Albany Half Marathon 2012 Race Report

Last Saturday I crossed another Half Marathon Finish Line.  However this one was a special one for many reasons.  This race I was able to run parts of it with several of my friends (many of whom it was their first half marathon) and this race was ran with tornado warnings throughout. 

Here is a pre race photo of me (on the left) and several of the folks from my church that were running the race today.

The temps for the race started in the lower 60’s and got up to the upper 60’s by the time it finish.  The weather forecast was rain all day long and heavy to sever storms for the afternoon / evening.   Before the gun could fire to start the race it had already begun to rain.  I had carried my ipod touch to use as my music, interval timer, and stopwatch but I had to put it in a glad lock bag to keep it dry.  It was a light to steady rain for the first 3 miles.  Here is a quick pic of me once the rain had stopped. 

The first two miles I was doing my best to fight back the adrenaline and run slow.  I was cruising at about an 11 minute per mile clip. One of my tricks to stay slow was I went to the end of the pack at the start line.  So that way I had to run behind a lot of runners.  Thru mile 4 I was feeling GREAT!  I was thinking to myself that I hope to feel this good for the last for miles.   

Somewhere around mile 4 the city’s weather sirens went off saying, “A Tornado Has Been Spotted In Your Area.  Seek Shelter Immediately.”  All I could do was smile and keep running. 

Now I don’t have a split for the half way point but I do know that I was at 61 minutes and change at mile 6 and I was at 71 minutes and change at mile 7.  So my best guess is that I was 1:06 at half way.
 
As the race went one I continued my plan of doing 1:1 (run for one minute and walk for one minute).  I was passing people left and right.  Which give me even more momentum to keep going and pushing myself.  Using the Galloway method I was able to run stronger at the end of the race by taking the walk breaks. 

My finishing chip time was 2:12:38.  That is an average pace of 10:08 per mile.  While I don’t know for sure if I negative split the race but I was pretty dang close.  I came in 21 out of 40 in my age group and 329 out of 819.  Here is a link to all the race results. 

I can't wait to do it again next year.