Houston, TX - January 18, 2015
1:57:15 (8:57 min/Mi)
It was a very disappointing race. I went into this race hoping to beat my PR of last year. The weather was great. Things were looking good.
The race started very well. The first 5k were almost 30 seconds faster than last years. Everything felt good. The second5k were even better. It was faster than the first, and I still had over 30 seconds on last year’s time.
And thats when things started to fall apart...
Just around mile 6 i felt my calf muscle tighten up. It felt as if it had popped, yet it had not quite done so. It was just about to go. It hurt, and it made it really tough to keep running. I knew i still had a long way to go, but I was on pace for a PR and i didnt want to give it up.
I kept going, although running became difficult and painful. I had to run somewhat differently. I was holding my right leg really tight, so as to not extend my calf. That made it very awkward to run. But i tried to keep it going.
The third 5k was definitely slower. Where i averaged about 8:22 pace for the first 10k, this went down to 8:30. With that i lost ground on my PR, going from 30 sec ahead, to down just over 30 seconds.
That PR was still in sight, until mile 11, when my calf finally popped. I was so mad. At that time, i couldnt really run anymore. Luckily, just a little bit ahead, there was a Medical Tent. I stopped there, and asked them to wrap my calf really tight, so that i could make it to the finish.
After several minutes at the tent, I hopped back up, and limped to finish line. PR was gone. But overall, it was still a good race.
Now, time to heal up, and go after the next race !
Splits:
5k 26:17 26:17 8:28
10k 51:56 25:39 8:16
15k 1:18:20 26:24 8:30
20k 1:50:14 31:54 10:16
Finish 1:49:18 5:22 7:53
Some fun facts: I finished 2,193rd out of 11,639 (Entire Half Marathon Field)
9446 finished behind me. 19% finished ahead.
I finished 1,472nd out of 5,035 (Men)
3,563 finished behind me. 18% finished ahead.
I finished 187th out of 628 (Age Group)
441 finished behind me. 30% finished ahead.
Over the first half of the race:
I passed 461 runners (8 Age, 47 AG, 164 Women, 297 Men)
79 runners passed me (2 Age, 4 AG, 18 Women, 61 Men)
Over the second half of the race:
I passed 69 runners, 402 runners passed me.
Of the 11,639 who finished, 57% were Women, 43% Men.
I was ahead of about 89% of Women runners.