Unplanned Half Marathon PR

Half marathon training has been a little bit up and down over the past month. In early October I was doing great, but the middle of the month was a bit tough due to work getting pretty stressful!

Only about 10 days out from the race now, and although I wish I had done a bit more training this month, I am still feeling prepared! I had one great long run a few weeks ago that definitely helped build my confidence going in to the race - I ran 13.1 miles (half marathon distance) faster than my time from the Dallas Half Marathon last year!

The run was originally scheduled to be 80 minutes at long run pace (typically 9:40-10:00 min/mile for me) and then 40 minutes at 'marathon pace', which essentially should be about 15-30 sec/mile slower than my planned half marathon pace - so around 8:45 min/mile.

The weather was so nice when we started the run (Sam was with me) that I got off to a faster start and ran the first few miles at a 9:15-9:20 pace. I think I was just really excited for it not to be so darn hot outside! And then I started thinking that if I ran the first 4 miles at 9:20, then 5 miles at 9:00, then 4 miles at 8:40, then I could beat my half marathon time from last year (9:04 min/mile average).

I didn't tell Sam what I was thinking until we were almost done with the run just in case I wimped out! The last few miles were tough but by that time I had put in multiple miles below 9 min so I wasn't going to be that close and not finish strong.

I can't wait until the weather cools off even more! I'm really glad I had that good run because the few weeks after weren't filled with too many miles. Hopefully the weather is just as nice or better for the race!