Race Report: Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite Half Marathon

Well, by now you know how Saturday morning's race turned out. And if not, then you might want to scroll down and check out the drunken race update that Vandy Montana and I put together Saturday night.

And I know what you're thinking and you're right. Sunday morning, I did not feel so hot. It was worth it though... I haven't quite yet learned the art of celebrating SANS booze (but if I'm going to simultaneously lose weight and continue to kick ass in races this training period, I'm looking for suggestions).

But... about the race.

I had been thinking about what I wanted my goal to be all week and it wasn't until the ride to the race that I finally settled on a goal time: 1:53. That's what McMillan says I should be to run in order to run a 3:59 marathon, so I figured that's a good goal.

The race course wasn't too difficult. As far as elevation goes, it was wayyy flatter than the previous location of this race that I had ran, but there was a good 2.5+ mile stretch of the race that was on gravel... which... is NOT fun. I had my slowest mile in that damn gravel... all because there were slower people in the padded down gravel and in order to pass them, I had to pick my moment in the center of the road, where there were huge loose gravels just waiting to twist my ankle.

Overall, I felt really good in this race. Sure, I had my moments... miles 3 and 4 were probably the hardest mentally. But, I realized something really big during this race... as soon as I start to struggle mentally... if I pick up the pace, I find that I can push myself past the mental fatigue and negative thoughts. Like, in the past, I've always done the opposite... I've slowed down and I think that just makes me feel worse about myself. As soon as I sped up on Saturday, I was like a new person. It was awesome and something that I think will help me in the future when I feel the mental collapse approach.

I wore my watch and kept track of all my splits:
Mile 1: 8:25 (the start was super clogged)
Mile 2: 7:51 (ummm.. probably a bit fast)
Mile 3: 8:04
Mile 4: 8:22
Mile 5: 8:36
Mile 6: 8:29
Mile 7: 8:16
Mile 8: 8:16
Mile 9: 8:13
Mile 10: 8:49 (Damn gravel and slow peeps)
Mile 11: 8:38
Mile 12: 8:34
Mile 13: 8:19 (a nice downhill here)
Mile .1: no idea.

Official time: (no chip timing): 1:49:54.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with those splits.

And I want to give Vandy Montana a shout out for his effort, as well. He PRed with 1:40!!!!!! (Damn show-off.) We are going to kill St. Louis in a couple of months.

The best thing about this whole thing... isn't that I did so well and pushed myself and had awesome results. The best thing about the race is that it shows me that I'm training the right way. My hardwork is paying off and is there anything better than that?

Yeah, there's no denying that's a PR smile.