Yesterday I ran the City of Oaks Half Marathon in Raleigh and shattered my personal record. My result was 2:03, a full 15 minutes faster than my previous record at 2:18 in San Diego.
The weather made a big difference; it was pretty cold yesterday and that's easier to run in than the weather we had in the spring and summer in North Carolina and in San Diego. Two long training runs that I did at speed in the last 6 weeks helped as well.
The race was great. When I arrived at 6.00 am it was still cold, so I waited in my warm-up suit for a while. I started fairly close to the front and I just ran with the crowd in the beginning. My goal pace was 10 minutes a mile, but I wanted to get some extra time in the first few miles.
When I reached the 5 mile mark I was at 45 minutes, even after some pretty big hills. I decided to slow down a bit for the next few miles, and maintain 9.5 to 10 minutes per mile. I made an annoying calculation mistake at mile 7, just like I did in San Diego, where I basically mixed up mile 7 and 9. Nevertheless, I maintained a steady speed and I finished at 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Early in the morning. I was at the start line around 6.00 am.
Sunday afternoon we ran in the Old Reliable Run in Raleigh, a 10 kilometer race.