Race Report: LBLO + Virtual Rock Your Socks Half Marathon

This morning was the Left Behind Left Over Half Marathon (LBLOHM), which I'm also using as my run for the Rock Your Socks Virtual Half Marathon. The LBLOHM is an unofficial race put on by Track Shack's Marathonfest/Galloway training groups to commemorate the end of our winter session, and to give those of us not traveling out of state for a spring half or full marathon a goal race. Everyone brings snacks for a post-race potluck, and Track Shack provides leftover bibs, medals, shirts, and other goodies.

I woke up around 3:45 am before the alarm went off, and got dressed in shorts, my galloway singlet, and my newest bondi band purchase (pictured to the left). Isn't it the cutest? This will now be my official race day headband :) I also wore a wrist sweat band to wipe off excess sweat off my face because I knew it would be a very hot and humid race when it barely felt cool when I stepped outside to check out the weather at 4 am.

This was indeed the warmest half marathon I've ever run (previous ones were in December and February), so I'm thrilled that I managed to push myself hard and finish 13.23 miles in 2:35:38 @ 11:45 pace, which is a new PR by 3+ minutes. I hit the 13.1 mark in 2:33:41. I was really hoping to finish under 2:30, but sub-2:35 is a much more realistic goal -- especially considering the weather -- and I gave it my all until the very end. Even after learning we had run a little extra, I pushed to the finish line anyway. I started slow, using 2:1 intervals and was almost last, then picked up the pace halfway passing a ton of people, but I still couldn't speed up as much as I wanted. I won't bore you with all 13 mile splits, and although they were not perfect splits, I did negative split the two halves (as well as the each quarter and third) -- my average pace for the 1st half was 11:54 and 11:36 for the 2nd half.

After the race, there were plenty of snacks available, but I knew I couldn't stomach any of the sweets.I settled for a banana and ice pops instead, then ate a friend egg and bagel when I got home. I also went home with some nice track shack tech shirts. This was a great way to end the winter season and get me excited for marathon training starting in two weeks. Next week I'll be tackling the Firefighter Challenge, then June 5th is the Galloway group kick off and magic mile time trail. I hope I can push myself and run the mile in under 9 minutes. We'll see.