Georgetown - Idaho Springs Half Marathon

Ran the Georgetown-Idaho Springs half marathon today. It was a nice day for it. As usual it was cold at the start of the race (in the 50's) because the sun had not peaked out onto the start yet. But it warmed up quick and was sunny on the course. Not as hot as in previous years though. There was even a cool breeze running into Idaho Springs the last mile (with is in the sun).

Went with Jill and her client Ann, who is training for a September Utah Marathon. We got there early and parked and I did a race day registration, which was faster than the packet pick up line. We got on the bus and got there early, it was cold at the lake.

My hip was tight and I wasn't sure I really wanted to race. Jill's Garmin was dead (I had charged it for her), so she was watchless. I charged it for her the night before, but it was dead at the race start. I felt bad so I offered her my watch and was going to just run it for a training run. She declined the offer and tried to use her ipod timer.

So the race started at 8 and I started off easy, hoping my hip would relax and I could into a 7 minute pace. I started off at about 8 minute miles, then sped up some at the first turn to about 7:30. The altitude there gets you as you run the first 2 miles in Georgetown. I never did get into a race mentality, just held the 7:30 pace and tried to relax. I held a pretty steady 7:30 pace all the way through looking back at my Garmin. The mile marks were off, so it looked like I was up and down based on my mile splits.

About 10 miles in, I started having some real pain in my hip, but I held the pace through to the end. There was a lady about my age, we were running together most of the 2nd half, passing each other back and forth. I passed her in the last half mile and finished just ahead of her. After the race she came up to me and said thanks for the "great job pacing".

So I did 1:39:05. A 7:31 pace. A terrible "race time". But I think of it more as a training run for my Marathon. I haven't run a half marathon that slow in a long time (probably since I started running with the downtown group on a regular basis).

Jill did well, 1:44, and got 4th in her age group. Ann accomplished her goal of under 2 hours. We hung out at football field till the awards, so Jill could see how she placed, not having a watch she wasn't sure of her time.

I don't feel really bad about my peformance since I didn't push it, not sure why I didn't unless it was the fear of injury hurting my relay and Marathon chances. So I paid $55 for a nice training run in the mountains. I didn't have any blisters and my quads were not sore the next day.

Garmin Data from Georgetown Idaho Springs