I finished my first half marathon in Allentown, PA on Sunday, April 30th. It was the perfect day and the run was the most beautiful one I have ever done. My goal was to complete the race just under or near two hours, but I had expected a much flatter course. The first part of the course was mostly flat and downhill at parts, but after the first 10K, there were some severe changes in the topography.
I crossed the finish line 2 hours and 21 minutes after the race started, but my actual finish time was 2 hours and 19 minutes because it took me a couple of minutes to cross the start line. My time for the 10K (6.2 miles) was 60 minutes exactly, which was my target pace for the whole race. Then the hills showed up. My overall average time came out to be 10:41 per mile, which means my average time after the 10K was around 11:30 per mile. Yes, it was THAT bumpy. At one point around the 9th mile, I heard water and prayed for some type of a man-made fountain, but no ... it was a waterfall.
It seemed like the 11th mile marker was never going to show up, but it did about 100 yards before I was going to call it quits. Then they did something REALLY evil - they didn't post the 12th mile mark. At that point, the volunteers and policemen were thinning out, so I was a little panicky. Thankfully, a random guy cheering people on from the side of the road informed us that we only had a quarter of a mile left. I then felt cheated because I had been conserving energy when I should have been burning it up for a stronger finish.
Oh well, there's always next year for redemption ... and the Philly half-marathon in September.
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