Monday, June 05, 2006

South Pfaltz Half-marathon Race Report

This morning I ran my eighth half-marathon, the South Pfalz HM, as a training run. My wife wanted to visit with a former coworker she used to work with (Eva) who lived in the same town as the event so I decided to run the HM instead of my normal 14K/8.7M that I had on the schedule.

The race started at 9:15 a.m. so we picked up our friend Eva on the way the race. I went to pick up my start number and the girls picked up coffee and found a place to park until while I ran.

After going through the normal race routine I made my way to the Start line to cheer on the 10K racers who started at 9 a.m.. It was just beginning to rain a little as we began the race, but lasted only a couple minutes, then the sun came out again.

There were around 400 people signed up for the HM, I recognized a lot of faces from previous races. I chatted with a man who has run the Fidelitas Night Run for the last 10 years in the row. He assured me that the race is easier than a marathon. This is relative as he is a running machine.

So after a few minutes we were off. I held down the pace for the first 14K/8.7M, about my normal tempo run speed (5:30/K, 8:50/M).

I love this race, it is flat, almost entirely through the forest and probably 70% packed dirt trails. I set my HM personal record (1:48:12) on this course last September.

At the 14K point was an aid station and right after this a 5 minute stretch of asphalt-covered bike trails. I had been following a couple who were doing a comfortable pace and at this point they poured on the gas. I decided to hang with them for awhile. They kept going faster and faster and I guess my competitive juices started flowing, cause next thing I new I totally forgot about this being “just a training run” and I left them behind me.

For the rest of the race I kept up the pace passing a couple dozen people before sprinting over the finish line. I ended up finishing in 1:49:39, about a minute and a half slower than my best time, but much faster than I planned.

I came in 235th out of 378, 53/76 in my age group. Not bad for braking the first 2/3 of the race. I just hope my legs will forgive me...

Comments:
Woo-hoo, great run! Glad it had so much dirt instead of asphalt!
 
There really is no stopping you at the moment! Well Done!
 
So easy to lose track of what you should be doing when you're a competitive spirit! Great job, even though it wasn't planned.
 
It sounds like you are becoming a running machine as well. Sounds like a great half-marathon course.
 
Awesome job!! You are really becoming quite the running machine!!
 
alright!!!
 
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