By Endurance We Conquer: Spring Break and Race Report

First and foremost, I'm in Naples, Florida! After a lllooonnnggg car ride (20 hours), my sister, Chad and I made finally made it to Chad's place around 4:00pm on Saturday.

I'm very excited to have a week without a schedule. After this morning's race, there is nothing that I have to do until next Monday morning.

Race Report:
Hooters to Hooters Half Marathon in Ft. Myers, FL.

The race start was a bit early for my liking, 7am, but I understand why they have to start so early because it gets so damn hot down here that if you're outside after 10am you're sweating like that guy that's working out a bit too loudly in his cutoffs at the gym. The 4:30am alarm came a bit too soon even after going to bed at 8:30pm, but I got up had some coffee and cereal. After a few rolls on the foam roller, we hit the road by 5:15am and arrived at the start at 6am. A couple laps around the mall, a few strides, and lots of body glide later, I was at the the start.

My plan was to negative split by running the race in four 3-mile chunks, and then hanging on for dear life for the last 1.1miles. This is what it should have looked like:
Pre-Race Pace Plan
0-3: 7:00-7:05/mi
3-9: 6:45-6:50/mi
9-12: <6:45/mi
12-13.1: HTFU and finish

This is what actually happened:
0-3: 6:45/mi - I knew it was fast, but I felt good and wasn't too worried about it at this point.
3-6: 6:50/mi - Uh oh, things are starting to take a turn for the worse.
6-7: 7:01/mi - This is here because I clocked myself at 6.55mi to make sure I negative split
7-10: 6:57/mi - Ran out-and-back on the steepest causeway in the Ft. Myers area from miles 7-9 (OUCH!)
10-13.3: 6:57/mi - This is where it gets real interesting, so I'll break it up for you:
   10-10.5: Felt good, my quads were a bit tight from the causeway but I wasn't too worried. I had a guy in my sights and I was focused on catching him by mile 11 and I did, I made up some good time, but then...
   10.5-11: Something shut down real hard! Cramping quads, a mean side stitch, and an unexpected shoulder pain forced a short walk/stumble.
   11-12: Picked it up and ran at 6:40/mi with a guy who had obviously paced himself better than I.
   12-13: Lost the guy, lost all hope, I was deep in the pain cave with no hope of getting out ever! The quads screamed and my side stitch felt like something was trying to dig it's way out of my abdomen.
   13+: This young kid, 15 maybe, had caught me due to my frequent visits to hell and I was bent on not letting him beat me. I saw the finish and I started picking up my pace, luckily the kid dropped and I think I finished right around 6:30/mi for the last quarter-mile. But the race was long! I was still in contention for a sub 1:30 until I looked at my watch and saw that I had already passed 13.1 mi and still had more to run.

My clock time was 1:31:24 for 13.3miles, which averages out to 6:52/mi! Which I am absolutely stoked about! That after a week of not sleeping, stressing about exams, eating nothing healthy, and then a 20hr car ride the day before the race, I was able to run for that long, experience that much pain, and still average <7/mi, blows my mind!

Here are some quick pictures that my sister snapped at the end of the race and awards: