The first time I ran a half marathon was in middle school at the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. I think I ran 2:03 or so.
When I was making a calendar for the year, and I wanted to put some faster but longer races on the calendar, this one came to mind.
I've had a great build up this summer. I've been knocking out 60-75 mile weeks with 2 threshold workouts a week plus a long run, which I've built up to as high as 21 miles. Most weeks I do 2 to 2.5 hour long runs on the dirt roads around here. Based on the metrics I'm seeing on my easy days and thresholds, I've felt confident for a while that I'm in the best shape of my life aerobically, and so it was just a matter of getting out there and showing it.
With my training lately, I've developed a pretty good sense of what heart rate ranges I can maintain for different periods of time. And so I ran the first mile w/ my HR peaking out at 160, then let it drift into the high 160s the next five miles, and then watched it drift into the low 170s.
I probably slightly overcooked the pacing, as I was struggling the last few miles. My relative pacing faded slightly. But not drastically so.
It was a big field, with over 1100 runners, but not a ton of people around me. There was one woman who leapfrogged me a few times over the first few miles, but I passed her for good around mile six. The guy who won was over five minutes ahead of me. Other than that, I didn't see anyone after the first 200 meters.
The course was net downhill, but with some serious rollers, particularly in the last mile. Checking with the people around me at the finish, it seems like the course runs slightly slower than a flat low-altitude half marathon, with the altitude and the rollers more or less canceling out the net downhill. Course was also about .1 short, so right around 13 miles. Honestly, it feels like correctly measured courses are the exception these days.
Either way, I'm happy with the result. Very pleased that I'm still able to tick off a few personal bests in my advancing years.
