Great(?) Run!

Don't get me wrong, I like my time.  Excuse the history of Josh lesson, but I ran 3 half marathons last year (St. Jude in Dec 2006, America's Finest City in Aug 2007, and the Silver Strand Half in Nov 2007).  Then I held off from running a few more since I was moving during the summer sometime of 2008.  I did run a 5K everyday from Thanksgiving to New Years and did a few small things to challenge myself.

So when we finally moved and I signed up for the Big Sur Half Marathon, I didn't "train" per se, but I did run all of my runs at about a 10 minute pace.  I did my last long run two Saturdays before the race at 12 miles and tapered down the next week running 8 miles the Saturday before and a 3 mile on Monday, 3 mile on Wednesday, and 2 miles on Thursday with Friday and Saturday completely off.

So... my EXPECTATION was to run 13.1 miles at a 10 min pace.  That wasn't the case.  I ran the first 7-8 miles at 9:04!  Holy FRICK!

You know the old saying, "If you go out too fast, you'll pay for it in the end."?  (sorry about the punctuation, I'm an engineer at heart)  Well I did.  To put it in perspective, I hit the final turn averaging a 10 min pace, and finished the race at 10:30 average pace.  Not too shabby you say?  Well, if I went a little more than half way at a 9 min pace and finshed at 10:30 then my last 4 miles were around 13 mins/mile... It's just disheartening.

Yes, I'm happy with a 2:18, no I didn't hurt myself, and yes, I finished strong.  I get it.  I did better than 50% of runners my age.  I should be happy.  I am happy.  I'm going to run another... it's just a matter of point of view I guess.

To add to this already long tale, on Saturday my Mom called and asked if I wanted to run the St. Jude half marathon (the Memphis Marathon is what some people call it).  She said since I ran in 2006 she thought I'd be interested.  Hi Mom, it's not like I forgot about it?!?  Anyway, she thought she would sweeten the pot and offered to cash in frequent flyer miles to buy me a ticket.  Hey cool, I thought.  But then I looked at registering for the half marathon.  It was not too late to register, but I had to pay the late-comer registration fee.  I did NOT want to pay $70.  Yes, call me cheap.  I won't deny it.

So I was kind of bummed I didn't get to run, but oh well.  Then as I was resting after the run yesterday, my Mom called again.  She had her neighbor Gassia over.  Gassia is a big runner.  Gassia works for a running-friendly company.  A company that has already purchased 10 entries.  Gassia only has 9 people ready to run.  So... to my Mom... it was a free entry.  And then she said she already purchased tickets to Memphis for me.

So, now I have another half marathon less than 4 weeks (yes, I know it's only 1 day less, but still) from the one I ran just yesterday.  And yes, I'm actually pretty psyched!