Austin 1/2 Marathon Race Report

I have really mixed emotions about today's race. I definitely had some highs and lows. I wanted to start out conservative on Congress, try to break even on 1st street and then settle in to 6:30 pace until I closed around mile 9. That isn't really how the race went. I went out way too fast which is super frustrating. I was really not confident with going out at 6:40 pace because I just don't know how that "feels." I met up with a friend who had the same end time goal so I decided to just go out with her (big lesson on running my own race was learned here). I went out at a 6:15 first mile. Way too fast. Then I never settled in to a 6:40 rhythm. By mile four my legs felt like crap and I was getting kind of nervous. "Flying" down 1st street felt painful. The good news was I let my friend go after the first mile...I didn't try to hang on, which definitely would've ended bad. I was running mostly by myself at this point which wasn't much fun with the wind that hit on Caesar Chavez and LAB. I stuck behind a guy on the end of CC which left me with a slow 6:55 mile...ugh. The positive think was that after mile 7, I really started to feel good. I guess this is where my fitness level came in to play. I felt recovered from the miserable start and was feeling strong up LAB and into Enfield. Through this part of the race, I caught about 5 women (including my friend that I started with) that had passed me through the Congress and 1st St. area. I felt strong on the beginning hills of Enfield, I became more consistent with paces, and my confidence was up. Then I hit the BIG hill on 15th coming up in to down town. I really wanted to close this race hard and try to be sub 6 on the last mile. I don't know if it was the course or my stupidity at the beginning of the race, but I couldn't close at all. My last mile was right at 6:30 pace. There was no closing which is what I thought would be a strength for me given my plan. Here are my splits:
1 6:15
2 6:32
3 6:24
4 6:26
5 6:13
6 6: 19
7 6:23
8 6:55
9 6:34
10 6: 27
11 6: 29
12 6:24
13 6:31
.1 :42
finish time: 1:24:40

Overall I'd say I am not satisfied with the race, but I think it's important to look at some of the good things and what I can learn from today. The things I am happy about are that I didn't give up when I felt crappy at mile 4. I let myself recover and got my head back in the game. I'm also glad I raced well on LAB and Enfield. I'm also happy I finished 5th overall female and that I won my age group. Two of the women who finished ahead of me are already Olympic Trials runners...so I have to be pleased with my overall finish. When you log on to the results page for the half, I'm on the leader board...which is a cool thing to see. Also, I had a 4 minute PR which is always a positive thing. I think I showed some toughness, but I ran like a really immature runner at the beginning. My mantra for this run was execute, and I didn't. If I had stuck to the plan I would've most likely had better results. I am still beating myself up over that, but oh well....

pluses: good finish, time with family

minuses: poor execution, hamstring