Heart of the City Half Marathon! PR!

Today was the long awaited Hear of the City Half Marathon. It was my first half and my farthest run I have attempted. My main goal was to finish and my secondary goal was to finish under 2 hours. The morning was very nice with a temperature of 70 degrees and completely sunny! Probably the best run conditions I have been in. The race started at 7:30 am at Nicollet Commons in Burnsville and wound down to the banks of the Minnesota River.

The first six miles were great and I ran with a fellow runner up to that point. I pulled away from him and at that point I was running at a 8:50 pace. I needed a 9:10 pace throughout the race to reach my two hour goal. Miles 6-8 were a little slower and was on a fairly flat part of Black Dog Road by Black Dog Power Plant. Mile 8 was the turn around point and by then I was feeling it in my right knee. I kept pushing on though and realized how incredibly lucky I am to be able to do what I was doing. Although I put in a lot of training leading up to the race, I have been blessed with the health and the ability to run which is something a lot of people cannot do.

Up to this point the farthest I have run has been 11 miles and at that point I was ready to be done. I picked up pain on the outside of my right knee and it burned. Bad. So bad that at about Mile 12 I thought about throwing in the towel. My time was starting to slip and I was hobbling pretty bad. I decided to keep pushing and run through the pain. The last quarter mile was amazing! There were tons of people cheering including my fiancee and parents. I pushed harder then I have ever gone that last quarter and finished with a time of.....1:59:57!!! I made my goal by 3 seconds! Little closer then I was comfortable with but I did it! Now I am sitting here with outside knee pain (ITBS coming on???), sore shins and a hurting hip! Rough shape but I would do it all over again! Next up is hopefully a massge and a week off from running to get healthy for the start of the Twin Cities Marathon training!

Pushing the last quarter mile!!!

Pictures with the parents and my medal!!!

Jessie and I at the finish line. Can you tell it was bright? :)

Thanks for the support and encouragement everyone! It means a lot!!!