2012 Johnston's Wichita Half Marathon

Finish line at the 2012 Wichita Half Marathon

     This morning I ran the 2012 Wichita Half Marathon. I woke up at 6 a.m. to, what else, a thunderstorm. I've just made rain a part of my races now, so instead of being mad or surprised, I just expect it.
     The race started at Riverside Park, near downtown Wichita, and, for the most part, ran up and down the Arkansas River. The rain wasn't too bad, it felt good actually, the problem was puddles. Rain throughout the night created many, many puddles that were unavoidable throughout the race, therefore my shoes became saturated with water, doubling, perhaps tripling in weight.

My unofficial splits from my Garmin watch.

     My realistic goal heading into the race was to run a sub-7 minute pace throughout and get as close to 1:30 as possible, thinking I would be around 1:34-1:38. I started strong and held a comfortable 6:40ish pace for the first 6-8 miles, but by mile 9 I was starting to feel a lack of energy. Luckily, I ran with a gel in my pocket (I never run or train with gels or GU's, but I did today just to be safe), and used it at the 10 mile mark. This gave me a noticeable boost and I decided to push myself a bit out of comfort zone.
     I crossed the finish line in 1:26:07 at a 6:35 min/mile pace. This was much better than I expected, even better than my loftier goal of 1:30 before the race. I train alone and therefore only have my Garmin watch to "pace" me. But in races it is easier in a sense to run faster and harder, because there are so many people to help set a pace. Plus, for me, nothing is more exhilarating than race day.
     This will be my last race for a while. I am graduating from Kansas State University and moving to Gillette, Wyoming, all within the next two weeks. But I will continue to run/train and hope to find a race sooner than later.
     As always, thank you for checking out my blog!

-LoJo