Early Season Form

Race Report
Sorry 'Bout That Half Marathon - Polson, MT 1/11/14

1:23:45 (couldn't plan that if I tried!)

I'm 14 weeks out from Boston, so the goal of this race was to attempt to run marathon goal pace if conditions were decent... Which they weren't. (It's January in MT - good conditions need not apply.) So that means run marathon effort. 

First 5K was uphill with a solid 25mph headwind and light rain. Boooo. If there is one thing I hate more than a headwind... It's uphill and into a headwind.  But (silver lining) ... of course, this meant we got a sweet tailwind later which came in a few miles of speedy downhill. Fast. But this was a loop course, so the last 2 miles climbed back to the finish into the headwind again. Luckily, it didn't start raining hard until after I crossed the finish line. 

So terrain and weather held me back a bit from running consistently at goal pace, bit I still got a solid workout and some fast miles. That's the great thing about winter races, there's no PR, no pressure, just effort based racing so finish times aren't as important... And theres a bunch of nutty people suffering through some cold miles together. It's fun! Plus, this was a fundraiser for the Mission Valley Aquatic Center.

Slowest mile: 7:08 (2)

Fastest mile: 5:20 (9)

Strangest moment: Just past mile 4, I passed my first runner. It was then I heard clippity clop, clippity clop, clippity clop. I thought ... 'Is there a horse on the road?' No, couldn't be. But tempted, I turned around and sure enough, there was a big, black horse on the course galloping at me. I said to the guy I just passed, 'There's a horse!' He mumbled back to me between heavy breaths something about 'typical Montana.' The gallop sounds on the pavement were getting louder and the horse flew by us. Guy behind me shouted 'Shit! There's no one on that horse!' The horse made it another hundred yards then stopped perpendicular in the center of the road. Cars traveling the other direction had to stop. The horse then swiveled 90 degrees to face me and started running back the direction from which he appeared. I panicked and moved as far over to one side of the road as I could. The horse ran past me again and his horseshoe clomps faded. So weird. Because this was such a small race, I don't think any other participants saw the horse. I talked to my mile 4 guy after the race and we had a good 'WTF' laugh about the whole thing. 

Here's what the cats were doing while I was running in the cold. Wylie sleeps in a drawer.

Next up: Thursday Night Adidas sponsored Runners Edge Treadmill Challenge. 
10 minutes @ 12% against some of western Montana's speediest and strongest women. My goal is to not get last place!