A great run - Brooksie Way Half Marathon practice

I had a great run this morning at the Brooksie Way Half Marathon Practice Run. This was an "official" practice run with about 500 people showing up to run the entire course. I ran the whole thing (and then some - my watch showed almost 13.5 miles) and did so faster than I thought I would.

The vaunted Brooksie Way hills are very real, but not as bad as I had feared. The first half of the course is mostly downhill or level. Miles 7 to 10 starting at Tienken Road were tough and did much to effect my legs. This is were I slowed down a bit, but was able to work through it.

The only downside of the run is that in two weeks, during the actual race, I need to beat it. I was actually about 10 - 15 minutes faster today than I thought I would be, but I wasn't pushing too hard. I ran my race and ran my pace. In fact, I had a stupid mantra pop up in my head while I was running: "Run your pace and run your race and 'til mile 12 you do not chase". (Thanks Dr. Seuss) Basically, I was trying to worry about myself and not worry about expending extra energy and chasing someone down at mile 5 when there is a long way to go.

When I did reach mile 12, I still decided not to chase and finished steady. I had a good kick left in me but elected not to use it. I proved my point that I could do the distance (this was my longest run ever) and this was training, not a race. I didn't want to wreck a great run by pushing too hard when I was tired and hurt myself. No holding back at the race.

I am beat but excited. Part of me wants to go out and run some more, but that is not a good idea at all. I will do a recovery run on Monday, something during the week and a good 8 - 10 next Saturday if all goes as planned.

Thanks to Erin who I met during the run. I kept up with her through the better part of 10 miles and she was very nice and encouraging. Also green shirt lady, blue shirt hat man and zebra skirt lady helped with their steady pace. :) The apples and cookies at the end of the run were great. The apples were the best tasting apples ever (they were actually good, but part of it was because I was super hungry) and I ate them like a Tex Winter cartoon character eats corn on the cob.