Austin Half-Marathon: Success

So while all sane people were still in bed Valentine's morning, we ran this nice race in Austin, home of hippies, 'Horns, and hills. And I gotta say, those hippies put on a sweet event.

The course was a loop, so we didn't have to shuttle from one end to the other (lookin' at you, San Antonio Rock & Roll). The Half went like this: 3-mile uphill, 3-mile downhill, 3-mile flat stretch, then 4.1 miles of crazy up and down. Lesson reinforced: I prefer running uphill to down. I like the resistance, and it's less jarring. That said, those last few downhills gave me my first running-related bruised toenail, and it looks TOTALLY HARDCORE. Or did before it turned a nancy shade of lavender.

Overall, the course was prettier and more interesting than the San Antonio route. The weather was great, too: about 45F at the start and fairly dry. A nice turn of events, since the news had speculated rain showers and temps dropped below freezing Sunday night.

The start needs work, I say. There was a corral of 300 seeded runners at the front. When the fireworks went off (and possibly a gun), those elite runners took off. The rest of us -- about 13,700 -- then shuffled as one giant mob to the start line, taking off only when we reached it. The result was that I had to run in a fairly tight pack the whole race. Even though we would have had to wait longer to run, I'd have preferred the staggered start we had in San Antonio -- it would have meant a roomier running experience.

(Complete rundown of the San Antonio Half, by the way.)

So how'd we do? Very well, if I do say so. Dave shaved 9 minutes off his previous time: down from 3:19:57 to 3:10:58. I hacked 13 minutes from my time: down from 2:24:47 to 2:11:44. That gave me a pace of 10:05/mile and allowed me to beat my race goal of 2:15:00. Rock on!

We've rested from running (and pasta-eating) since Sunday. Dave wants to work on his speed now. I'd like to do the same by training toward this spring's local 10K events. We stuck to our training plan for this one fairly well, though I found running five days a week too much to schedule. The training's had a nice side benefit: I've kept off my normal winter weight gain (take that, fat gremlins!). Now to keep on keepin' on...


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