Garry Bjorklund 13.1

I ran the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon and did better than I expected. My final time of 1:37:54 is slightly better than I had hoped for, but it doesn't tell the full story.

I went into the race undertrained but too cheap to skip it. It was warm and muggy at the start and the logistics of the start of the race left me needing to go to the bathroom at the start.

But I did a nice job of race management and made a few decisions before the initial gun that paid off. First, I moved my race number from my shirt to my shorts in anticipation of removing my shirt because of the heat. The second was acknowledging ahead of time I would need to stop at a port-a-potty and would not try to tough it out. Both are minor details but they helped me face the difficulties at the beginning of the race.


Miles 1-4 Splits: 7:18, 8:03, 6:48, 8:24 Ave: 7:38 Stan. Dev: 0:33
I had a chance to completely fall apart early but by anticipating the problems, I was able to deal with them and continue. Early in the second mile, I stared to feel the heat and removed my singlet and noticed a huge difference. We had a slight headwind so I think having additional exposed skin really helped. Near the end of mile two, I hit the port-a-potties--probably cost me about 40 seconds but knowing it was coming and the fact I had 11+ miles to make it up allowed me to not worry too much about it. I had to revisit the port-a-potties during mile 4, this time having to wait about 20-30 seconds for an open one.

Miles 6-10 Splits: 7:11, 6:58, 7:10, 7:16, 7:17, 7:27 Ave: 7:15 Stan. Dev: 0:07
After I left the blue port-a-potties the second time, I was able to find my pace and hold it. As I cranked out each mile, I worried some because I was originally planning on running 7:40s but I felt good and because of my delays, I was steadily passing people, making the running a lot easier mentally. Mile 10 included Lemon Drop Hill, which is the largest incline of the race.

Miles 11-13.1 Splits: 7:42, 7:48, 7:44, 0:46 Ave: 7:44 Stan. Dev: 0:02
At the 10 mile marker, I had a 66 second advantage over a 7:30 pace but starting to feel the heat. I decided to back off a little to avoid a burn out. Considering my lack of training coming into the race and that this wasn't my target race, I think I made the right decision. I ended up beating my predicted time by over a minute.

Conclusion
Not my fastest race ever and not the hardest I've ever run but may be the smartest race I've run. I could have finished harder but I felt that the risk of a potential crash was not worth the minute or so I could have saved. Later in the seasson, I will need to push to the end but not today.

ORN: 13.1 in 97:54 (7:28 pace)