3M Half Marathon (Austin) Brief Race Report

I was talking with a friend over here in Austin yesterday afternoon and I told them that I hoped to be in the 2:15-2:16 range today. As that is where I felt that my fitness is right now for this course. Indeed, they advertise this as a downhill; however, there is enough uphills in it to negate much of it.

On the website, my gun time is 2:20:30 and my chip time was 2:15:31, which means I hit the goal (but there's lots of room for improvement.)

Mile 1-2 - 20:25.71 (slightly uphill)
Mile 3 - 10:07.96
Mile 4 - 10:12.31
Mile 5 - 9:25.50 (mostly downhill with an uphill finish over one of the overpasses)
Mile 6 - 10:49.41 (an extra walk break and a water stop)
Mile 7 - 10:43.31
Mile 8 - 10:09.66
Mile 9 - 10:46.66 (uphill)
Mile 10 - 10:58.00 (uphill again)
Mile 11 - 10:20.50 (gently downhill)
Mile 12 - 10:13.42 (a bit more pronounced downhill)
Mile 13 - 10:24.66 (primarily flat, a slight rise)
Last .1 - 56.82 (got a motivational shout-out from Kemah's Ben Harvie)

I love the friends that I have. (Leadville,CO/Houston's Camille Yarbrough said Hi! after I crossed the finish line.) The one good thing from the splits? No 11's. Needed a few more 9's though.

And who did I see in the line to get on the buses back to the start area? None other than first place age group winner Jim Braden, 72, of The Woodlands as he ran under 1:45 today. Amazing. :)