Green Mountain on a rainy day

Here is what I love about trail running, you never know what you will find. Today on my trail run I came across an interesting sign...

 
 At the top of the mountain we could see everyone getting poured on at the cheery creek sneak. Mitch and I were nice and dry although it was painfully windy.

2014 Platte River Half Marathon

13.1 miles - 1:37:04

A friend of mine wasn’t going to run this race and I didn’t want to let his bib go to waste. Last weekend I ran 34 miles over the weekend so I wasn’t ready for a race but I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for a tempo run or a little bit harder than tempo run. I decided to run 1:38 only because it was any easy to figure out 7:30 pace on the course. A few of my friends also wanted to run sub 1:40 so the 4 of us set out together.

Miles 1-3 (Avg pace 7:31)
Our group stayed together as the race winded through town. I felt great and the pace just felt like a nice weekly long run. I was a little worried about getting boxed in because the first few miles were on a nice wide street and then the rest of the race was on bike paths. We couldn’t have asked for a better spring morning. 30’s at the start and around 50 at the finish line with clear skies.

Miles 4 - 6 (Avg pace 7:15)
My friend Matt is a new runner and very fast, faster than he knows. Matt started pulling away and I decided to go with him. That was the last time we saw Gary and Abby, they both ran great races. Matt pushed the pace we ran mile 4 in 7:11 and then mile 5 in 7:12. At this point I decided that I couldn’t continue at that pace and have a nice tempo run. I let Matt go and ran mile 6 in 7:23.

Miles 7 – 12 (Avg pace 7:26)
Those fast miles got me a little out of breath. I decided the the rest of the race I would settle in the 7:20’s. I ended up catching Matt somewhere between mile 8 and 9. I convince him to run with me and we did for a little while before he fell behind at a water station. I figured I would let him run his own race.

Mile 13 and the last 0.1 (Avg pace 7:23)
A lot of this race was on a slight decline and in the last few miles we had a few rollers. But mile 13 has a big hill over the highway on a viaduct (8th avenue). I kept an eye on my watch to make sure I didn’t slow down too much. My pace went above 7:30 but I got a little of it back on the downhill. We took a turn and could see the finish about 3 blocks away. My watch recoded my last 0.1 at 5:40 pace. I was pretty happy with my time. I did exactly what I wanted run strong and not kill myself. Next week is my peak training week for this marathon and its going to be tough. This is my second fastest half marathon now out of 5 total now. I love the half marathon, I don’t know why I don’t run more of them.

After the race I jogged back to the top of the hill and cheered on all my friends. I love this new group of friends I have made, it’s like a big family. We all met after the race and ate and talked, it was a lot of fun doing this race with so many friends.

This was around mile 5. I am in the Green having way to much fun, Matt is a few steps in front of me in race mode.


Post race picture with the Mile High Track Club. We had about 10 more that didn’t make it to the photo opp. It was a great day for our team with so many PR’s.