I guess we skipped last week, so I'll bite for this week.

Today I did a local half marathon, good timing and I have done it since 2006. The local trails people are involved and as a patron of the trail for many reasons, I like to vote with my dollars.

So, I rode for about 4:15 yesterday, and will ride again today, and swim today and/or tomorrow. It's not exactly like I just trained for a half marathon, and with that I know that it may not be my best performance. I go into it with those expectations - it just falls in my calendar where 13 miles of good effort works, and it's not a hard race. I was hoping to get close to 2 hours. I missed hitting my watch at the finish (they were trying to hand me medals, I was trying to stop my watch, hit the wrong button entirely - next time just hit the lap button and figure it out later), but when I did finally hit it, it came up 1:56. Serious! I'm waiting for the "official" times.

I did have some heed toward the first couple of miles, and a gel around mile 8 or 9, then a couple of cups of water, but that was it. I ate beforehand like normal (luna bar and a banana). Somehow I ALWAYS arrive late to this race. No matter how well I try to plan ahead, I'm always late. It's my curse. Hooray for timing chips.

Mile 1: 8:46 min/mile
Mile 2: 8:46
Mile 3: 8:58
Mile 4: 9:05
Mile 5: 8:52
Mile 6: 8:53
Mile 7: 8:49
Mile 8: 8:49
Mile 9: 8:37
Mile 10: 9:02
Mile 11: 8:35
Mile 12: 8:48
Mile 13.1: 10:30 total (9:30 min/mile... based on my HRM which I admittedly didn't hit in time, so this could be another 20+ seconds off)

Historical results... though they've changed this course several times, 2009 and 2010 were almost identical, 2008 was similar, but 2007 and 2006 were quite different:

2009: 2:16:08 (10:23)
2008: 2:10:38 (9:58)
2007: 2:21:09 (10:58)
2006: 2:26:39 (11:11)

Best of all, the marathon winner didn't beat me to the finish line for once.

Happy running!