 6:00 am and was on the TM by about 5 after. I started out with a quarter mile at 12 mpm warm up. after that I kicked it on up to 10 mpm. My HR was still only around 134 at the end of the first mile, and I was breathing entirely to easy for my norm, so I kicked the TM on up to a 9:00 mpm pace for mile 2. At the end of mile 2 my HR was still only 142, so for mile 3 I increased it on up to an 8:00 mpm pace. At the end of that 3rd mile, I had still only gotten to a 154 HR, and my breathing was barely elevated. Had I had more time, I think I could have easily done another mile at a 7:30 mpm pace if not better. I ended up finishing that 3 miles with an average pace of 8:49. That's my best average pace in well over a year.

I arrived at the start, Northview Church, in Carmel at 7:30 am for a 9:00 start as they only have race day packet pickup. Had to make sure I got a parking spot since this was the first time running this event. I was glad to see they had the church open and packet pickup was indoors as it was a cool 29 degrees out doors with a pretty decent wind blowing. Wasn't looking forward to that at race time. Packet pickup went without a hitch, now just over an hour to wait until race time. I decided to put the time to use for stretching.

So it starts getting close to start time, and we all line up. There were 476 finishers at the start, not to bad for a lesser known half marathon. Race started about 3 minutes late, I can handle that, at least it wasn't 15 minutes or something crazy while standing out there in the cold. Then we were off.

My main goal was to just not try to go out to hard. Wanted to keep my pace between around 9:45 and 10:45 for the race. This race is mostly through some nice subdivisions, so I am just trying to take it easy and take in some of the scenery. First mile cam in at 9:37, a little faster than I wanted for my warmup mile, but not to bad. Mile 2 came in at 10:00 even. I'm feeling pretty good here and starting to get more comfortable with the cold temps.

Mile 3 found me struggling a little, and ended up at a 10:54 pace. Time to focus. After mile 3 you kind of get out of subdivisions for a while and it becomes more farmland and some wooded areas. The change of scenery seemed to help get my focus of my aches and pains. Mile 4 finished at a 10:03. Mile 5 and 6 are more of the same with a 10:32, and a 9:52.

Most of this course is on city streets and roads with a little traffic, and most of mile 7 saw this traffic increase, but it seemed to work with us. They did have plenty of officers and volunteers holding traffic for us at intersections though, so it wasn't to bad. Once we got turned onto 146th st, we had a sidewalk to run on which was good as that is one busy street. Mile 7 finished at a 10:38. Mile 8 was more sidewalk along 146th, and I was really starting to feel the pounding in my legs and I actually had to walk a bit through here. I finished 8 in an 11:07.

From here on, it is all sub-divisions. Also from here on, I am feeling it. I was tryng to keep my mind occupied and off the pain, and it worked for a while. Mile 9 came in at a 10:53. Not to far off my target pace. It started to fall apart from there. I began having to walk more and more, and as a result, mile 10 was an 11:18, mile 11 was 11:21, 12 at a 11:28 pace, and mile 13 at 12:09.

Thank god I'm almost there, only a tenth or so to go. Unfortunately that tenth was all uphill. I finished the last .17 at an 11:21 pace. That was just sheer determination to get the pain over with.

Final finish time was 2:21:55 which was a 10:46 pace. Just outside the top of my desired pace range, but I can live with that. This was my first half since April 2010, so I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. I'll take it for what it is, another training run to help get ready for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon.

Thanks for taking time to read my ramblings.

I won't bore you with all the non-running related stuff, but on the running front, things are going pretty well. I have come to the realization that Boston may never be in my future. Not saying I can't, just that I'm not sure I want to dedicate the level of effort it would require at this point in my life. I plan to continue running halfs and shorter, and maybe one day, but for now I am happy just to run. Training for something like Boston or any other marathon for that matter, makes it almost like a second job, and for now I just want to run for the enjoyment of running. I'm sure there are some non-runners baffled by that statement, but yes, I do enjoy running.

Any way, that's it for now. I will try to get better about updating you all as I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to see what happens next. :)

Original post blogged on b2evolution.