Safety Harbor Half Marathon Race Report
Well, I'm going to keep this brief, as I am disappointed in the result.
Weather/Training/Course: Hilly course, but nothing that would deter a PR in my opinion. Weather was a bit uncooperative (70s, humidity over 80%, high dew point), but I expect that by now. I decided to shoot for sub 1:11 with a 5:24 pace (so 1:10:47), since my mileage and speed have been great. The only thing I've lacked was specificity for the half marathon and LT- man did that bite me in the behind. Specificity, specificity, specificity. I feel like if I say it enough times, I'll get the hint that I need to work on it.
The Race: I was all alone almost immediately in the race, which was too bad. I started relaxed, but was working way too hard by mile three- I just wasn't smooth. I didn't think that was a good read and assumed that I was just psyching myself out of it, but the wheels started coming off, and I was 13 seconds off by the 10k marker and falling and had only done one of the three main hills. I was dejected at that point and clicked into cruise control in the right lane so to speak, my pacing rose to 5:58/mile for miles 10-12. Mile 13 was okay (5:27), but that was only when I realized I was in danger of not even breaking 1:14.
Fortunately, I rolled into the finish in 1:13:46 under that mark- however I will still have to grade this effort as a big, scarlet "F", having missed all four goals. I appreciate the win in the race, but that is simply dependent on who shows up. I do find some semblance of hope in that the second place guy was about 6 minutes behind me in 1:19, so maybe I lacked a bit of motivation later in the race because of that.
As Drew would say, just send this one into the wood-chipper and move on. I can buy into that.
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