San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon

The race was advertised as starting at 7am, and the San Jose Mercury News made a point of saying to be there to go into the corral at 6am. I got there bright and early with little sleep the night before (after going to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco on Saturday). And then had to wait around until 8am when the race started.

I lined up in the first corral next to my neighbor Steve Moore, who rarely does races over 10K and was doing his first half marathon. Not being much of a road runner anymore, I planned to just try to run seven minute miles and finish in around 1:31. I started out feeling really good and clocked a couple 6:30s to hit the two mile marker at 13 minutes. I realized I should probably slow down a bit and hit the 5K at 20:30. I then slowed down a bit more and hit the 10K at 41:49. that would have been just right for a 1:30 half marathon. I hit the 10 mile at 1:09:26, still just over 1:30 pace but close to the 1:31 that I thought was shooting for. My legs felt pretty heavy and sore from miles 11 to 13, and I ran 7:30s for the last three miles. Those asphalt roads are just too hard on a pampered trail runner like myself. And I yearned to mix up the muscle work on my legs. Still I put a bit of a kick in at the finish and came in at 1:32:49.


I'll try to stay on the trails for the rest of the year, but will still do the Silicon Valley Half Marathon in a few weeks on October 29th.