my buddy and i crossed the finish line of the half marathon at about 1:52:52. i'd say we took it fairly easy for the first 10 miles, talking and conversing the whole way. the last 3 miles were a bit more work, for me anyway; it felt like my HR was probably in the low- to mid-170's at that point.

the whole idea behind this "race" was to run it together. we've knocked out between 3 and 5 long runs in the 10-mile range and ran a few races (but not together). but for this half we thought it would be fun to run it together. our original goal was around 9:00 pace (at least i think it was), and i thought maybe 8:50 was possible if i was feeling ok (keeping in mind that my buddy could have ran this race much faster than i).

so to finish the "race" at an 8:33 average pace without pushing it super hard for the first 10 miles is a bit of a confidence booster heading into marathon training season. this felt like a taxing long run, which is exactly what i was hoping it would feel like. last year i all-out raced my first ever half, during the heart of marathon training, in 1:59. it was a tougher course last year, yes, but this is still a nice confidence booster.

the weather was perfect. the course was nice and easy. good conversation. it was a fun time.

my sister took some cool pictures, i will post some of them this week.

tonight i ran a hard 5.7 miles at 8:41 pace. i didn't feel like going out that fast but my gf was on blades and i was trying to keep up. heh.