I ran my 12th half marathon on Sunday — the Maryland Half Marathon. I had heard this was going to be a hilly race, but it certainly exceeded my expectations! I didn’t look at the elevation chart ahead of time, I figured I’d just take the hills as they came.

It was a bit drizzly that morning, and really started to pour when I arrived. Great … Eventually I decided I needed to get out of the car and find the bathrooms. I looked at the line to the port-o-pots and am glad I passed them by — there were real bathrooms at the stadium area under the bleachers (and out of the rain!). I stood in line for just a minute when a volunteer told us there was another bathroom on the other end, with a shorter line. Score! It was also close to the start line.

By the time I was finished there, it was about time to line up. And the rain had stopped! There were some announcements, the national anthem (did anybody watch The Sing-Off? Baltimore group Maxx Factor sang the national anthem!) and then we were off!

Even though I knew it was going to be tough, I set out kind of fast. Going into this race, my half PR was 2:07:43, a 9:44 pace. Based on some good 10-milers lately, I decided 9:30 was a good place to start.

1. 9:28
2. 9:31
3. 9:16

And then we made a turn, and started climbing a pretty good-sized hill!

4. 10:21

But I was able to recover quickly!

5. 8:58
6. 9:01

Somewhere around the halfway point, I caught up to a few women who had run this race before. They joked that this part of the course was the calm before the storm. Uh-oh!

7. 9:23

And then I saw what they were talking about. We started climbing. And climbing. I nearly stopped to walk but kept plugging along. One time I looked down, my Garmin said I had a 12:25 pace going. So I was quite surprised when I hit the next mile and it wasn’t so bad…

8. 10:22
9. 9:42

Mile nine was still going up, but not nearly as steep.  And then the downhills began. Wheeee!

10. 9:16
11. 8:34

Mile 11 was my fastest mile of the day. That’s about my 5K pace, but it felt pretty easy —  it was also the steepest decline of the day!The last two miles were mostly flat, through not-to-exciting industrial parks as we made our way back to the fairgrounds. I was definitely getting tired, but knew I had a really good time and kept moving!

12. 9:10
13. 9:15

And then we turned onto the track. The SAND track. The WET sand track. That was unexpected! At least it was only for the last .1!

.1 43 seconds (7:46/mi pace — well, for the .09 Garmin recorded. Close enough!)

The clock was at 2:03:47 as I crossed the mat. I stopped my watch and saw this:

Woo-hoo! I did stick around until they posted the actual chip times. I needed to know if I really did sneak in under 2:03!

Garmin: 2:02:57 — 13.09 miles — 9:24 average
Chip : 2:02:55 — 13.1 miles — 9:23 average
32/110 age group — 455/1153 overall

That’s a  new PR by 4:48! I’m thrilled — I definitely wasn’t expecting to run so fast. Especially on such a challenging course!

My first 5K of the year was on Sunday, and was quite the race! It was also my first Women’s Distance Festival race of the summer. I’ll be hitting at least three more to get the participation award (they’re usually great), besides, they’re fun!

I’ve run this race almost every year since 2005, where I ran a 27:19 that remained my PR until last summer (26:47).  Of course that was about three minutes faster than I’d ever run a 5K before at the time — the course was short that year!

The following year they added a parking lot to the loop to make up for the missing mileage, and the course has pretty much been the same ever since.

This year there was a change. It was a double loop as it’s always been, but they took that parking lot out. Instead near the end of the second loop, we added an out-and-back spur.

I started out with a quick pace, surprisingly close to the front of the pack.  I glanced at my Garmin a few times and slowed down a touch when I was seeing numbers I didn’t think I could maintain!

I was happy with my first mile split: 8:38. Shortly after the first mile marker there were some hills as we started the second loop, but I actually managed to speed up, 8:23.

I was trying to hold it but lost a little speed on that last mile.  The second loop started to incline a little bit, and then we turned off to run that spur. Going out it didn’t seem so bad, but the way back was a gradual incline. And when we finally got to the top and turned back into the loop, it was uphill!

The last .25 was tough.  I was breathing hard and struggled to keep up the pace, knowing I was almost finished. Mile three: 8:47. The final turn into the finish chute is downhill!

I finished in 26:20 — a 27-second PR. Woo-hoo! (Garmin mileage = 3.08. I’ll take it!) I also placed 3rd in my age group, 25 out of 97 overall.

Out of the five times I’ve run this race, I think I placed 3rd four times. (Gotta love small races!)  Usually the award is a craft of some sort. A hand-painted piece of wood with a runner girl on it, a glass votive with tumbled rocks and silk flowers glued in …

But this year was the 30th anniversary and they had official awards!

And I won a random prize for a free pair of running shoes. Yippee!

I’m sure all this speed work is helping! That’s why I happily suffered through 14x400s last night.

2:02 goal. It was another chilly night (below 60F), which made it a lot more pleasant on the track.

1. 1:56 (too fast, as usual)
2. 2:03 (bah, too slow!)
3. 1:58
4. 1:58
5. 1:58
6. 1:57
7. 2:01
8. 2:00
9. 2:01
10. 1:59
11. 1:58
12. 1:56
13. 1:57
14. 1:54

Looks like I took a little break in the middle, but I’m happy I could pick it back up again.

Phew!