Gobbler Grind 1/2 Marathon

Gobbler Grind 1/2 today!

Couldn't have asked for better weather today, 60 degrees! I instantly regretted my clothing choice - I was hot by mile 1.

Ran w/ Russ, Scott & Jaime from Thunder Road Racing today & that was fun. :)

We all ran together for the first few miles, Jaime went on her own to finish up her 5K & the guys & I pressed on. We had a pace plan & a 2:20 goal...but apparently none of us can add b/c @ mile 8 we thought we were 10 minutes behind our goal. I think we should all buy each other Garmins for Christmas or go back to gradeschool for math.

I think my words were "Well, f-ing A, we gotta GO!" LoL So we did. :) We split at this point & Scott went some place outside of body & blew the 2:20 goal away w/ a 2:07!

I was feeling really good at mile 9 & decided to take advantage of the long downhill to catch up on the mystery minutes we were behind - mile 9 for me was an 8:30 pace! Yeah, I've never done that before. Awesome.

But...I would regret that around mile 11 when I felt like I could walk it in. I was tired, & needed to GU at mile 9 - I didn't - so I guess I got what I deserved there. Finished up with a 2:23 w/ Russ right on my tail.

I ran this race last year in 2:14 - so I'm no where near where I was last year. But I'm super proud of today, I gave it all I had. 7 minutes faster than the 1/2 I ran a few weeks ago, so I'll take it!

A sad site today - Around mile 10-11 I came around the corner to see an ambulance & a crowd of people - I looked to see a man on the ground. They were doing chest compressions & he was looking really bad. Really scary. I don't think I will ever forget seeing this happening. I have no idea what happened to that runner, but I'm thinking of him & hoping he went home today. Sure puts the pace I didn't make into perspective huh?