This is a race I just love to run! It has great runner participation, superb organization, and an amazing course. Well, it's amazing if you like hills. Technically, there are three big hills--several hundred feet each. But it is a loop course, and what goes up must come down. So, there are wonderful stretches of "weeeeeee!!!!" to enjoy.
I was fortunate to get a group of great gals to run it with me--Michele, Deborah, and Holly. Well, none of us really ran together. Everyone had their own pace and personal goal to reach for. Holly zoomed out from the beginning and ended up being the 2nd place woman overall. Amazing. How do those short legs move her so fast?! Deborah passed me at around the mile mark, but I just let her go. I had my target split times written on my arm with a black sharpee. I knew exactly how I was going to run the course in order to get a half marathon PR. And I stuck with the plan. Around mile 2, I started to gain on her as we were heading up the hill. She would stop occasionally to walk a few paces. I
started to run with her and she just waved me off. Guess she was afraid I would hassle her everytime she stopped to walk. Oh, well. I charged forward and didn't see her the rest of the race. It was another great weather day in Boise. Sometimes I long for the day I can live there. It's such a great town with awesome places to run, ski, climb, and relax. And the air is twice as thick as it is in Idaho Falls! As the miles ticked by, I ran strong and in good spirits. With the exception of a mile or two, I hit my goal split times. I was a little faster in the beginning and a little slower in the middle. The long downhill from the summit felt awesome. But it wasn't a stroll in the park. My HR was really high throughout the whole course. I don't know how I manage to do it, but I think my average was 92% maximum. Maybe my max HR is actually higher than I calculated, because that seems like it should be too hard to maintain that for almost two hours. The last couple of miles did feel really hard. That's the flat section after the big downhill. But when I saw the final rise up a little hill at mile 13, I got excited and knew it was almost over. I pushed hard up that little hill with a huge smile in my heart. Then I crested the hill, saw the finish line, and charged. Oh, how I love that last 0.1 mile of downhill to the finish line. My final time was 1 hr 48 min 41 sec. That's a couple of minutes faster than my previous best half marathon (Red Rock Canyon). And it landed me in 186th place out of 1024. Deborah came in about 6 minutes later--a great accomplishment given her back and hip injuries. It was also a half marathon PR for her. And Michele had a fantastic race and took about 7 minutes off of her previous PR finishing in 2:08. Everyone had a great day, and I most certainly look forward to next year's Zeitgeist.
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