Boulder Spring Half Marathon Race Report

I had a great race, third half marathon in 2:10:30, over 13 minutes faster than the one I ran last year for a PR. I am surprised that I feel as good as I do because I didn't execute the race well at all. I will take it as lessons learned and hope to do better at my full marathon in May. As always I laid out my gear the night before, the forecast called for high 3os to low 40s with a chance of rain or snow. I decided to wear my Mizuno tights (LOVE these), REI long sleeved tech shirt, Adidas running jacket and RMTC visor.I packed gloved and a headband but chose not to wear them. I also packed two packets of sharkies and one GU, this was a mistake but more on that later. This morning we woke up at 4:30, I was so tired and didn't want to get out of bed. The only thing motivating me to move was the promise of lots of hot coffee. I stumbled around, drank two buckets of coffee then Bailey and Winston helped my get ready.I ate a cliff bar and a banana before leaving the house, we got to Boulder Reservoir by 7am for a 8am start time. We took our time visiting the bathrooms, warming up and finally lined up at 7:55 and waited.....20 minutes. This is my only complaint about this race, I have no idea why we started 15 minutes late. This was the best supported race I have ever ran there were aid stations everywhere, on both sides of the street. Each station had water, gatorade, GU gels, bananas and tons of friendly volunteers. There were also lots of volunteers with radios to help any athletes that needed it. Most of the race was on dirt country roads, with a few miles on paved roads. The start was pretty congested and didn't open up until about three quarters of a mile in. Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 10:07 Caught behind a bunch of people

Mile 2: 9:40 Skipped water station, bad idea...

Mile 3: 10:06

Mile 4: 10:11 started to feel hungry because I didn't take a gel before starting, what was I thinking? but I decided to wait to take my gel, again, what was I thinking, the aid stations had GUs I could have gotten more.

Mile 5: 10:27 feeling tired, low blood sugar

Mile 6: 10:11

Mile 7: 10:42 finally took my gel and drank more water

Mile 8: 9:25 feeling much better

Mile 9: 9:17

Mile 10: 9:45 starting to feel tired and hungry again, did I take a gel? No...brilliant.

Mile 11: 9:42

Mile 12 and .1: 10:00ish Cory forgot to hit his watch right when we crossed the line Official time 2:09:30 with 9:53 minute miles. I am happy with this overall time but wonder what time I could have ran if I had not lost my mind during the race. I know better than to make all these mistakes. I blame it on getting 2 hours of sleep on Friday night and just being too tired to think straight. I am getting closer to my sub two hour goal, maybe this summer or fall?? =)Happy to be done, we both really like the medals.We hung around for a while after the race and even got massages. Before leaving I made friends with Kona, a really sweet Sheep Dog. Headed home for ice baths, showers, recovery beer and relaxing. It's been a good day.