Run with Jets Half Marathon

Run with Jets Half Marathon
Nov 5th, 2011
San Mateo,CA

Intersting after logging about 13,700 miles, this turned out to be my 1st half marathon, so my goal was clear, 13.1K miles of training runs, 13.1 mi race within 1:31. It wasn't planned that way, I did register for a half marathon in Jan 2003 in SF golden gate park. But I got lost and didn't reach the race on time :). Instead did a 10mil run close to my apartment complex.

I was looking forward to this race, the course profile was flat, promised a fast time. It was rightly placed 4 weeks before CIM and was a perfect race predictor.

Race Day:
It was suposed to be rainy day, so I was overly dressed, after my morning ritual, drove to Coyote point park. It was jam packed at the race start. my plan was a to run a even race, a 7mim pace. Race started couple of mins late after the confusion over direction of the run :). Finally we started the run towards Oracle bay trail.

Conditions were perfect got into a good rhythm and enjoyed my run towards san mateo bridge(CA92) on the far side. It reminded me of the hot training run some of us did in 2003 as part of our training for Long beach marathon. That was a hot tough day. Mile 5 was just under CA 92, I incidently passed Vinod, " still shooting for 1:31" I waved and said not sure. As I reached turn-around (6.5miles) It was 45:30, I thought s far it seemed like a perfect run, I was in range of a sub 1:31. But as I started my run on the other side, I could feel pretty strong head winds, I could barely run 7:30 pace. Infact untill the last mile didnt run faster than that. I think most of the runners had similar split coz I saw only 2 runners pass me and I passed 2 as well. Finally turned into coyote park for the last half a mile, crossed finish in 1:35:30.

It did'nt go as expected from a time perspective, but it was a pretty hard workout from training perspective. I did a small jog and took some goodies at the post race booth. It was a well organized race, I was surprized to see a huge turnout for a new race. Monte and team from A runners mind did a very good job.