Mohawk Hudson River Half Marathon 2013

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a race. The weather was perfect and I got to sleep in my own bed the night before. Pretty nice. I haven’t ran a big local race in awhile so it was fun to do it again

Chris dropped me off at the start at a little before 8 am and then we said goodbye. He had to go to the airport to fly out for a job interview…good luck Chris!!

Anyway, after chatting for a bit with Keri, one of my fellow Ragnar turtles, we were off.

We both were representing Ragnar!

I started running at a pretty easy pace since the beginning of this race starts on a bike path that is pretty narrow and there are a lot of people. My knee felt good and so did I and I eventually got into a 9:15-9:30 pace that felt easy. That’s good! My knee felt weird from miles 2-4 but thankfully the twinges didn’t last and it felt fine the remainder of the race.

I passed a bunch of people on the bike path and then we headed down into town and picked up speed on a downhill before turning on route 32 in watervliet. This is the worst part of the race. Miles 4-7 are flat but long as you run down the side of the street that isn’t blocked off to traffic. There also aren’t any water stops. I passed the first two because I didn’t need them and got some at the third but at this point I was getting thirsty and wanted some water.

Finally we were off the road and back onto the bike path. The home stretch!! With five miles left I knew I was on target and I could see the PR.

Then I hit mile 10 and the wall. In all the races I’ve done I have never hit the wall quite like this. I’ve had bad races that felt crappy throughout but never felt so good and then so bad in an instant. I blame the lack of water. I stopped at the next water stop on the bike path for some GU and the cup was hardly filled with water so I know I didn’t get enough. But on I went and struggled through the final 3 miles of the race.

My pace dropped to about 10:30s but luckily my faster miles in the beginning made up for it. We got off the bike path and I powered through to the finish. I just wanted to be done!

Final time 2:11:54

Distance 13.23 miles

Average pace 9:58 per mile

Not my best but not my worst. But I guess I expected better for this course. If I just has drank more water then maybe I wouldn’t have lost it so close to the end?

My parents were at the finish line at it was so good to see them! I was thankful it was done and could relax for the rest of the day!

Half marathon #10 is in the books!! Until 2014…