My First Race!

So I officially ran in my first road race today.  Ran and finished the Hampton Half Marathon. It was a really well put together race with about 1500 racers on a very flat coarse on the ocean in Hampton, NH.   I had a really fun day enjoying my first race with Amy.  I think she had more fun than I did, getting to eat a huge breakfast buffet all by her self while sipping on mimosa's and enjoying the quiet while I was out running.

As for the race, my goal was to finish in under 2 hrs with a stretch goal of finishing in under 1:55. I really wanted to focus on staying slow in the first few miles and not letting the excitement of the race get me going too fast too soon.  I felt really good, finishing in 1:58:04 which accomplished my first goal but fell short of my 1:55 goal.  It was good to know that I paced myself well, and I think the other positive was that I feel like I can throw out any thought of finishing Boston in under 4 hours.  I ran a relatively comfortable race for the first 10 miles or so and then tried to kick it up a notch for the finish.  I go into a late kick and ran my 11th and 12th mile at about 8:40 after running about a 9:05 for the first 10.  I felt really strong late but kicked a little too early and bonked with a mile too go and did my last mile at about 9:10 though I was able to sprint in the last .2 miles with a great crowd cheering you on.

With the finish today I feel like there is no way in hell I can finish Boston in under 4 hours which was my goal going in and it helped to put my finishing tim in perspective.  Now I think I'm looking more like 4:10-4:15 as a finishing time and should be there to just enjoy the race.

After enjoying some great beer and chowda after the race and chatted with some friends,  Amy and I headed home to pick up the boys and head home to finish off the weekend.  My loving wife was sure to get a couple photo's of me icing down my ankle pain with a bucket of ice and a glass of Southern Comfort.   Looking forward to getting re-fitted for some new runnnig shoes this week as we work toward Boston in 8 short weeks.