In which I set a new PR

I had only one goal for this weekend’s race.

PR.

There would be no farting around. None of this, “Oh it’s just a fun race for meee!”  Nope.

I had a PR on the brain.  Philly RnR (formerly known as the Philly Distance Run) is a seriously fast, flat course.

My previous half-marathon PR had been hanging around way too long.  Since October 2009.  My last half marathon was an out of shape jogging tour of Baltimore.  And since that last 13.1, I’d managed to knock 4 minutes off my 10K and run a marathon.  I had no reason not to PR yesterday.

During the marathon, back in March, I successfully paced myself.  I went out easy, kicked it in in the middle and finished with negative splits.

I used this same mindset because I have a bad habit of going out too fast.  Going out too fast and crashing and burning.  Crashing and burning hard.  (And in the Baltimore half, that’s about when the hill at mile 11 is.)

Anyway, back to Philly.  I had the distinct pleasure of tackling this race with my cousin and his wife.  (Remember Doctor Becky?)  They both recently started running again and were excited to run their first half marathon!  I wasn’t able to make it up in time for the expo, but luckily they were able pick up my bib and shirt for me.  I drove up the NJ turnpike on Saturday afternoon to my Aunt’s house and soon after arrival was fed a big bowl of pasta and garlic bread with and got to visit with my cousins and their sweet little ones. A bit of conversation and I hit the hay. Bonus, I had a snuggly pit bull to keep me company all night long.

He loved being woken up with camera flashes at 5:30am.

Got myself dressed and was ready to (rock n’) roll.

Breakfast of graham crackers with peanut butter and banana and we hit the road downtown.  No problem with the traffic. It was 6:15am on a Sunday, after all.

My cousin Brendan was kind enough to snap this pic of me at the stairs of the Art Museum, you know, from Rocky.

The weather was perfect – 50’s to start, high of 70’s… sunny and fresh.  Couldn’t ask for better racing weather. Anyway, we split up to our respective corrals, the gun went off and a mere 8 minutes later, I was crossing the start! 

I tried something different this time.  I ran without a fuel belt.  I usually run with water or powerade and Gu, and this time I relied completely on race support for liquids.  It worked out great this time, because the weather was so mild.  But if it was hotter, I would have been regretting not having more fluids readily available.  It was nice to run unencumbered!  Plus, I grabbed enough free Gu’s that I came home with a net equal Gu count.  Yess!!

My splits:
1. 8:45
2. 7:47   <—A little too excited
3. 8:57 
4.  8:51
5. 9:19
6. 8:49
7. 8:55
8. 8:54
9. 8:45
10. 8:45
11. 8:28    Wheee!
12. 8:16    Negative!
13. 8:31    Splits!
13.45  3:37  (8:00 min / mile pace)

Chip time 1:56:26

PR by exactly 3 minutes which translates to just about 14 seconds off my per-mile pace.  Very happy indeed!

Garmin said I finished the 13.1 two minutes faster, but I’ll stick with the chip time. 

I wish I had more to say about the race, but it was just one of those, “in and out, nobody gets hurt” kind of events! 

Fun race?  Totally!  Would I do it again?  Yes!  Did I stick around to see Brett Michaels perform?  No!