This morning I ran the Cannonball Half Marathon in Greensboro, NC. It was my first half marathon in 18 months, and given my lack of training while we were traveling earlier this year, I wasn't sure how this would go.
I'm so happy with the result! My time was 2:06, only a few minutes short of my P.R. and I felt great. I really should do this more often.
In fact, I only decided on Thursday to sign up for this race. I hadn't ran since last weekend -- lots of obligations this week made running in the evening impossible -- and I decided to take advantage of this unplanned tapering.
Early in Greensboro
Greensboro is an hour driving due west of Durham, and I got up at 5.00 am to make it to the start line. The race was well organized, and I liked the fact that they had mile markers on every mile. It was great weather for a run -- at the start it was 45 degrees, two hours later about 58 degrees. After the race there was a band playing Blues Brothers music.
Negative splits
I really tried to control my pacing this race. Usually, I start a little too fast in the first two miles, for which I'd pay the price later on. I set myself the goal to finish within 2:15, which is pretty much a 10 minutes per mile, but with the understanding that if I felt strong half-way the race I could speed up. It has been 18 months since my last race, so I didn't want to start too fast.
Friday night Milan and I went to see a Durham Bulls game. 