The Half

Today I ran my first Half Marathon. While it's only half the distance I plan to race in 2008, I definitely feel this is a major accomplishment. It's the culmination of almost eight months of work. The vast majority of my training runs were completed at around 9:30 or 10:00 min/mile pace. I managed to average under 9:00 min/mile pace for the Half. More importantly, managed to accomplish my goal of finishing under 2 hours (1:58:39 official chip time). I wore my Garmin during the race and found that I actually ended up running 13.31 miles due to all the weaving through traffic.

I didn't cross the start line until about 5 minutes after the official start. I wanted to be at the back of the pack in order to stay out of the crowd. This approach accomplished very little. There were so many walkers in front of me that I still ended up running all over the place trying to avoid people and maintain a decent pace. I haven't done the math, but I ran the second half of the race much faster than the first. This is primarily due to the fact that I ran slowly b/c of the crowds and because I felt really good after mile 7. Mile 13 ended up being my fastest mile - exactly 8:00.

I can't say how important Paige's support has been. She's been incredibly understanding and hasn't complained (much) about the great deal of time I've spent running over the past 8 months. Not to mention the money I've had to spend on shoes and clothes. Paige's parents have also been at my last two races and their support has made the events that much more fun. I'm hoping these types of events will continue as a regular part of Varner life.

According to my Garmin, here are my split times:

Mile 1 - 9:26

Mile 2 - 9:46

Mile 3 - 9:17

Mile 4 - 9:25

Mile 5 - 9:15

Mile 6 - 9:12

Mile 7 - 9:05

Mile 8 - 8:46

Mile 9 - 8:37

Mile 10 - 8:26

Mile 11 - 8:26

Mile 12 - 8:23

Mile 13 - 8:00

I plan to take tomorrow off and begin full marathon training on Tuesday. It should be an interesting year.