Austin Motorola Half Marathon RR - 2/15/04

Quick Recap:
1:52:27.6 - Chip Time (PR by about 7 minutes)
1:52:41.0 - Clock time
8:35/M - Overall pace
4th Athena (~42/293 in Age Group)
Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TriFilly/AustinHalfMarathon04/photo#s5114339144416283538

Longer Version:
Background: As you may recall, after running Marine Corp & White Rock Marathons late last year I had some ankle issues. Despite an MRI & Bone Scan, still have no definitive answer as to what the issues were and whether is was a stress fracture or not. So... in the words of my Coach "if they can't find it - it isn't there" Debi, I decide to get back to running. Since Jan. 1, I've had 5 long runs - 3 x 9.5 miles , 1 x 10.5 miles & 1 x 11.5 miles. Not exactly great preparation for a half marathon.

As you may have read from Todd's RR, we spent the weekend at my parent's house - about 25 miles north of Austin. BEST SHERPAS EVER!!!

RACE DAY: Perfect day, sunny, 40 & no wind. Todd and I usually run/race together, but as of late, he's been in his own little world & when he went to check the timing mats at the start and never returned - that was an indicator that we would NOT be racing together today. As stated above, I hadn't been training nearly as hard for this race as he had - so this was no big surprise....

Gun goes off & I'm across the line about 13 seconds after. First couple miles I keep Todd about 50 yards in front of me & all were a quite a bit faster than I thought he was planning on, but I was just kinda holding on as I didn't have any real race plan - other than to PR. I did have a 1:50 pace bracelet, but did not look at it the entire race. Ended up just racing off of feel the entire way. I saw one other friend (Staci) at about mile 2 and she zipped on past me. Was a little disappointed I didn't see anyone else I knew during the race:( Although I had some technical difficulties w. my MP3 player at mile 1, it was a great racing buddy - B'52s, Dave Mathews, Bare Naked Ladies!

Todd started to pull away about mile 5 or so, when the gap between got wider. Saw my parents on the course about mile 8 & that was a great little boost (they ROCK). The hills at mile 9 & 11 kinda did a number on my ankle and from about 9 on, I had to stop at each water stop for an ankle stretch/rotation - but that worked well, got rid of the pain & allowed me to continue. Thought I saw Todd at mile 11 and thought to myself, Todd - don't fade now - you're almost there & you've worked hard for this PR, but I must've been hallucinating because when we finished he was 5 minutes ahead of me & our splits would not have put me anywhere near him at mile 11.

Felt like I ran out of gas after the hill at 11 and just wanted to get it in. Ankle hurt, but not massively.

Glad it's over, great race & met my goal of getting a PR. Thanks for reading,
Katie

Mile Splits (guess I neglected to hit my lap button for every one - oops):
1-2: 15:57
3: 8:31
4: 8:15
5: 8:36
6: 8:57
7: 8:56
8: 8:49
9-10: 17:51
11-12: 17:22
13: 8:45
13.1 0:43