It had been less than 24 hours since getting back from our trip to San Francisco. I hadn't run much in the last two weeks and the lingering soreness in my right calf reminded me that I was still recovering from the Houston marathon. I was determined to take what the day gave me and despite the slightly warmer weather and I walked away with a new half marathon PR.
It's a small enough race where I didn't have to deal with much congestion at the start. I was at race pace immediately, posting sub-8 splits for the first 4 miles. I had a few miles in the middle in the low 8s before picking back up for a strong negative split. I felt strong throughout and wanted to leave enough in the tank to push hard to the finish. With 2 miles left to go, I decided it was time to drop the hammer and go for it. I finished 7th in my age group with a time of 1:43:59, almost 3 minutes faster than my previous best a couple of years ago.
It's not all about the time, but it sure is nice to celebrate a little milestone. It's like having icing on an already delicious cake.
