Trailbreaker Half Marathon
every once in a great while, everything seems to fall into place and you feel as though you can run through a brick wall. from the moment i began my warm up around frame park, i knew i was “on” and ready to roll.
after listening to the National Anthem we were directed to line up at the start. i calmly took a spot in front and moments later we were sent on our way. after a solid first mile, the second mile was into a headwind. i tucked in behind another runner for as much of this section as possible to save some energy. the third mile wound through the western city limits and onto the friendly confines of the glacial drumlin trail.
heading outbound on the drumlin, i bumped my music player volume up a bit to minimize the sound of the wind. apparently, my tunes really annoyed a runner who was just ahead of me as he pulled to the side and asked me to pass him so he could concentrate. ok buddy, whatever. the drumlin slowly climbs in elevation over these four miles to the turn around point, which is just past the seven mile mark.
i quickly stepped my way around the 180 degree turn around and began to motor back up to race pace. a young kid who was handing out water darted out just in front of me. i was able to deftly dodge the youngster and narrowly avoided being tripped.
heading back eastbound is challenging to me during this race as there are many other competitors that you pass. it’s tough for me to remain focused on the task at hand and still be encouraging to folks who are giving it their all.
near the back of the race was a large group of charity runners who ran tethered together with the intent of getting a guinness world record. i did my best to applaud as i ran past as it looked like they were having a lot of fun together.
rolling back into town, i was beginning to slow. i knew i was on personal record pace so i focused on maintaining a quick leg turnover and remained mindful that the finish was approaching. within the last mile i was able to pick it up a little and made it to the line in an official time of 1:24:32, which crushes my personal best by two minutes and five seconds.
after removing my timing chip from my ankle and receiving my finishers medal, i briefly got to talk with my friend chris and then shuffled along onto my cool down run.
being three months away from my 41st birthday, i didn’t expect that i’d be setting personal records at this point in my life. comparing my splits to my other personal records, i would have had the opportunity to better my 15K and 10 mile personal records and would have crushed my 20K personal record.
simply stunning.
Splits
1 mile 6:29.5 2 mile 6:45.4 13:14.9 3 mile 6:32.3 19:47.2 4 mile 6:29.8 26:17.0 5 mile 6:19.1 32:36.1 6 mile 6:26.1 39:02.2 7 mile 6:36.3 45:38.5 8 mile 6:08.1 51:46.6 9 mile 6:17.4 58:04.0 10 mile 6:21.1 1:04:25.1 11 mile 6:26.9 1:10:52.0 12 mile 6:37.1 1:17:29.1 13 mile 6:28.9 1:23:58.0 13.1 mi 0:33.3 1:24:31.3
9th/588 Overall*
1st Masters (40-49) classification
* Claiming 9th versus 10th as cited in the race results. The woman cited as running a 1:17 half was likely from another trailbreaker race. I watched/counted the runners ahead of me as I approached the turnaround and they were all guys.