Thought for the Day

Monday, October 14, 2002

Primo's Run Half Marathon

I decided to run this half marathon instead of the Big Basin Redwoods for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I thought it would be easier.
Other reasons are that this is one of the biggest running events in the Bay Area, with a 5K and 10K also offered, and I've never run it before.
There were about 700 half marathoners, and about two thousand each in the 5K and 10K.
Beautiful weather in the hills east of the SF Bay. I wore a tee-shirt, but had my gloves on the whole race. Gently rolling hills.
I couldn't find my racing/track watch, so I don't have my splits.
There was a major screw up in course direction. The lead group went off course. Some time before the main pack went off, the course was corrected. Some between that point and the leaders got directed back onto the course by a shortcut. The leaders got back onto the course by a longer route.
So some people went about a quarter of a mile long, some went about a quarter of a mile short, and some ran the right course. It looks to me like I had the short course.
This happened between mile 2 and mile 4. I didn't see the 3 mile mark, an indication I was probably off the course, The split called at 2 miles was 14:40, then at 4 miles it was 28:30. I don't think I sped up at all in those two miles.
So I ran about a half marathon, probably a quarter of a mile less, in about 1:37:15.
I'm happy with that time. Even over the full course I would have been under 1:40. Considering the rolling hills and the fact that I ran 20 miles LSD 3 days before, I think I could beat 3:20 in the Silicon Valley Marathon, if I wasn't running the Relay next week. I don't know if I should count this as a new PR.
I'm going on the road to look for work, so I may not be in touch much over the next few days. I'm looking forward to reading all of the marathon race reports, though.

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