Update (6/30/2009): The official results are in. I finished 3,584th out of 15,610 half-marathoners (1,751 out of 4,221 males). My chip time was officially 2:01:51. My pride remains somewhat intact since I finished before the fastest full-marathoner who ran twice as far in 2:18:17. :eyeroll:
Today I ran my third half-marathon, completing the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle in 2:01:52. I secretly desired to finish in under 2 hours but after my horrid experience running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona back in January, avoiding injury, finishing and not walking the latter stages were my main objectives.
My unofficial results are shown in the image below. The final results won’t be posted until after the event.
Here are my Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona results for comparison.
Judging by the 5K and 10K splits, you can see I learned from my mistake by starting this race more slowly. Doing so left me with more in the tank later in the race and allowed me to run a faster pace overall—9:18 vs. 9:54 per mile. If you break the race into 3-mile quarters, you can see how similarly I ran the first and third vs. the second and fourth. Mentally, I break the race into halves and try to finish each half strong. It appears my little motivational trick worked this time around.
Here is the Nike+ data I collected during the race.
I stopped a few moments at mile 4 to talk to TB and play with Owen. I paused again just after mile 9 to say hey to TB and jettison my CamelBak hydration pack. Other than that, I attacked the hills, up and down, and kept a pretty even cadence.
Next up is an 8K in late July. I haven’t selected my next long-distance race yet but suspect it will be some time in the next 2-3 months.
[...] My goal is to finish in under 2 hours since I fell just short in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle half back in June. [...]