One week to go

It’s hard to believe that one week from now my big race will be over and I’ll be back home, doing something mundane like laundry or vacuuming. One week!

Friday I ran up cemetery hill. The last little part to the big mausoleum at the top is always the hardest, but I did it. Then going back down the hill is the second hardest part, but I did that too. May pace for the entire 4.46 mile run was 9:03. That’s pretty good considering I slow way down on hills.

Saturday was a beautiful day. Spring at last? Actually, it feels more like summer. I picked a three mile section of the half marathon to run and added this one hill which used to be really hard for me. It’s probably been four or five months since I’ve run Crestmont hill. My pace alert (10:03) went off just before I crested the hill, but that was it. That hill used to be much steeper. As I was finishing up the run, I decided to run the other side of Crestmont hill which isn’t as steep, but is much longer. Still not so bad. Have I really improved that much? I used to dread that hill. My pace for this 4.08 mile run was 9:00 exactly. Way to go me!

My first goal for the half marathon is to finish. This is my first half marathon and I am both scared and excited. I know I can run the distance, but it will be entirely different doing it with 1,499 other runners. I have never run with this many people before. My second goal is to run it in under two hours. To do this I have to run the entire course with a pace of 9:09 or better. I know I will run the first three miles kind of fast. And I know there is one section I will run kind of slow because it’s long and uphill and my mind will start to wander. Lately I’ve been running under 9:09 without really trying. I’ve been running for over a year now and I guess I’m finally a runner. A nice reward for a lot of hard work.

This is taper down week so I won’t be running anything over six miles, but it’s supposed to be really nice outside so I’ll definitely be running every chance I get.

Stats:

4.46 miles, 40:21 minutes, 9:03 pace (very steep hill run)

4.08 miles, 36:45 minutes, 9:00 pace (training run)