Carpooled up to Mt. Vernon with Cheryl, Deb and Shaun this morning for the Nookachamps Half Marathon. It has been a few years since I did this race but remember enjoying it the last time. The weather was perfect -- not too cold and the rain held off through the run.

While waiting in the gym for it to start, some guy pranced by doing this run forward, backward kind of walk/warm up and while that alone is pretty goofy for such a little homegrown race, he was also an explosion of the latest most technical clothing and gear. We watched him continue to warm up with a set of stretches and I decided that even though my goal time was about a 1:50 finish, Mr. IpodHellyHanson,PearlIzumu,blindingwhite running shoes was not going to beat me. Nor was Ms. WearingBostonMarathonSwagTanningBedBrightPinkVestPerfectHair either. Dropped them both the first mile :)

And I actually ended up having a really good race and beat my 2007 Seattle Half Marathon Time by about 10 minutes with a 7:52 pace finish even after going out a bit too fast in the flat beginning part and paying for it a bit the last few hilly miles. This is actually a PR as my last PR was the 2004 Seattle Half @ 1:44:07 .

13.1 Miles @ 01:43:09
156a

Mile 1 @ 07:54
Miles 2 & 3 @ 15:18
Mile 4 @ 07:30
Mile 5 @ 07:55
Mile 6 @ 07:48
Mile 7 @ 07:27
Mile 8 @ 08:25
Mile 9 @ 07:44
Mile 10 @ 07:35
Mile 11 @ 08:24
Mile 12 @ 08:06
Mile 13.1 @ 08:53