Air Force Half Marathon Race Report......

Hi all, my plan going into this race was to use it as a tempo pace run for an upcoming marathon in 3 weeks. This plan almost fell apart Wednesday. Let's rewind it back a week. Last Sunday 20 mile long run, all good. Monday 8 mile recovery, good. Tuesday, planned 4m am 10m pm. In a moment of unexplained crazy thinking I continued on at 10 miles and made it another 20 miler. Weds, 8x 1mile repeats with 1 min rest at 5:50-6:00 pace. Ouch, feel something in my calf. Thursday morning hurting me to walk, no running. Friday same, no running. Picked my race pack up anyway praying all would be good for Sunday. Saturday improvement but no more running. The decision to run would have to be morning of race day.

Sunday morning of the race, felt good, wasn't happy at the 3lb weight gain from doing nothing, but relieved to be injury free. Decided to run. My new plan was to monitor my calf and if any trouble stop and DNF myself. Race morning was overcast with a strong wind sometimes gusting.

Bang, we're off ! With the wind behind me mile 1 6:00, a right turn onto the airfield for two laps of the flight line. Into the wind, out of the wind etc, repeat for two long laps. Next few miles 6:26, 6:30, 6:42 (bad headwind gusting here), 6:25, 6:25, 6:21, 6:16, 6:23, 6:32, 6:34, 6:20 and the final mile in 6:21

Luckily I appeared to be in good shape and no calf issues. Most people had the consensus that they were 4 mins or so off target battling the wind.

Here were my big surprises all round. The winner came in at 1:21:59, I came in second place in 1:23:31, 3rd place was over 4.5 mins behind me at 1:27:39

This was a PR for me. I also got a nice selection of bling. Finisher medal, Gold medal for AG win, and Silver medal for 2nd place overall

That's all folks !!! I'll report back in 3 weeks with my full marathon report. Later, Rob.

Nice job in blustery conditions, especially with the week leading up to the race. That's a lot of running in your legs for a PR. I think it shows you've got a lot of strength for your upcoming marathon. Just be careful about how your legs feel. You can only tempt injury a few times before it bites you. Congrats on the 2nd place finish and keep up the good work.

That's a lot of hardware from just one race! Congrats.

Do be careful on that calf. You don't want any nasty surprises before you line up for that full marathon in three weeks.

Rob, very nice race and good luck in 3 weeks.