Training in Montana

This was the 1/2 marathon for the Big Sky State Games, an event held every year in Billings. First, hats off to the race director. The RRCA-sanctioned course changed 2 weeks ago due to an oil spill next to the road the course normally runs on. Even with that this course was exactly 13.10 on my garmin and the race started at 7:00:01 (I was apparently a second late pushing the button). Water and Powerade at each aide station and great security volunteers stopping traffic for this small crowd of about 80 runners. Chip timer ended the race. 62 degrees at the start, not sure what it was when I crossed.

My goal for the race was an 8:00 mile. The course starts off flat for the first 2 miles so I just tried to get into an 8:00 pace, which was tough to do. I haven't done many pace races at that speed as my marathon pace goal is 8:15. Anyhow, thanks be to Garmin. I kept on track. Elevation hit from 2.5 to 6 and then some so I tried to keep a good pace on the ups. It wasn't a strong field but I managed to gain good ground on most of the uphill parts. My HR was up there for most of the uphills, about 171 when pushing it and I struggled to get good breaths but the ups weren't long so that worked. I started off near a runner I know and she's a 3:40 marathoner. I stayed behind her until mile 4 then passed her and kept in front of her the rest of the way. I was going back and forth with a few other runners as we were all about the same speed. One lady in pink was walking about every 10th minute but would then pass me after getting up to speed. I was holding pretty steady but thought I was 10-15 seconds off my pace as I didn't do a pace card - that's probably a good idea for the marathon. After the turnaround it was upill for a good stretch then a nice downhill. I ran down in the low 7s so that helped. A slight uphill followed, then the last decent downhill and I again made up time and passed some people. Of the 3 final water stations I drank one cup water and threw the other cup over my head. Felt great. I took some PowerBar gummies about mile 4 then slammed a gel about mile 8. I drank at every station except the last one and I felt good about my hydration and food. The final water station I drank at was about 3.5 miles so after that I tried to turn on the juice. Ended up in the 7s but I was hoping for 7:30s the last few miles. Wasn't able to do that on the relatively flat last few. With 2 to go I passed a couple people that I'd been looking at the entire race. They were on my tail but they must have drank at the last water station while I only took water and threw it on me and kept going. Thanks to the blog I remembered that water with 1 mile to go doesn't do anything. I powered through going as quick as I could and when I hit the 13 mile mark my watch was 1:44:30. Crap! I was hoping for a sub 1:45 finish. I just didn't have a kick in me today though. I went faster but only managed a 7:12 pace for the last .1 when I needed a 6:57 pace. Oh well. I felt like I did the best that I could and was very happy with the results of my first half marathon. I got a negative split of about 1 1/2 minutes. And, as there were only 3 people in my age division I placed and got a really nice medal from the State Games! I wore it around most of the day....

AP: 8:02, splits 7:57, 8:03, 8:06, 8:24, 8:16, 8:19, 7:54, 8:10, 8:13, 7:43, 7:56, 7:50, 7:41, 7:12 (last .1). Avg HR 164, Max HR 178. Can't believe I sustained that high of a HR for 1:45.

Garmin stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99634573