2012 Pittsburgh Half Marathon

I’m just going to start off and say now that this race didn’t go as planned.

Chris and I got up early this morning and his dad drove us to the starting line at 6:15am this morning. The race started at 7:30. It was a bit chilly (59 degrees) so I was thinking that the weather would be nice for running a half today!

The gun went off and there were 25,000 runners so we took our sweet time to get to the starting line!

Chris and I separated early since he had a goal too, which was to finish under 2 hours. My goal was to come in under 2:04.

The first few miles went by quick and I was feeling great! I hit the 10K mark right on schedule for a PR–with a 9:23 average pace.

It was after that things started to get worse! My pace dropped to 10:00/miles. There were hills. The sun was really bright and it felt about 80 degrees, when in reality it was only probably 70 something. I forgot my sunglasses, too so that was a little bit uncomfortable. I just felt so hot.

Miles 7-11 were pretty bad. I might even go as far and say they were some of the worst miles of my racing history. They were Boilermaker-esque bad (a few of you will understand this). I stopped at every water station for gatorade because I just felt so thirsty. I was pretty stumped because I felt like I had hydrated pretty well yesterday, but I just couldn’t get enough to drink. I tried to choke down a chocolate Gu at mile 8.5 but I could only eat half of it…for the first time in my life chocolate tasted disgusting.

Miles 11 -13 were pretty good, however…they were mostly downhill, which was nice. We got some really good views of the city, too. Overall, the race was very well organized. The spectators were GREAT. I just wish things had turned out a little bit better.

The last bridge (we crossed five)

I finished the race in 2:10:48–faster than last year, but six minutes away of my goal.

At least I got my Eat’n Park cookie

I feel like every race I go out to set a PR at, I end up starting well but burning out by the end. I find it hard to believe I’m starting too fast because my pace in the beginning felt really good and it was my target pace, and my base pace for all my training runs. I’m not sure what to do here.

This is my last half marathon for a while…I don’t have any plans for another until September, which by then I’ll be deep in marathon training, so my goals probably shouldn’t consist of setting half marathon PRs.

Anyway, Chris finished the race in under two hours–1:53, to be exact. What a rock star! I’m so proud of him! He did so amazing.

Well, I’m glad I got run a race with Chris. And there’s always next year, Pittsburgh.