I win!

I did a personal best time of 11:48/mile in the half-marathon (13.1 miles)–almost 2 minutes off my total race time from last year, which was my previous PR.  My previous best was in the mid-11:50’s.  I am excited.  Very very excited.  It was probably my best run ever–I felt happy and comfortable and pleased with myself through most of the run.  We started slow…12:20 1st mile, then 12:13, then 12.  But we quickly started to do 11:45’s and it didn’t feel that hard.  I think my fastest mile was 11:30, though I was losing track for the last 2 miles, so I’m not sure how that went.  I ran with K for the first 9 miles and it was terrific–she was fun and chatty and positive.  Perfect for a race.  She took off at mile 9 and finished almost 5 minutes ahead of me–that’s a lot of speed at the end.

 

The great thing about the last mile was that there was this young woman who really really wanted to pass me.  At the end of a race I am Ms. Schadenfreude and it made me so happy because I knew that I had more in the tank than this young woman.  She would pass me and I’d let her stay 2 steps ahead of me for 30 seconds and then pass her.  Even better, she was thinner and younger than I am, so I felt ultra-gleeful every time I passed her.  I kept thinking, “don’t play with me, bitch, you just don’t have it in you.”  Every time I passed her she would sigh loudly–perfect to fuel my competitive side. About 1/4 mile from the end, she passed me and then I sped up and left her in the dust. It was beautiful and helpful.  I have no idea if she crossed the starting line before me or after me, so I can’t know her total time, but I was psyched to cross the finish line ahead of her.

 I was just trying to find the results for this guy who congratulated me a couple of minutes after the finish line.  He was very nice, but I don’t think these older people know how hard it is that they can kick my ass. 

 

He told me that he had been running and that he had seen me “out there” and his name is Joe.  SO I introduced myself and he couldn’t get it right– “Ree-berta” he said.  I’m thinking, “considering how he looks and that he can’t pronounce my name, he must be Irish…he sure looks Irish.”  And then I argue with myself, “maybe he’s Polish.”  So he turns out to be 69-year-old Joe Gallagher from Corona, who did the race in a 11:33 pace.  The older set is my main competition.

It was a lovely race! too bad the spacing on this post won’t fix, but after 15 minutes I give up.  WordPress–you are sucking today.

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