Summer Meltdown 1/2 Marathon

 


I ran a half-marathon August 9 morning. It is called the Summer Meltdown Half. I wasn't expecting much as my legs are still a bit sore/tired from that little 500k LAVS I did. But, have to keep training for Berlin Marathon next month.
The day didn't start off great - my alarms (I set two) didn't go off! I gave myself plenty of time, but I happened to roll over and see that race start was in 65 minutes and I had easily a 45 minute drive....YIKES! I jumped out of bed, grabbed my running clothes I had set out last night, brushed my teeth, and hit the door (leaving my running watch behind).
I flew down the roads in my car (when I could...seemed to hit almost every redlight between my house and the highway). Once on the highway, that 65 mph looked like "85" to me officer (and even then I went a bit faster at times). I saw a car pass me on my left and felt good as that driver would get the ticket.....15 minutes later that car and I entered the race start parking together (guess someone else was late). Anyway, I parked and checked in really quick. I had a whole 10 minutes to the gun (thanks to a kids' 1 mile run starting first). Then, we were off.
The course was the same course I had run before (mostly) for the Outlast 6x5k run. By mile 3 my legs were already telling me that this wouldn't be a record day (who knew 314 miles could tire out your legs)....and I didn't know my pace because of no watch.
The course was basically a 5k out and then back....twice. It started to warm up (90+) and I was dumping some water on my head. By the half-marathon turn-around (6-ish miles) my legs were not happy. I had counted runners heading back my way and thought I was around tenth or twelfth which surprised me....figured my count was off. I thought I was probably looking at a 2:07-2:10 finish time, but, again, I was more interested in getting some training miles in for Berlin.
As I came back towards the finish line, I saw the clock....1:58:55! Wow! I picked up for a "sprint" the last few feet and finished with a gun time of 1:59:11 and a chip time of 1:59:03. I was shocked I broke 2 hours with my legs. Turns out, that was good enough for first in my age group and 13th overall (results show 123 finishers).
The race director is Bigfoot Running Company so my AG award was a gold Sasquatch pin. Overall, I was pleased with my morning....despite my alarm (think when I program my iPhone for my weekday alarms but not weekend, even if I enter an alarm for a weekend morning, the alarm app ignores it....lesson learned). It was a very good event - well done.



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