Race Report Wine Country Half Marathon

Well 1/2 marathon number 2 is in the bag.
I want to start by saying thank you to my wife, son and friends who have supported me.  Thanks to all of you who offer words of encouragment and support.  You guys are the best!

I had wondered what to set for myself as a goal.  I know I wanted to finish and I wanted minimal walking.  I was hoping for at least as good of a finish time if not an improvement, but I wasn't sure it was going to happen.   I rode this course on my bike to get a preview and it seemed to be more difficult.

Now onto the race report.
FYI there is no such thing as a small hill, or rolling hills or a minor incline.  They are all freaking mountains the like of Mt.Everest.  I thought that my first 1/2 marathon was evil because someone dropped a mountain onto the course around mile 9.5-10.5 yeah it really seemed to go for a mile.

Well they didn't do anything like that with this race, it just started going uphill and continue to do that for the first 2 miles or so.  It was little roller followed by little roller.  It reminds me of the cartoon where the character flexes their muscle and their mucles have muscles.  This continued for a couple miles and then we had a nice downhill stretch.  So it wasn't all bad, but I was already tired by mile 2.

The race took place in Healdsburg, California, It's a beautiful course, full of wineries and vinyards.  Some of the wineries actually had tasting tables set up along the route.  They were also serving samples of locally produced honeys. 

I made it through the first 5 miles without hitting an aid station.  At mile 5, I stopped to eat a Gel and take a drink, then right back onto the run.  I can't eat and run at the same time, which was reaffirmed later in the race around mile 11.

It was pretty uneventful between miles 5-8, It's about here that I decided I needed some help, so I turned on the mp3 plater and tried to concentrate on the music for a while.  That never works well for me, most of the time I end up with the opposite effect.  I see and think about the course and don't even notice the music going on.

I had my pace set on the Garmin, and I was about .30 miles ahead of the pace runner on the watch, so from this point on I decided to go ahead and add some short walk breaks in.  I had begun to slow down quite a bit and thought the little walk breaks would help.  So I walked until the pace runner would make up .05 miles on me then I'd take off running again and build my lead back up.  The remainder of the race continued like this.  I was having some foot pain, it felt like I had a bruise on the ball of my foot.  It felt like I had stepped on a rock while barefoot.  The walking seemed to ease up that pressure enough that I could take off and run again after 1-2 minutes.

I wasn't worried about the little walk breaks because I was way ahead of my pace that I had set for myself.  I was actually feeling pretty good.  My pace was set faster than my last race, and I was exceeding that.

I finished the race in 2:16 and change.  I'm still waiting for the official time to be posted on their web site.  That's a 5 minute improvement over my first 1/2 marathon.

I'll take that and walk away smiling.

Scott
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Scott,

    Great race buddy! Well done...

 Congratulations!

Great job reaching your goal!  Running in wine country sounds beautiful.  I think I'd have to run that one just for fun to sample the sights.

Cassie