Montour Trail Half Marathon

On Friday I spent the evening trying to crack my right ankle to get it back into it's proper place, after a decent number of cracks along with some cracking of my right knee I went to bed. At 5:45am Ryan and I woke up and drove to the southwest of Pittsburgh to participate in the Montour Trail Half Marathon - a course along a reclaimed rail line, part of the Rails-to-Trails program.

The whole way we both wanted to go home, but since that would have been the easy way out and since if I was going to quit I should have decided that earlier in the week  we sucked it up and ran it.

The first mile was all down hill allowing me to do a 9:22 mile pace. Ryan and I ran together for the first five minutes or so and then he went on ahead. I kept at 9:30 pace through the first miles, getting happier and happier with that as I crossed thru mile 4 then mile 5 and then mile 6. The course is an out and back course that goes out to mile 7 then has the finish line at the bottom of the hill so you don't have to go uphill at the end. The rest of the course is nice and flat but with small cinders/dirt most of the way with a few places of asphalt when you cross over roads or bridges. The surrounding nature was gorgeous; it was a nice serene run once the pack thinned out. 

The whole way I felt pretty good and concentrated on "Keep the pace nice and slow, this feels good, don't go any faster. Oh you're speeding up, slow it down, no need to rush. Just go steady and comfortable." And so on I went and kept my 9:30 pace the whole way. Finally at mile 10 I was still feeling really good and so I thought "It's just 3 more miles, you can pick it up a little." and so I did. And then at mile 10.5 my right calf was like "Woah. Woah. Woah. What's going on here? You are running?! Aahhh! I am not ready for this." and I immediately learned my calves had no prior knowledge I had been running. So I slowed it back down a little bit and my calf stopped complaining. Then at mile 11 I picked it up again and then I finally felt my heart beating like I was working hard, it was then I discovered my heart and lungs were happy at my previous pace. But this time I told myself to suck it up since I didn't have much left to do. And then a short time later I got into that groove and was good to keep going on and on. The final 2 miles felt so long but I was good to push it out, and I even started cheering my other runners long.

I completed it in 2:05:15 - a new personal record!! With 1.5 miles left I had the thought that I felt really good and could possibly complete it in 2 hours or less but unfortunately I was 1:53 in and I can't run 1.5 miles in 7 minutes. So It was sad to realize that too late but I still felt good about the run and my time!

From the Results page of the Half Marathon Website: 
Overall Place: 473
Class Place: 32
Clock Time: 2:05:55
Chip Time:  2:05:15
Pace: 9:34

There were 80 finishers in my Class of Women 25-29. There were 825 Finishers: 417 male, 408 female. I feel really good about where I finished.


Ryan had actually fallen behind me since he is sick and took some walking breaks, so after I finished I waited out on the course and cheered him in. He finished in 2:12:39 (10:08) pace - a good time in general but something he was disappointed in.

Then we walked .2 to the bus and got shuttled back up the hill. With all the extra walking around I did at least .4 more.

New Miles: 15.1 + .4 = 13.5
Total Miles: 428.25
Miles Remaining: 1071.75
Weight: 137.2