This was my second race after completing the Twin Cities Marathon last October. I was dealing with a cold but it didn't bother me much. I finished the race in 1:48:41 - good for 533 place overall among 1,773 finishers of all ages. I had hoped to run in the 1:55-1:58 range so I was pleased and a little surprised by my time.
The thing that pleased me the most was that I was able to push my pace throughout the race. I ran the first 3 miles in a mid 8:30/mile pace, the mid-race miles in the 8:15 range, and my final 4 miles in 7:45 with my best mile - mile 13 in 7:31. If I maintained my half marathon pace for a full marathon, my time would be just 2 minutes short of my age group Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:35:59. Trouble is, I could not maintain that pace today. But I have 4 years to try. Plus, when I move to the 55-60 age group, I buy an additional 5 minutes of qualifying time to play with.Anyway, next stop on the race trail is Fargo on May 17th and the Fargo Marathon. My goal is to break 4 hours. I ran 4:37 at the Twin Cities last October so I think this is very achievable if the weather cooperates. Although tired, I felt strong throughout the race today. The 600 training miles I logged over the winter are definitely paying off. Next Saturday is my final long training run of 18 miles, followed by 3 weeks of tapering and hopefully fresh legs for the marathon.
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=7503&relist_record_type=result&lower_bound=0&upper_bound=1774&use_previous_sql=1&group_by=default#racetop
