Flower City half marathon

The day after the inaugural Flower City triathlon was the inaugural Flower City Half Marathon. I have only ran a half marathon twice, and both were a part of a half ironman so I was pretty sure I was going to at least PR.

The run started at Blue Cross arena and ran through some historic Rochester areas. A few miles mimic the Rochester marathon held in September. The first half of the course is fairly flat and the second half has a few good hills.

The plan for the day was to run the first mile around 8:20 and then hold a pace near that for the rest of the day. The first 6 miles I was right on pace, a little fast but I was holding pretty close to the goal. Then the hills of the course came into play. About the same time I ran into Alexa and we ran a few miles together. From miles 6-8 there were a few good climbs around highland park and the first part of the cemetery. I slowed down a little bit, but that is expected when climbing. I felt pretty good making the climbs but the downhill caused the calf to flair up. I was nursing a nagging calf injury and running downhill was not helping. I let Alexa run ahead as I huffed it down the hill.

Once I got out of the cemetery (and all the downhills) I was feeling a little better. The course was fairly flat and I was able to put together a good run to the finish. After mile 12 I really started pushing the pace to try and make it home in under 1:50 but I think I missed it by a few seconds. It was fun to fly by some runners in that last few hundred yards. I am not sure what my official time was yet but the pace was about 8:19, right on plan.

Post race, I walked around and said hi to few local triathletes and then I turned into the cookie monster and ate everything in sight. For the second straight day the people at fleet feet but on a great race!

Train safe