I did it! I totally smashed my PR from last year's Detroit Free Press Half Marathon. I ran a 2:03:14 Sunday. My goal was to improve my time by 15 minutes to a half hour. I didn't know I would beat my old PR by 44 minutes.
I trusted my training and knew I would do well. The weather was perfect and my legs felt great. For the first six miles, it felt like I was passing everyone. I was still running really fast to make up for lost time leading up to and on the Ambassador Bridge. The road leading up to the bridge got backed up. We came to a standstill three times. I was very mad. I'm sure most of the other runners and walkers were too. On the bridge, we only had one lane to run in. Can you image 20,000 runners/walking all sharing one lane? It was awful. I just kept thinking to myself, "Once I get off the bridge I can make up some time." I did my best to make up time. I was doing well until I hit the incline coming out of the underwater mile. My quads were dying from the incline. I still did well. I think I made it out of the tunnel in 9 minutes. It took me about 1/2 mile to get back into a nice running rhythm.
With less then a 5K to go, I picked up my speed. I gave all that I had and finished just over two hours. What I ran this year is an incredible time, but I was thinking what could have been. If we didn't have to stop so many times on the bridge, would I have gotten under two hours? Who knows. That gives me motivation for my next half marathon. I'm going to be training hard during the fall and winter to reach that goal. I hope on April 17, 2011, I will reach my goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment