Go! Halloween Half Marathon 2016

This is the course I PR'd on...

I'm not sure why. I think it's sort of tough. You start out climbing the Market Street hill. There's also a long hill up Broadway in Soulard. But there are beautiful downhills too. I say that 2016 was the year of Disney... but it was also the year of Go!

I did the April Marathon relay (8 miler), the June KT82 relay (14-ish miler), the June All American 5k, and now.. the October Halloween Half Marathon.

Race Start.

I went into this race knowing I wanted to do better than I have been. I decided to push myself. I actually felt good. I was running in new shoes, which was a bit scary, but my other shoes were killing my feet so I didn't think it would get any worse. I loved my new shoes.

Mile 1: 9:07
Mile 2: 9:10
Mile 3: 8:53

Oh shit, I thought. Why am I going this fast? There's no way I can keep up with this pace. But, I stuck with it.

Mile 4: 9:14
Mile 5: 9:34
Mile 6: 9:18

Mile 7 is the start of a long hill. I wasn't going to allow myself to think it was okay to walk some of it.

Mile 7: 9:57 (I'm proud of this time, I could have walked it, but I wasn't going to give in)
Mile 8: 9:31
Mile 9: 9:58 (starting to feel it)

This is when the metal game started. I knew I wasn't going to come in under 2 hours, but I could maybe PR.

Mile 10: 9:50
Mile 11: 10:11
Mile 12:10:10

Up until this point, I ran everything except the water breaks. I was so pleased with myself. But the last mile was tough. Again, I could feel that I was undertrained and my legs just hurt. I felt like I had nothing left. So I walked a bit in that last mile, but even with some walking, my time didn't suck.

Mile 13: 9:59

Finish Photo.

I finished with a time of 02:05:15. Uggghhhhh. I was so upset with myself at the finish. Why did I walk a bit of that last mile? If I didn't walk, could I have PR'd? Will I ever run a sub-2 hour half? I cried a bit because I was so angry with myself... BUT this was my fastest race of the year.

HM #26 complete!