Lincoln City Half Marathon Race report

About time I raced again. Except... I really wasn't training for a race. I couldn't resist a half marathon near my home beach town though.

The weather report for Sunday was 50-55 and raining with some wind. Not too bad... though running wet is never too fun. It was raining as I drove to the race and there was enough wind that I thought in the back of my head... this could be interesting. I've raced in the rain and wind before though... much worse that it was looking.

Since I really haven't timed myself much lately... I did not know what to do with my pace. My PR for the half marathon is 1:41:39, a 7:45 pace... but I knew I'd be no where close to that. My plan was to go out at 9 minute miles... then see how I felt after the halfway mark. Seriously... the times I have time myself I was running 9:30 to 10:30 miles. UGH.

First mile was a little fast... they always are... 8:36 but I dropped right onto pace with 9:01, 9:00, 8:57, 8:59, 9:09 and 9:05. Miles 6 & 7 were a bit uphill but I knew that it was generally downhill (because duh... it was an out and back) thereafter.

I felt pretty good when we turned around and that was when some other runners started to struggle a bit... so I started to speed up. Mile 8 was 8:36 and I still felt good. And low and behold... as I was passing people at this point (no one passed me after 1/2 way point) when I came up to another runner that just refused to let me pass. He wasn't blocking me at all... but I could tell... he just didn't take kindly to being passed. I figured no one else would be like me... taking it easy the first half.. then harder the second... so I would be able to pass anyone. But everytime I sped up... he sped up.

Mile 9 was 8:16, mile 10 was 8:10. It was around the 9 mile mark when I finally passed he who would not be passed, because he walked at a water stop and I ran right on by. It was the only water stopped I ran by. My nameless competitor didn't take kindly to that, and I only led him for about 1/2 mile before he took the lead back. (Cool how I can talk about the 'lead' when I am a middle of the pack runner) =) Hey... I can create my own little universe... and I can tell you on this day... there was an epic battle going on.

Through mile 11, 8:35 and mile 12 I was right on his heels, I would fall back a bit on the flats... then catch him on the hills. With about a quarter of a mile to go I almost caught him... but burned my legs on a hill and by the time we crested... I knew I wouldn't catch him. He finished a good 1/10th of a mile in front of me. Mile 12 was 8:48 and mile 13... 8:12.

But wait... there's more... because of the hills... my watch told me I still had over 1/2 mile to run after I crossed the finish line... which means... either the course was grossly wrong... or my watch was and I really had been running faster than I though... fast enough for 8:17 per mile average. I will take that damnit. I haven't ran a mile that fast all year... and to average it for a 1/2... I will take it.

After the race I got some food and drank some gatoraid like I was supposed to... but I still got very sick. It was a good 3 hours after the race before I was stable. Was the race short? My watch off? I don't know. I doubt there will even be official race results posted anywhere... and that is all fine and good with me... because it will never tell the story of the little race within the race... where some unknown runner and I pushed each other to run a bitfaster than we planned... and it was great fun.