pissing in the wind

So loyal readers, as you remember just a few short days ago, I was complaining about the low teen temps. This morning was the Bronx Half marathon. While I was pretty sure we wouldn't be seeing 14 with a windchill of 5 like we did  few weeks ago, I did not expect to see close to 50 degrees at the start.

I was a bit over dressed with 3/4 tights and a long sleeve shirt. By mile 4 I was wishing I was at least in shorts and dumping water over my head. The Bronx has a totally weird course Don't worry if it doesn't make any sense. I've run it twice and it doesn't make any sense to me either. Normally, I wouldn't run 2 half marathons so close together. I ran a 1:50:51 in Manhattan 2 weeks ago. If it had been warmer, I think I would have been faster. Well today was warmer, actually I do think a bit too warm. And humid. This course also has a lot of turns, some rolling hills and always a head wind for about 2 miles. While we get the tail wind on the turn around, there isn't much benefit since you're going up hill. 

I kept telling myself to run relaxed, to stay in control, work the down hills, all those things that go through my head. Those last 2 miles though, wow, they were tough. I can usually push it on my last mile. Today, my last mile was my slowest (8:39). Once I hit the 13 mile marker, I just pushed as hard as I could. I think I was drooling, I really wanted to go under 1:50. 

And I did.

1:49:41. So I took 70 seconds off  my time from 2 weeks ago. I'm happy with that. I would like to get closer to 1:47 and I think I can with more than 2 weeks rest!

Now, I'm going to watch Kara Goucher run the 3000m.