Motive Half Marathon, Austin, TX. Temp in high 40's or low 50's, great for running. We picked up Karen H. at 6:40 AM and went over to start the race. Our goal was to run a fun run as a weekend training run, targeting 8:30 to 9:00 pace. Our official chip time average pace was 8:36, so we were right on. Karen had just finished a great 1/2 Iron-Man race 2 weeks ago, so we didn't want to overdo it today. Karen's friend Casey ran with us for the first 5 miles or so as a bandit. Casey had run the 1/2 Iron-Man with Karen 2 weeks ago. Had fun telling her marathon stories. She wants to qualify for Boston and join Karen and me next April. We had a great race telling marathon stories, and half Iron-Man stories. Karen is real confident looking forward for her first full Iron-Man next June in Idaho. I wore the Garmin 305 toy and monitored our pace and my heart rate. We waited until basically all the runners had started the race, and then we started, figuring that anyone in front of us needed to be passed up, even though we were not really "racing" this race. This approach really made the race a lot of fun as we jabbered and ran very much in control for the first 8 miles, and then we started to pick up the pace for the last 5.1 miles. Paces and HR were: 1. 8:51; HR 146. 2. 8:17; HR 153. 3. 8:35; HR 150. 4. 8:33; HR 154. 5. 8:22; HR 151. 6. 9:11; HR 158. Into the hills. 7. 9:14; HR 153. Into the hills. 8. 8:30; HR 152. 9. 8:18; HR 154. 10. 8:33; HR 151. 11. 7:58; HR 154. 12. 8:05; HR 157. 13. 8:23; HR 157. 13.1 7:08; HR 160. This fun run gave Karen 30th place out of 128 in her age group. It gave me 15th place out of 39 in my age group. We didn't see Tam, but his finish pace was 8:01, so he had a great race. Also, we didn't see Daniel F., but he finished his first 1/2 marathon. Awesome for Daniel!! Joe had a great race averaging 8:13 pace, finishing 12th in our age group. Angel had a awesome race averaging a 7:19 pace. Donnie O'neal was out of this world, averaging a 6:29 pace. Donnie's wife, Jill, averaged a 7:19 pace, awesome race. Andy had a 8:05 pace, great race. Medication at 4mg Prednisone. |