My 3rd HALF MARATHON...BASS PRO RUN

Well, on Sunday, November 4th, I ran my third half marathon!  It was the Bass Pro Marathon Weekend.  It was a record event with over 3500 runners...1668 for the half marathon alone.  Here's the breakdown;

My bib # 2566
Age: 42
Overall Place 253 out of 1668
Division Place: 14 out of 151
Gender Place: 74 out of 914
Time: 1:50:52
Pace: 8:28
5 5msplit: 44:34

I made my way pretty close to the front of the pack as possible before the start of the race.  When I looked behind me it looked like a sea of people....crazy!  They said a prayer, made a few announcements and welcomed the racers who were scheduled to run the New York Marathon, but due to "Sandy" those runners were not able to compete.  So, they then did the 10 second countdown.  I got my mapmyrun ready and started my music.  The big "boom" went off and off we went!

MILE 1
I started running and by mile 1 had run a 6 something mile pace.  That was too fast!  I tried to slow up a tad, but could see a girl I knew from my town and tried keeping her in my site. 

MILE 2
By mile two my average pace was 14 something.  I was happy and couldn believe I ran another 7 something pace.

MILE 3 (RECORD 3 MILE TIME)
By mile 3 my garmin (mapmyrun) said I had run 21:50.  I was sooo happy!  That was a new record for me.  My best open 5K time was 24:38. 

MILE 5
By mile 5 there was a guy holding a sign that read something like Mile 5, Give me  High-Five!  Once again I was still going fast, but it didn't feel like I was going THAT fast so I kept at that pace and so for several more miles I would run under 8 min. mile pace until maybe 7 miles or so and then it was just barely over 8 min. mile pace.  My best half time before this race was 1:53:09 and I knew I wanted to beat that and knew I was doing good.

MILE 8
Right before mile 8 we came to a major intersection and the traffic officer stopped us to let the traffic go.  I thought, "Really?"  So, I started running in place and I can hear the crowd of runners catching up to me, UGH!  Anyways, finally, we were able to go!  It felt like forever.  Anyways, we resumed and I got passed by a bunch of people, but I picked it back up and continued to run hard.  My glutes were hurting and I could feel the pavement and thinking to myself, 'I am going to have blisters!"  I hadn't felt the pain in my glutes before from the other halfs I ran before, but running 7:30/7:40 pace for awhile, I should have been sore, lol!

Along the way people had wrote messages in chalk for their friends/family on the pavement we were running on.  I'm sure "Collin" enjoyed seeing that:)  The crowd was amazing though.  There were little kids holding their hands out for a slap on the hand.  I ran further to my left to where they were to give them a high five.

THE FINAL 5.1 MILES
I'm feeling happy that more than half the race was over.  My calves were sore and my glutes still sore, but kept right along.

We ran through a tunnel.  That was new for me.  I thought maybe a bunch of people would scream and act silly, but they didn't.  It was just a short tunnel.

Mile 12
I don't know why by this point it seems so long to get to the finish line.  I really wish I would have picked it up, but knew i was still moving faster than the last half's I did.  Not sure which mile I was at for sure, but I remember hearing my garmin said that I was at 1:44-something.  I wanted to do a sub 1:50 but my legs were going a little slower and I was thinking I'm ready to get this over with.  We were running through this neighborhood and I remember seeing the finish line on the main road.  I was just thinking I'm ready to get on the main road already.  next thing I knew, we were coming around from behind this shopping center and I knew the main road was on the other side somewhere and I could see the large balloons in the air so i started to pick it up and then I saw the main road and just started pumping my arms.  I could see the clock and it ready 1:50 with about less than a 100 yards or so to the finish.  I did it!  Got a PR!  I got the 1:50:52 beating my last time race time of 1:53:09.

For the first time, I didn't place in the top three of my age group, but it's okay, I got my PR!

Two days later I am VERY sore!  What's next...THE TURKEY TROT on Thanksgiving morning (5K run).