Guus Bosman

This morning was Raleigh Rocks, a half marathon starting in downtown Raleigh. It was my first half marathon this season, and finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes. That's 5 minutes better than when I did this race last year, but well short of my best of 2 hours and 2 minutes (in November last year).

To be honest, I had underestimated the race and just didn't train enough, especially in long runs. I started the race well, with a consistent 9 minutes/mile speed, something that I wanted to try to break my PR. But at mile 4 or 5 I started slowing down -- I just clearly wasn't ready for this speed. One point of light: this time I made sure I didn't start overly fast. In previous race my splits for the first 2 miles or so would be around 8 minutes, way to fast. Miles 7 and 8 starting to get difficult, and miles 9 and 10 through the greenway did me in. It didn't help that after 10 miles or so I started getting blisters on both feet, something that doesn't usually happen to me. My feet may have been still soft from a fairly brutal training run in 2,5 hours of rain and mud two weeks ago.

Still, it was fun to race a half marathon again and Raleigh Rocks is a very well organized race. I particularly liked that there were clear mile markers every mile. Up to the next race, May 17th in Cary, NC, and yes, I will step up my training in the next 6 weeks.