Had To Travel Internationally To Get My Time Goal

I finally got my half marathon time below two hours - woohoo! About a month after the OKC marathon, I had the opportunity to travel to Canada for a conference (I'll blog about my summer academic travels soon).

I had to represent in Canada!

The Calgary marathon just so happened to be the same weekend I would be in town for the conference. My co-presenter needed to get a training run in that weekend (he has an upcoming marathon) and told me about the half marathon race. The timing worked out great!

Myron and I ran in Oxford, too.

It was a perfect running weather day.

The race was large (I think a couple thousand were in the half marathon event), but not as large as OKC Memorial. The route was a good race path: relatively flat, a few hills, and narrow so it was crowded the entire time. The route weaved around the downtown area and by a river. 

The timing is a bit off; my chip time was 1:59:09.

We started with a pace rabbit and the 2:00 group. This pace rabbit was excellent. He would yell out encouraging advice when we were approaching the hill or update us with, "Hey, we're about 40 seconds ahead so we're just gonna slow down and cruise for a few miles." Entertaining and accurate. We fell behind the group maybe around mile ten. This half was usual for me in the sense that around mile 10, I start to get pretty tired. The last few miles were rough, but it was helpful to be running with a friend that was encouraging me to hang in there and try to make my time.  After crossing the finish line, the pace rabbit came and found us and congratulated us for finishing the race. 

So you know how race pics aren't usually great? Mine are always pretty awful. This race though took the cake. I will NOT be ordering them. I look really rough during the race, and my finish line crossing one looked like I was about to die. 
Really. 
Shortly after I crossed, I did have to sit down and eat a bunch of food. 
I spent everything in me it seemed.

The one thing I am noticing with each race is that I'm stronger. I'm less sore after each consecutive race. This time I didn't even limp! The training is working, and I'm looking forward to another race this summer!