Saturday Tune-up for Tomorrow's 1/2 Marathon

Run: 7 miles in :51:30 min. @ 9:30 a.m.

Heart Monitor Data: 753 cals, 85% MHR avg., 96% MHR max.

Weather Report: Rain Shower, 61°F, 77% Humidity, Winds: ENE @ 7 mph; feels like 61°F.

A beautiful rainy and cool morning which can only be properly desrcibed as "fall-like." This is my favorite running condition as it is reminiscent of the weather I ran in during my high school days, when the aches seem to come less frequently.

Tomorrow morning, I can only hope that similiar weather conditions prevail as Anne and I travel just an hour southeast of home to run in... our second Oak Tree 1/2 Marathon which starts at 9:30 a.m. Last year, I finsihed the slightyl hilly course, 40% of which is on dirt roads, in a time of 1:37:05 (Split of :07:25, good enough for 27th overall out of 169 finishers. Not so concerned about my "place" this year, I would ambitiously like to shoot for a PR at the 1/2 marathon distance of 1:30:00. This would mean a 7 minute improvement over my last timed race, last year.

After doing some number crunching using the Runner's World Pace Calculator, perhaps that 1:30:00 is too ambitious. The following are the projected benchmark times for the following distances during the 1/2 marathon that I would have to achieve:

1500m 5:28
the mile 5:53
3000m(3k) 11:24
3200m(about 2 miles) 12:12
5000m(5k) 19:35
8000m(8k) 32:13
5 miles 32:25
10,000m(10k) 40:49
Ten miles 1:07:36
Half marathon 1:30:00

A mile time of 5:53 would represent the fatsest 1600m, I'd run in about 15 years! Ideally, I would set a pace that I could maintain during the first 12 miles, and if I had any extra left, increase the pace for the final 1.1 miles... I reckon we'll just have to wait and see!

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!