Prelude: I've been off from running / racing for a few months due to a stress fracture in my left tibia. During that time, I hit the gym, ellipitical and even picked up road biking (my pal traded me a nice bike for my Garmin watch). While all of that was good and fine, I wanted to get back to running. Also my sister moved back into town as I was ending my running rehab and we started running together. We did a nice ten miler that didn't hurt me too much, so I suggested that we do a half-marathon race. It would be my first race after rehab and her first half marathon, so it just felt right!I planned on a nice easy pace of 8:30 to 8:20 for the first 10 miles, then we'd speed up after that, if we had it in us. For the last mile we'd drop the hammer and see what we could do for a fast finish. My sister is very fit, so I'd knew she'd have no problem finishing, just wondering what shape we both would be in when we did finish!
Pre-race, ready to go!What went right: The course was nice and flat, tail wind at our backs going out, also a great view of the Bay and the jets flying in. The field thinned quickly, not crowed after first 0.5 mile. Water stations were just about right and the weather was perfect for running, a little chilly when standing around, but perfect when running. We held ourselves back and ran a very consistent 8:20 for the first 10 miles. We saw my sister's husband and kids at the start and at the turnaround (it was an out and back.) It's always great to have enthusiastic supporters! I had a few gu's and they went down pretty well, my sister had a couple also. I felt a little tired a couple of times, but it was great to be running with someone at the same pace, to keep me motivated, thanks sis! At mile 10, I said 'let's go' and we sped up to sub 8:00 miles, pushing a little harder. It still felt smooth, no tibia pain, etc. We were now pushing into a headwind, but it wasn't too bad since we getting near the end of the race. We also starting passing a lot of folks since we pushing now for a good negative split. We tried to draft off some people into the headwind, but they went too slow. We picked up one shadow drafting off of us, but we laughed because we knew we would lose him in a few steps and we did.
At the last mile, I thought ok, let's drop the hammer and see what we can do, I told my sister to push it and take us in. She took off like a rocket, we were doing some good time and I started thinking, wow I might have to just tuck in behind her and try to hold pace! Right about then she said she might be going to fast to keep at that pace, I looked down at my watch and said yah, we're hitting sub 7:00 average lap pace now! She was looking at her own watch, but at the overall average pace for the race, of course that only had only dropped a few seconds and she was thinking, why am I only going a little faster! We had a laugh, then got back on it, slowing down a little but still hit that last mile in 7:10. Again it was fun passing the last few folks who were a bit wiped out as we cruised in pushing hard, running smooth.
We finished in 1:44:39, 7:59 min / mile. A good time (my PR is 1:42:31, so not too far off.)
Finish chuteAt the end my family and friends from SB and my sister's family were there to great us at the finish, which is always wonderful. Thanks to them all for enabling us to do this race together.
Finishing the race side to side with my sister was really cool, she nailed her first half, running well. We'll have to do it again perhaps pushing to better this PR we put up for her, or maybe a different distance...
Finishers!
Awesome Family and Friends!What went wrong: Not much! We took it a little easy and had fun pushing at the end, so we both didn't feel any real injuries. I had one twinge in my tibia towards the end, but it went away quickly. Overall very fun times, but I have to still watch my leg, it's not quite perfect yet, so I need to be careful about pushing pace / pounding too hard.
Course along the Bay (Bridge is 92)
Pace (last mile is ~7:10, forgot to stop the watch)