Cowtown lbrr

Well, it was 2 weeks ago now that I woke up at 4:45 to ride up to Sacramento with my friend Seychelle to run the Cowtown Half Marathon. It was still dark and chilly when we arrived at William Land Park at 6:30, and we found parking on the residential streets and jogged to the start. Within about 10 minutes, I was numbered, shirted, and Port-a-pottied and trying to figure out what to do with the next 50 minutes until start time. We walked around the starting area for a while, then jogged about a mile to warm up.

About 3500 of us lined up at the start, mostly half marathon runners with a few hundred marathoners - double loopers - mixed in. I did a few strides in front of the starting line and then found a spot between the 6 and 7 minute pace signs. I had the idea that I would try to start with a 6:50 pace and try to pick it up in the last few miles if I could, but I was really just curious to see how things would turn out. September's training had been a wash instead of my peak mileage month, and although I was certainly well-rested, I had probably lost some of the benefits of my summer training.

At the gun, we started through the park and into the residential neighborhoods around it. I settled in with a few other guys and chatted a bit up to the first mile marker (7:02) and then picked up my pace a little. Mile 2, still residential, went a little faster (6:54) and mile 3 in 6:49. A pit stop at one of the many port-a-potties on the course meant that I fell behind the 3:10 marathon pace group, and I surged a bit to work my way out of the crowd - mile 4 went down in 7:15.

The rest of the story is pretty much told by my remaining splits:
6:57-6:49-13:51 (2 miles)-6:56-6:54-7:06-7:04-7:42 (1.1 miles)

I finished in 1:31:24, an historically middling result for me, and averaged 6:59 pace. My race was hardly metronomic, but still pretty consistent overall. There was no crash at the end, but at the same time even at mile 1 it was as if my body knew better than my mind exactly how far we were going, and exactly how fast we could get there. I really did feel like I was kicking in the last mile, and did pass a couple of guys, but it still came in at 7:00 pace.

I missed Seychelle's finish as I was getting a massage, but found her right away and hit the grass to stretch. Afterwards, we stopped at Pancake Circus for breakfast - think Waffle House, but with crazy circus paintings on the walls and much better food. I had buckwheat pancakes with country potatoes, and Seychelle had a plate of whipped cream with maybe a waffle or something under it.