Well, the final results were finally posted either late last night or this early this morning that was run on Saturday, March 31, so now I can blog all the details you want to know about. :)
Other than some wind issues, it was a beautiful day. Some runners probably appreciated the wind, but you know me. I bet we had to run into it for three-quarters of the race. It wasn't strong; it was just enough to get on my nerves. It was mostly sunny with temperature around 60 degrees at the start and around 70 when I finished.
My GPS is not working, so I am having to manually push the button for my miles. When I saw painted on the road "1 Mile", I pushed the lap button and saw Mile 1 was under 6 minutes. I knew that was wrong for sure. I had not been running hard. I had even gotten behind a row of runners that was really slow - they were too busy talking. Then I remembered that the course starting line had been moved from the first two years. Later on, I saw the real Mile 1 marker. My time was 8:20. I thought I would wait until the Mile 2 marker to push the button to get the lap count back on track. I missed the Mile 2 marker, so I pushed the button twice at Mile 3. After 3 miles, my time was 25:05. These were my best miles. I did manage to keep the first 5 miles under a 9:00 pace, and 8 of the first 9 miles. Miles 10 thru 13 were all over 9:00, with Mile 13 being a disappointing 9:42! The hills hit about the same time as the "wall". My total time was 1:56:15, for a pace of 8:52.
This was my sixth half marathon. As I was running, I felt like this was one of the best two feelings I had while running half's. My time didn't show it. The time for this was 4th best of the sixth. It is only followed by my very first two races. Not counting the first year, I'm getting slower on this course: 2010 - 1:46:38, 2011 - 1:52:47, 2012 - 1:56:15.
Before I left the parking lot, I checked to see where I stood. I was last in the 40-44 age group. I didn't see anybody I knew, so I left. I didn't think I would actually be last in my age group. And I wasn't. I was 4th of 11. I was only 1 minute and 19 seconds behind the guy that finished third. I blame the wind. Overall, I was 48th out of 133.
The change from October to March did not help the event. In 2009, there were 884 finishers. It has been declining every since. When they thought 2010 would break the 1,000 barrier, there were only 493 finishers. It dropped to 183 in 2011, and to just 133 this year. I fear it is on the way out. The first year we received a bag full of goodies. Last year, the expo was a disgrace. It was just a hotel lobby with the necessities - shirt, number, timing chip, and safety pins in a bag. The bag. Well, it was just one of those small trash bags that are used in hotel rooms. I called Sherri after picking up my "race packet" to tell her, "This year we didn't even get the bag."
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