Bayshore 1/2

Just finished my my 4th 1/2 Marathon and it was a very successfully day, a little over 5 minutes better then last year.

The weather couldn't have been better for an August race. Temps in the high teens , a strong N NW Breeze and some lite thin cloud were a welcome relief. It was confident that I would beat last years 1hr45minXX time but wasn't sure by how much, stretch goal was to get it under 1hr40min. Didn't seed myself at the start very well and got caught up in traffic so it was a bit of a slow start. The race plan was to go out at around or slightly under a 5:00 pace banking a little time before the 2K long hill climbing somewhere between 80 and 100 meters. Going into the hill at 8K my avg pace was 4:50 which was around where I wanted to be. I didn't look at the Garmin while climbing concentrating on my breathing and stride to make it to the top without the wheels falling off. At 11K I checked and I had dropped to an avg 4:56 pace so I was in a much better position then last year and was feeling quite ready to run faster again. With 10K to go I tried to run the remaining race like it was well a 10K race. After the long climb we headed along the top of the escarpment running a relatively flat 4K. I was averaging around 4:38.K in this section and the avg pace was slowly counting down. The wind was at our back when I picked up the pace and the sun was shining a little brighter then before and I could feel the heat coming on. Passing the 15K mark we turned into the wind and a small climb. The breeze was brisk and it really helped to cool things down and I was able to more or less maintain the same pace. 6K to go I was confident that I would be under 1:45 and was really beginning to think that breaking 1:40 would be a real possibility. This helped me to keep pushing and K after K that went by I was doing the math and I knew that I just had to maintain as close to a 4:30 K as I could. 16, 17 , 18 and 19 ks were done in 4:38, 4:45, 4:43, and 4:45. The changes in pace were primarily due to some ups and downs but with 2K to go I felt confident that breaking 1:40 was still a possibility. The 2nd last K was on a n old railway line , gentle downhill all the way to the bay... a gift for sure. Pushed hard the final K but it wasn't agreeing with me. I was beginning to rethink not drinking anything or doing any gels but I stuck with my race plan and pushed on. I saw the clock with a few hundred meters to go 1:39:40 I gave it an honest effort but crossed a few seconds after the 1:40. Just prior to crossing the timing Matt I stated to dry heave , once across I was down on all 4s dry heaved for 30 seconds or so then I was fine! I forgot to turn the Garmin off and it ticked away for 59 seconds after I stopped!!!!! Last 857 meters were done in 3min38secs.

My chip time was 1hr40min03 seconds finishing 25th out of 118 participants, 22nd out of 59 men and 3rd out of 8 in the 50-59 ag. Avg race pace for the 21.1 was 4min45sec/K.