Carlsbad Half Marathon

Today I ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon, and I had a pretty good race! I've been feeling pretty strong the past few weeks, and I made a slight change in my running form which made a significant difference in my speed.

I never like to set a goal time unless it is for an "A" race. Usually I can't tell if it's going to be a good running day until I'm at about mile 4. This morning, when I entered my corral at the start, the 1:50 pace team was right there, so I decided I'd try and stick with them for as long as I could. I was a little bit worried about my performance today because I just completed the Stagecoach Century last Saturday, and on Monday, I had oral surgery, and I had some pain and discomfort throughout the week as well as taking antibiotics.

Anyhoo, I was able to feel comfortable running with the 1:50 pace group for 9 miles! I just focused on my running form and tried not to let my mind wander and think of anything else but running. Thinking about "effortless power" is also really helping me too. When I started to feel like I was straining at mile 9, I just backed off and slowed my pace a little bit because I do want to stay fit and uninjured for the Oceanside Half Ironman in April. The last mile I was able to speed up again and cross the finish line in 1:52:47, which is equal to my PR for this course. (My stats for age group 50-54: 20 out of 244. Overall pace: 8:37.)

I haven't run that fast in a half marathon since I was training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and my only focus then was on running. Additionally, I did not run any half marathons last year at this pace. I had to struggle and push to get under 2 hours on every half I ran last year. So I feel very good about my accomplishment today!

Perhaps the best part about today was after I crossed the finish line, the winner of the half marathon, Wesley Karir, a Kenyan runner, gave me his lei and told me to keep running! He ran the half in 1:02...