Half-Marathon This Weekend

Photo of little Savannah ... for no reason other than she's beautiful!

My pseudo-internet-friend - Grace, of How I Complicated My Life Today - will think I made the following decision based on her prompting, but honestly I'd been looking for a summer Half-Marathon for some time.  This weekend I'll make the drive to Minneapolis to run the 12 Annual Urban Wildland Half-Marathon.  The race is actual in Richfield, MN, close to the Mall of America, so hopefully I won't get shot before, after, or during the race.  The "Twin-Cities" are about an 8-hour drive from home, so hopping in the car after the race won't be as bad as driving after a marathon.

I'm not a big "medal guy", and most of the time couldn't care less if they give a medal or not.  But when I found out that this race DOES NOT have finisher medals, I was actually kind of disappointed.  I guess I've just been conditioned to receiving a medal after a race of that distance ... but I'm sure I'll live.

The only medals awarded are for the Age Group Winners, and I won't be fast enough to place in my Age Group in this race.  For starters, the groups are divided into 10 year increments, instead of the usual 5, so my Age Group will be 40-49.  So to win, I would have to beat a bunch of folks younger than me.  But that aside, The top times in this bracket last year were about four or five guys running 1:22's ... I'm not in that league. So undoubtedly, I'll be coming home empty handed.

But the main reason for running the race is not, nor is it ever, receiving a medal.  It's to test myself.  And right now I think I'm faster than I've ever been.  My Half-Marathon PR is 1:28:06, but based on my training times, I think I should run quite a bit below that.  The course is supposed to be flat and fast, but who knows, weird things happen on race day sometimes, so I'll just play it by ear this weekend.

This is a recovery week for in my marathon training.  So I'll get some rest, reduce my mileage, and try to get ready for a really strong race on Saturday.  And hopefully, on Sunday, I'll have a new PR to report!  Have a great week!
... be great today!