Snowman - Post race
If I had a t-shirt slogan it would be:
didn't go as well as I wanted, went as bad as I expected
We arrived in South Denver aka Littleton, on a freezing cold morning with a brisk wind. Apparently we were to be "grateful" that it hadn't snowed overnight. To be honest, I actual was although I'd bought a pair of those cramp-on things that you attach to the bottom of your shoes, but deliberately left them in the car. (never try something new on race day!)
I got in a reasonable warm-up, and then it was line-up time. It was a reasonably small field for a half-marathon in a major city. I know because I finished in the top-100 Men, and was DFL, 94th.
I joined the back of the line-up in my new, post-heart-attack mode, dead last. Two reasons, 1. It would mean I'd likely pace myself better. 2. I'd be able to pass some people without being passed my and endless supply of runners, who were either going out too fast, or where just better than me :)
There was really one section of the course that had any snow or ice, a downhill in the first mile. After that the miles just ticked by on a concrete path next to the river.
It took me a disappointing 1:08:36 to get the first 10k done, that was 6-seconds faster than it had taken me to do the 10k at the same course back in December.
I pretty much kept and even pace until the turnaround at just past the 6-mile mark. I'm pretty sure this was the first half marathon I'd run in that never had a single bathroom/porta-potty on the course, so it was good it was a small field. I ran past the turnaround by about 75ft and stopped for a "personal break".
Back on pace, I lasted for another couple of miles before starting the run/walk thing; by mile-10 I was texting Kate to let her know I was walking, looked up and there was Kate come to meet me.
At this point I knew from the turnaround I was 22nd from last. By the time I finished, just under the 3-hour mark at 2:58:48, by my calculation I was 12th from last. Sadly it appears, those 12 either dropped out, or in my delusion, passed me. Because, yes, I was DFL for the whole race. A dubious achievement I'd never experienced before.
So thats that. I'm ok with this, given it's the longest run I've done since the Kerrville half distance Tri back in September 2014, I did the half at the end of that in 3:04:59. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then.
Next up: Dunno?