Sunday, February 10, 2008

Inland Empire Half Marathon -- 1:26:53


I ran this half-marathon this morning in Ontario, CA. The course was laid out in the industrial urban environment. There were some nice views of Mt. Baldy and the nearby snow-capped mountains, but mostly, the scenery wasn't very inspiring and there were almost no spectators. The course was on a closed road with lots of police helping to keep traffic off and there were lots of volunteers and overall the race was well-organized.

How did I do? I didn't feel real strong and felt like I struggled the second half. At least I was slowly catching people and passing them, rather than the reverse, so I guess that was a good sign that I didn't run the first half too fast. My time was 1:26:53 (6:38 per mile pace). That's almost two minutes slower than a half-marathon I ran last September. What happened? I've missed a lot of training runs since the marathon last December and there was a noticeable elevation drop and gain with this race, so those are my excuses! I'll hope to do better in the fall again. The results are in: I came in 13th out of 536 runners, 5 out of 44 in my age group. There were a couple of really fast world-class athletes who competed for the $500 prize money.