VanderTri.com

My coach said hey I gave you a one day taper what do want.  Well my taper day was filled with 5 hours of relaxing pressure washing in the beautiful Seattle sunshine.  I woke up on Sunday with a slightly sore lower back and hamstrings.  Well I got what I asked for, now off to the races.

The M.I. half marathon is a great race, always very competitive and a seriously challening course.  It had been 8 years since I last ran the race and now I remember why I hadn't been back, it's just plain tough.

I had a good warmup avoiding the parking nightmare by the race site by parking at the overflow parking about a mile from the race start and I ran over to the start for my warmup watching all the Half Marathon walkers, 10k and 5K runners out on their way around the course. 

Lots of good runners in the area and this race always draws out a few good ones.  My plan was simple hold back early and build beginning about mile 8. 

BANG... and we're off.  I started of easily and found a nice comfortable pace.  Mile 1 was a 6:08 split....oops maybe a little too fast.  I should really back it off a bit.  Mile 2 a 6:12....decision time really back it off or try and go with this pace and see what happens.  I went with the latter and would pay dearly later. 

I was in a group of about 5 and we were rolling along trading time at the front and working the pace.  Around mile 4 we hit the serious beginning of the hills and I went to the front and pushed the pace.  This were going wonderfully until mile 7.5 when well the wheels started to come off the car, and by car I mean me.  Hey guys where you going and I watched the group slowly slip away from me up the road.

I downed my Jet Blackberry GU (mmmm.....) at mile 8.5 and that helped me get ready for the tough hills that were about to come.  I managed kept fighting and managed to keep most of the group in sight but wasn't making any progress of closing the gap.

Finally we were in the final 3 miles after a long rolling downhill we hit a savage uphill section before hitting the final mile.  I regrouped and pushed hard for the final mile.  I thought I was going to finish strong but....whoa who puts a 200 meter 10% hill with 500 meters to go in the race. 

I managed to finish in 39th place overall in 1:23:57.  Good enough for 5th in my AG.  Pretty happy considering my "taper" and the time of year.  Time to start thinking about the next one, not sure when that will be but be sure I'll be there ready to race hard and a little smarter.