2011 BAA Half Marathon: 13.34mi, 01:41:39, 7:37 min/mi (Garmin time).
HOLY SHIT. I started with the 7:00 crowd, but I held back for the first mile, because it was all downhill and I knew that I'd be passing all the people passing me later on. No problems until the first turnaround except a little left achilles tightness. I took a wide berth at the turnaround, but still sort of crushed my left toes.
Skipped the first two water stops and got Gatorade and water at six miles. I wanted to take my GU at the 8 Mile marker, but the eighth mile was very hilly and I couldn't find a good time. Finally just started sipping it at like 8.75. I attacked every hill hard. My right foot and leg were starting to get sore, so I tried to lighten my footfalls. I was holding HR in the low 180s, bumping up for the hills and settling back down, and I started targeting 7:45min/mi. The GU kicked in exactly when I needed it to. There was another turnaround at 10 miles which I survived better. I knew there was one last big hill at 11 miles, so I saved some energy and pretended I was just doing a weekly 2-mile G Street Hill run, and then cruised up it at like 6:50, passing a ton of people. Do hills, kids.
After that was a narrow and turning path through the zoo that I had to dial back on, but that was fine because it let me save something for the end. Right as we came out of there I passed a guy wearing KSOs and gave him a "nice shoes" then sped past him. The final mile was a bit of a slog - twice my right calf cramped briefly, bringing back
horrible memories of Phoenix when my left hamstring practically tore off the bone and killed my time. But the calf held, even when I hit the afterburners for the final quarter mile and the finish on the track. My old PR was 7:56. It was a killer course, too. The last three miles were insane. I still don't believe this.
Splits: 7:56, 8:01, 7:52, 7:30, 7:46 (turnaround), 7:36, 7:57 (water), 7:35, 7:26, 7:36 (water, turn around), 7:34, 7:15 (big long hill), 7:20 (zoo), 6:23 (.34mi).
