Cowtown Classic

I guess I never posted this I just saved it as a draft and since it was a PR for a half marathon I figured I should post it. I ran this on 10-4-09

So today I ran the Cowtown Classic half marathon in Sacramento. This was a race I really wanted to do as it wound through a lot of the neighborhoods that I grew up in. I also had a goal in mind for this race to finish in under 2 hours.

I got there early and ran a nice easy paced mile to get myself all good and warm and then stretched really good before the start. They had pacers at this race so I found the 2 hour pace guy and lined up where I could keep my eye on him.

This race was a marathon and half marathon and there were 5000 entrants, that is the most people I have seen at a race yet and man was the starting area packed. When the start went off I was a lot calmer than my previous 2 halfs and just did the walk to the starting line keeping my eye on the pace guy.

When we started running I took off at my normal pace and noticed that I was ahead of the 2 hour pacer and pulling away. I almost just kept going but decided to fall back a little and see how things played out. Our first mile was like 9:23 and I was a little skeptical but I stayed with the pacer and glad I did by mile 4 we were at 36:00 right on schedule. The pacer was great he was talking to us and encouraging us had us loosen up a few times, he had us under 9 minute miles by 5 miles and kept us that way.

By mile 10 the pace started catching up with me and I could feel myself slowing. I looked at my watch and knew I could afford a little slower of a pace so I watched the pace guy slowly leave me and ran my own pace. When I got to 1/2 mile to go I looked at my watch and couldn't belive how much time I lost it was 1:55:34 I knew I had to pick it up if I was going to make it in under 2 hours. I pushed and pushed hard, I wanted to slow but just told myself "come on its only 1/2 mile" so I kept pushing and digging. Final result 1:59:53 no problem I had a whole 6 seconds to spare to make it in under 2 hours.

I really enjoyed running with a pacer and he is also going to be a pacer at the marathon I am running in Dec but he is going to be the 4:10 pacer and I am thinking 4:30 is more the time I want to shoot for. Well I made a PR today