2012 MS Blues Half Marathon
Overall 268/1184
Mens 182/548
1:58:36 Pace 9:00 per mile AVG HR 168 (max 191)
I’m not sure if I owe my performance to a good nights sleep or the added training miles, but something was clicking Saturday morning. It didn’t go off completely flawless, but well enough. I had actually tried to talk my wife into taking separate cars just so I know I wouldn’t be late. It’s about a 25 minute drive to downtown. She wanted to ride together…I couldn’t argue anymore. I told we are walking out the door no later than 6. She agreed. We left the house at 6:15. My wife’s one flaw is the ability to be ready on time.
The fog rolled in before the race started; it was dense, as dense as I could remember ever having it here in MS. I was sweating just stretching; I thought it was a bad sign.
Mile 1 9:39
The crowd was much more than I expected. I figured the mass of people would thin out faster, but it took about 3 miles before that happened. The dense fog and temps in the 50’s had me in a full blown sweat.
Mile 2 8:54
Mile 3 8:46
The majority of this section was thru my old neighborhood and downhill. I was really familiar with the area and feeling pretty good at this point. Thru the first few miles my HR was in the 140’s or 150’s every time I took a peek. I felt great about that considering it had been in the 170’s at this point in Memphis.
Mile 4 8:59
Mile 5 8:46
Looking back at my data I don’t see how in the hell I ran a pace of 8:46 on mile 5. It was the one spot that was nearly all up hill. Knowing the place I pretty prepared for it, and I actually thought I was taking my time up it. I was worried about spiking my HR and not being able to get it back down. HR did hit 174 on the hill.
Mile 6 9:08
Mile 7 8:57
Despite thinking I had a pretty good knowledge of the course I forgot about running this neighborhood stretch. It had a short, but steep hill that whopped me pretty good.
Mile 8 9:06
Mile 9: 8:45
8-9 was a pretty steady incline, again not really expecting it for some reason. The fog was pretty well broken at this point and the temps were well into the 60’s. I was feeling pretty good, but was worried because I was coming up on the 10 mil mark, which is where I hit a bit of a wall in Memphis.
Mile 10 9:04
Mile 11 9:23
Finally I was on the last incline of the course. Knowing what I my pace was at I did slow down a bit. I was too worried about running out of gas. The crowd was very thin in this stretch due to the part of town we were in.
Mile 12 9:09
Mile 13 8:33
Mile 13.1 7:39
Other than maybe .3 mile at the end this was all downhill. The last thing I wanted to do was take any chances on screwing this up at the end. I felt completely in the zone at this point. Not many runners around me either, which was kind of nice. I did look down and saw the 191 HR, but really didn’t give #### I knew I was coasting to the sub 2.
Ned, I can't lie I did feel like I left a little meat on the bone out there. I'm over it though.
Overall I had a blast. I talked to a lot of folks who complained about how hard the course was this year. I wasn’t thinking about it too much and figured people probably always talk about how hard the course is while they are on it. Just comparing it with Memphis my Garmin had a total elevation gain of 534 ft, compared to 234 in Memphis. So I guess it was pretty tough.
I felt a million times better post-race, it has to be the Higdon training. Very little soreness that afternoon and just a tiny bit Sunday morning.
Not sure if it was the 3 beers I chugged right after the race or the euphoric high I had, but I went straight home and signed up for the Full R&R in New Orleans.
Thats me in black, 1946