Briefly from Oregon: Huge Half Marathon PR!

No chip time problems with 75 total runners (and walkers) in the half marathon and 8K.
I'm hurting and tired.
I need a shower, a good bite to eat and sleep. (They will happen in that order.)
The Eugene trip is cancelled for this afternoon. Pre will have to wait for another trip.
The half in Olympia, Washington tomorrow will be a race-morning decision.

However, despite all of that, I nailed a half marathon PR! of 2:09:58 at the Wheatfield Half Marathon in The Dalles, Oregon. It is what I had on my watch and what the race director Bob Thouvenel called out as I crossed the finish line (and he had one of the cross country race timing devices.)

And maybe for the first time ever, I negative splitted the back half of the course.

I have nothing to attribute this to other than the cool weather. Everything in the preparation to run this race was totally wrong. (More on that later.) The course from before the mile 1 marker to the turnaround at 6.55 miles was a very slight and steady uphill that you only really saw running back; however, my legs felt it going out (and it was really discouraging me).

Here are the splits:

Mile 1 -- 8:26.21

This is what caused me doubt about the length of the course. I thought to myself, "No way." Plus the difference between the mile marker going out and the mile marker coming back the other way kept variating. I figured if they were a tenth of a mile apart that I should see a time difference of about 57 to 63 seconds. One was 1:10 and a couple of others were low 40's.

Mile 2 -- 9:39.25
Mile 3 -- 10:19.58

Included the water stop at the 8K turnaround. Two people that I was behind and hoping to pace off of were only doing the 8K. Ugh! 5:09.98 to the turnaround. 5:09.60 to the next marker.

Mile 4 -- 10:09.94 (38:34.98)

This included a 37-second need to relieve myself along side of the road. Sorry for the visual; however, I couldn't see anyone in front or behind me just past the mile 4 marker.)

Mile 5 -- 11:03.50 (49:38.48)

My legs felt dead here and I was really questioning running over the bridge in Vancouver Wednesday night as well as the long drive to get there this morning - among other things. I really felt at this point that it was going to be a long day and that I was really going to be close to my 2:20 expectation.

Mile 6 -- 10:34.73 (1:00:13.21)

I went 5:36.59 to the turnaround to give me a 1:05:49.80 midway. Just before I made it to the turnaround, I passed what I thought to be the last runner who started at 10 a.m. 4:49.62 to the mile 7 marker, which included taking on water.

This was also the start of the downhill plus there were also three groups of walkers out on the course who started an hour early at 9:00 a.m. (to save the race director a little time.) When I crossed the mile 6 marker, the third group of four walkers were just approaching the mile 7 marker. I never thought I'd ever see the person in front of me, but a goal was to make sure that I passed the last group of walkers before I finished.

Mile 7 -- 10:26.21 (1:10:39.42)
Mile 8 -- 9:34.38 (1:20:13.80)

After this split, I decided to try to turn things up.

Mile 9 -- 9:19.18 (1:29:32.98)
Mile 10 -- 9:41.25 (1:39:14.23)
Mile 11 -- 9:40.17 (1:48:54.40)
Mile 12 -- 9:54.50 (1:58:48.90)

Miles 10 through 12 were still downhill; however, there was a very strong headwind. I thought to myself, "Well, I did this last month in Surfside," and kept pushing. I could have thrown in the towel here like I did at Surfside, but I'm proud of myself that I didn't.

Just past the mile 12 marker, I caught the last group of walkers. I tracked the person in front of me that they were about 2 minutes ahead of me. The most that I could cut it down to was a minute and 36 seconds near 12.5 or 12.6.

Last 1.1 -- 11:09.62 (2:09:58.52)

I politely asked the guy who was helping the race director (this was a race to benefit the local high school cross country team and the RD was the coach), "Can I ask a question and you not take offense to it?" He said sure. I asked him, "I know you guys are track and cross country coaches, but are you sure that it's a complete half!" (I just didn't believe the time.) He said that they have used it a lot and have measured it over and over.

With that, I call it a PR! and that I've now crossed the 2:10 threshhold!

If I had chosen not to take a T-shirt, race day registration was $10! Pre-race registration was $5! (Hearing that it benefitted the cross country team, I figured that they'd make a little bit from the t-shirt sale and got one. It was $25, but since I had communicated with him via e-mail, he basically gave me the $20 pre-registration race.)

The only negative about this race is that they could have had a water stop at mile 4.5. We went from the 8K turnaround to the half turnaround with no water. So three cups of water the whole race. I looked a salt lick when I finished and quite honestly, I'm surprised that I didn't cramp up; however, I was actually overhydrated -- even at the 4 mile marker.

Alright. I know. So much for "briefly"!