Carlsbad Half Marathon - A PR? No Way

For the 2nd Year in a row, the Carlsbad Half Marathon has been my first race of the year. It's a great race to get geared up for the rest of the season. For the second year in a row, the weather has been PERFECT! Mid- 50s and sunny at race start, low 60s by race finish. Plus, the run is almost entirely along the coast, so the views can't be beat.

Pat and I have been doing our long runs together for the past couple months....usually at Penasquitos Canyon if he has his say. Since my return to running after my foot sprain last fall, my run has really felt terrible. My foot (at least where the sprain was) feels fine, but my arches have hurt, my heals have hurt, my shins have hurt, and I've generally just felt much slower. I think it may be a shoe problem. I would mention that my run "sucked" to Pat on almost all of our runs, but he assured me that I'd still do great in the race. I wasn't so sure....

Race day came, and Pat was right. I did much better than I thought I could. I started off with the 1:50 pace group, but felt really good at the beginning, so I left them around Mile 1.5. With my new Garmin, I could see exactly what pace I was running at all times. Mind over matter, I decided to try run a sub-8:00 pace on the flats. I did pretty well, although had a hard time keeping this up the last 3 miles. By mile 10, I knew I'd be cutting it close if I wanted to PR. So I just pushed as hard as I could.

I came in at 1:47:25, beating my PR by 39 seconds!

Here are the stats....

Total time: 1:47:25

Pace: 8:12

Place: 48/726 (W25-29), 947/6343 (Overall)

Negative Splits!!! Pace after 6.6 miles = 8:18, Final Pace = 8:12....WooHoo!

Recovery consisted of a little bar time with TCSD (and unfortunately watching the Chargers and Packers both lose). Luckily, Scott Richardson was there with his massage table for a little 3rd quarter rejuvination of the legs :)