Muddy Mini 1/2 Marathon

Well, let’s look at the positives first. Half Marathon #5 complete✔️ It wasn’t my worst 1/2 Marathon ✔️ and I didn’t Die! ✔️ Though at about mile 11, I wasn’t sure about that last one.
I’ve been running mostly 5k’s since Glass City, with the Duathlons, and PR5k Program, the longest run i’ve had was the 7.9 mile run last week at Ragnar, so I knew this 1/2 was going to hard. That coupled with the weather, Hot & Humid was the predictions and for once the Weather Guy was right. So early on I dictated that this was not going to be a PR race but more of a conditioning race. My 1/2 PR is 2:02, so I was planning to pace a 2:12 to 2:15, basically 10 minutes or so slower.

It was 70 degrees at the start, with a light breeze. It was actually quite nice. The course left downtown Maumee OH and headed west out to Sidecut Metro Park to a turnaround then back tracked back into Maumee. We headed east onto the very scenic River Road, which runs along the Maumee River.

Through mile 7, I was averaging a 9:30 pace, which would have brought me in at about a 2:05 finish. Not too bad I thought. But it was warming up fast and the humidity was on the rise. Near the end of mile 8, I met up with a friend who was struggling, so I slowed to see how she was doing and started to walk with her for a while. She took in some water at a water stop and said she would be all right, so I moved on. After the slowdown, getting back to my 9:30 pace was just not going to happen.

River Road turned into Broadway and as we neared the Toledo Zoo, I met another friend who had started quite a bit in front me, I slowed with him for a few minutes, and after a short time, tried again to regain my pace and it was so hard to go back to running again.

As the miles clicked off, I dictated that an easy pace of 10:30 to 11:00 was fine, because a this point, it was full sun and 85 degrees.

The last turn was onto Monroe Street and the into the Mud Hen’s Stadium, down onto the actual field and we finished on the Warning Track at the #406 foot outfield wall! Very cool!

There was a huge party at Henville with live music and Beer!

All in all, it was a very good race. I finished with a 2:16, which actually considering everything, was pretty good, but more importatnly, I learned so much about myself and just how hard I can push and when it’s time to back off.

This was an inaugural Race and the staff at Run Toledo and Dave’s Running did a fabulous job with this event.

Until next time … Happy Running!